Photo credits: My friend Renee Orr (unless otherwise noted)
A land of sweeping plains...
Of ragged mountain ranges...
Of droughts and flooding rains.
Photo Credit: Australian Archives
Photo Credit: Brad FleetI love her far horizons...
I love her jewel-sea...
Photo mine
Photo mine
Photo mine
Her beauty and her terror...
Photo mine 
Photo mine
Photo mine
Photo mine
The wide brown land for me!
(Stanza 2 of "My Country" by Dorothea McKellar)
These photos gave me chills... Seriously spine shivers. You live in a treasured place, friend. I love seeing it through your eyes.
It IS beautiful. I can't explain the way my heart feels about it. How my eyes ache trying to drink in the beauty sometimes. It's not your "usual" beauty. Half the time it's dry and brown, but still I think it exquisite. Perhaps it's the ruggedness of it that I love... that it still trives in seemingly overwhelming adversity. The "Down South" rainforests and their lush bush are also beautiful... but I love the Territory with something I truly can't explain.
I've another date day with Adam on Saturday, so we may be able to get some of the city for you. THough you may call it a quaint country town, in the light of the big cities over there ;)
I think what it is, to me, is that your environment looks like art in itself. It's not about being lush as much as it is striking.