Synopsis

Midnight Oil perform against the stark landscapes of Australia's outback, intercut with footage of roads, desert settlements, city streets, and the band playing with urgent physicality. Peter Garrett dominates the frame, turning the performance into a confrontational visual statement rather than a conventional narrative. The dry terrain and images of movement reinforce the song's focus on Indigenous land rights, dispossession, and the moral cost of ignoring Australia's history. The video connects the band's hard-driving rock with the country and communities that inspired "Diesel and Dust."

Factoids & Trivia

• The promotional video was filmed at Mundi Mundi near Broken Hill and in Redfern, New South Wales.

• The outback material was connected to Midnight Oil's 1986 Blackfella/Whitefella tour with the Warumpi Band. That journey through remote Aboriginal communities became a major creative influence on the album Diesel and Dust.

• The video was included in the Blackfella/Whitefella film project, which documented the tour and presented related Midnight Oil and Warumpi Band performances.

• Peter Garrett later recalled that the band did not expect the clip to travel far beyond Australia. Its striking combination of Garrett's intense performance and expansive desert imagery instead became one of Midnight Oil's most recognizable visual signatures.

• The song was released in 1987 as the opening track of Diesel and Dust. Its international success helped bring the band's political rock to a much larger audience.