In Australia we have "the outback", which isn't really "the middle of nowhere" but, it's also nowhere in particular.

I don't really know but I suspect it arose in the colonial era, when settlements were on the coast, and the hinterland was settled agricultural properties, but "out the back" away from the coast its dry, arid, and not much to see.

"The Australian Outback" refers to a class of landscape, rather than a place, but if you're in the outside back you're in the middle of nowhere.