Surrounded by over 700km of unsealed roads and sporting an average temperature of 31 degrees all year round, the Northern Territory town of Nhulunbuy doesn't sound like the type of place you would find a future NRL star.
But for Queensland Maroons centre Will Chambers this was home.
Located in AFL heartland, the mining town of less than 4,000 was Chambers' life before he moved to attend boarding school at Nudgee College in Brisbane at the age of 13.
From there Chambers played rugby league for Norths Devils and was eventually scouted by the Melbourne Storm for whom he currently plays for in the NRL.
But before this rise to stardom, Chambers spent his weekends either playing in a tiny junior rugby league competition in hot and humid conditions, or watching his father run around in the senior competition with visions of one day being like dad.
This is where it all began for Chambers who describes his parents as the reason he played rugby league in a little town 996km from Darwin in the north east of the Northern Territory.
"It was a bit different. It's a long way from home now but it was good. I had a good childhood. Home is home. Mum and dad still live up there," Chambers said.
"When I was growing up in the Territory my dad played and got me into league.
"There was a local competition up there because it was a big mining town. As that mine slowed down so did the rugby league.
"I was always rugby league. I was born in Brisbane and left here when I was two. My parents have always been into rugby league so rugby league it was.
"I played a bit of AFL and all that but nothing to any high level. Just a bit of local footy but rugby league was always the one for me."
It's obvious from the way Chambers speaks about his parents that he has the ultimate gratitude for all their sacrifices and support along the way.
The 28-year-old said he had to keep playing rugby league when he came to Brisbane, not just for himself but for his parents as well.
"Mum and dad were always supportive of me when I played rugby league, especially when I played junior footy up there," he said.
"When the mine shutdown it became really quiet and then it all folded. I know that there are a couple of little junior clubs up there now but I came to Brisbane and made sure I kept playing league."
And a Storm contract soon followed, with Chambers making his NRL debut in 2007 before signing with Super Rugby side the Queensland Reds in 2010.
His rugby union career soon took him to Munster in Ireland in 2011, but it just was not the same for Chambers who had yet to fulfil his one goal in rugby league: to play State of Origin for Queensland.
He returned to Melbourne in 2012 and made his Maroons debut in 2014, replacing an injured Brent Tate for Game Three of that series.
Now about to run out for his fifth match in Queensland colours, Chambers is glad he returned to rugby league and achieved his dream.
But he is yet to decide his future in the game and Chambers is now weighing up all of his options, with the off-contract centre even hinting to NRL.com that a return to overseas football is a possibility.
"In 2009 I decided that I wanted to go and have a crack at rugby union. I was young and open to all ideas," Chambers told NRL.com.
"I went over there and enjoyed it. I ended up over in Ireland playing but that was it.
"The Storm asked if I wanted to come back and I wanted to come back for this exact reason. To play Origin and have one last crack at it.
"I'll see what happens from here with my football career. If I go back over there then I go back over."
