If you want, you can go days without seeing anyone, writes Andrew Bain.
WILDERNESS ADVENTURES
NATIONAL
As you float down Tasmania's Franklin River on a raft, there's a point where you realise you haven't seen a house, a field, a human structure or perhaps even a scrap of rubbish in days. 
It seems improbable that a capital city might be less than 100 kilometres away.
Few countries have Australia's wealth of accessible wilderness, or the adventures that open it so readily for inspection.
Spend a week or more afloat on the Franklin River, and Hobart, in reality, is never too far away.
Yet the river's catchment contains not a single bit of cultivated land or settlement, and it wasn't until the early 1970s that it was successfully rafted.
Today, rafting groups bob down the river each summer, sleeping under rock overhangs, wrestling with rapids and watching the river rise and fall in elevator-like proportions with the rain.
Few rafting trips in the world run so long or so far from the human fingerprint - quite remarkable for a small island.
Elsewhere in Australia, there are other remote and wild landscapes just as adventurous and approachable. Step out from Alice Springs onto the Larapinta Trail and it can be two weeks before you see a settlement again.
This 223-kilometre desert hike runs the length of the West MacDonnell Range, journeying through arid, rocky terrain interspersed with waterhole oases.
It's like hiking back towards the start of time, with the Finke River, crossed near the western end of the trail, often claimed as the oldest river on Earth.
Australia's wilderness even comes coupled with luxury on a few remote adventures.
At the southern foot of Wilpena Pound, the Arkaba Walk leads hikers through four days of spectacular, inhospitable country in the most hospitable way possible.
Days end with hot showers and gourmet dinners overlooking ancient mountains.
See worldexpeditions.com; arkabawalk.com.