Football’s Longest Drive: 1,000 Miles Across Australia

I love AFL, but it’s not one of the worlds most brutal sports... tough but not brutal. Great article though.

Such a great article. I visited Alice Springs and Darwin in 1967 with my father who was working at Alaska Airlines, promoting the use of Lockheed 130 Hercules; I was 17. The Northern Territory is one of those places that you never forget. The terrain is endless and incredible...I remember now seeing a football match - played in a cloud of red dust with dozens of youngsters laughing and shouting! A return visit is going on my bucket list... Thanks New York TImes....

Great article and pictures. Unlike the Twitter news of our US President, Indigenous news are real news about our shared humanity. The Aboriginal Voice must be heard. Thank you New York Times for sharing. Aloha from Hawaii.

Wow, what a revealing peek at one tiny part of our massive humanity.

Matthew Abbott - what a stunning collection of photographs! The colours are wonderfully vivid and I love that your subjects aren't really posing and look so natural. Awesome!

I went to the Yuendemu Footy Festival way back in 1990. If you haven't been out that way you will have no idea of how remote that country is and how vast and ancient is the land. What struck me was the feeling that I was in a different country altogether to the Australia I'd seen previously. No-one other then the handful of white visitors was speaking English, and there were no doubt many diverse linguistic communities, as Indigenous teams and supporters come from as far away as the Kimberley in Western Australia. Yuendemu itself is an Indigenous community and nothing like an average Australian settlement of comparable population size in terms of services and facilities and appearance. Out there is an Australia unknown to the majority of Australians except perhaps through cinema and art. I'm glad I had a brief glimpse: it's widened my view of what Australia is.

The Goldmine referred to in the article (The Granites) was actually established by an Australian company called Normandy Mining Ltd. Normandy negotiated and paid royalties to the community until the American owned Newmont bought Normandy in 2001. Also one of the reasons that the van would have been pulled up, would be to help save lives because of the high number of road fatalities occurring on unsealed roads across Aboriginal communities, which on a population basis has been reported to be higher than non indigenous deaths from transport accidents.

This cop stopping the van sure sounds fishy to me. An easy score for a bored cop? There were a lot of vans and guys jammed therein. What about a warning and a cop escort for a good distance -- at the appropriate speed of course -- then a break where he can see to it that everything is as it should be?

Great story. Some of those lads end up playing in the “major league “ and some of our finest footy players. The Tiwi Islands in the Timor Sea north of Darwin, arguably more remote than places in this story has and still provides some of the best players in the AFL. Google the indigenous round which is the round in the regular season where all teams wear indigenous styled guernseys.

Fine article. It's worth noting that one young man from Yuendumu, Liam Jurrah, made the transition to play Australian football at the highest level. Between 2009 and 2012 he scored 81 goals in 36 games for the Melbourne Demons. His career was sadly ended by his involvement in a tribal dispute in the off-season, but he gave us an insight into the extraordinary natural talent of 'bush footy' players.

And what about the women and girls who don't have this opportunity? Any articles on them?

Oh the memories ! Out in the bush in the Northern Territory. That is the real Australia. Forget about Sydney and all the other cities. They are cities like everywhere in the world. Out on those tracks in the Outback, that's where you encounter the REAL Australia, even when you are just a tourist. Get a Toyota Bushcamper, make sure you have at least 4 weeks available, avoid the tourist trap once called Ayers Rock , get on the track and look out for that cloud of dust coming towards you. It won't happen more that maybe 2 times a day, stop and have a picnic with the guy/girl in that car and meet the people of the Outback. They are the best ! A suggestion - get a permit from the Aboriginal council of Arnhem Land to cross their territory from Katherine all the way to Nhulunbuy (route 24, a dirt road, of course) , stop and sleep over in the village of Bulman. A trip you will NEVER forget until the end of your days!!!

Fabulous photos and story.

Guess I'll have to do an internet search to get a concise description of the rules of the game. Perhaps rugby-ish?

I would think and hope that there has to be a better way to keep their youth from trouble but, in the meantime, this looks like great fun! Might have to put this on the bucket list.