HALFWAY BETWEEN DARWIN and Tennant Creek – around 500 clicks each way – there’s a wide spot in the road called Larrimah. Some travellers reckon it’s another country. Those unable to get mobile coverage or anything on the car radio will tell you it’s “in the middle of nowhere”. Locals, most of whom are here because it’s “nice, quiet, relaxed”, might suggest it’s “the centre of everywhere”. Others might observe that its population of 20 is gearing up for a civil war.

Larrimah is heralded by an 80km per hour sign, rare on the Stuart Highway. On most of it you can cruise at whatever velocity you like until your path is blocked by a road train, another road-lice convoy of interstate caravans or packets of military vehicles travelling at their regulation speed. As you slide over the rise – another rarity in this flat, scrubby country – there’s a string of street lights down the western side of the highway and signs for your reading pleasure: LARRIMAH Tidy Town 1998.