Crossing the Nullarbor:
Images along the Eyre Highway

Mandurah war memorial We started at Mandurah For non-Australians Perth is the capital of, and by far the largest city in, the state of Western Australia. Adelaide is the capital of, and by far the largest city in, the state of South Australia. Adelaide is about 2100km east and a bit south of Perth. Both cities are in relatively well watered parts of Australia; much of the area in between the two is very dry.

Eyre Highway

There are at least three ways of getting to Norseman and the western end of the Eyre Highway from Perth: via Coolgardie (the quickest and easiest way), via Albany and Esperance (the scenic rout), and via Hyden, Wave Rock and 300km of dirt road (the adventurous rout; passable in a conventional vehicle, 2WD, when dry, with care). We went via Coolgardie on this crossing.

Introduction

My wife and I started our journey, and the kilometre count, at Mandurah, about 70km south of Perth; we finished at Crystal Brook, about 200km north of Adelaide.

In most cases the photos immediately following the hundred kilometre headings were taken within – so near as I could measure – a kilometre of the given point. In those few places where I didn't do this I have noted where the photos were actually taken.

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100km

Bushfire We saw many areas along the highway that had been burned; some quite recently, some several years previously; this is quite normal. Eucalypt scrub and forest has developed a tolerance for bushfires, recovering quickly following a fire. Trees such as those in the photo above produce epicormic shoots from the larger limbs (visible on the upper parts of several trees above) of the burned trees. Mallee trees often just shoot from a large lignotubor just below ground level following a fire.

Sawyers Yard

The first photo was the view on the northern side of the road, the second photo was of the southern side; this section of forest is showing evidence of having been burned in the past year or two.

There are similarities between the Perth Hills and the Adelaide Hills; both run north-south on the eastern margin of the cities, both retain a fair bit of their natural Eucalypt forest. The Perth Hills give me the impression of great age, they have been ground down by time; the Adelaide Hills are steeper, higher and apparently more recent.

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200km

5km east of Meckering Meckering is in the WA Wheat Belt. If anyone outside of WA knows Meckering it would probably be because is was the site of a severe (by Australian standards) earthquake. Wheat fields are mixed with areas of Eucalypt scrub and in the lower ground there are salt-pans (in the middle distance of the first photo). Whether you start the crossing from Perth or Adelaide, the first few hundred kilometres of the journey is mainly through grain-growing country, with wheat being most commonly grown. The country gets drier as you get further from the ends.

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300km

23km west of Merredin At Merredin you are still in the Wheat Belt. My 300km came up adjacent to one of the poorer looking grain fields; on the other side of the road was the Mundaring to Kalgoorlie pipeline, which was built in the 1890s to provide water to the goldfields, and another little salt lake. The rising saline water table, linked to the clearing of native vegetation, is a major problem in the Wheat Belt; there is an Australian government page on the subject. Construction of the huge Collgar wind farm at Merredin had not started when we passed through, but was underway by July 2010.

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400km

30km west of Southern Cross Still in the Wheat Belt; there are scrub areas, grain fields, and some cleared pasture land. The scrub at this point was shorter than quite a bit of the bush further to the east; there is not a gradual and continual progression from the forest of the Perth Hills to the treeless country of the Nullarbor.

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500km

70km east of Southern Cross Finally out of the Wheat Belt now, the road is generally bordered by mallee scrub. This photo point happened to lie on a water-course where the trees were larger than those typical of the area. No doubt because of the trees and the shade that they provided, a roadside camping area was constructed at this point. Water would flow through the water-course only for a short time following rare heavy rains; but flows in water-courses like this can be deep and dangerous to attempt to cross. Our car is the blue Honda Jazz.

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600km

20km west of Coolgardie The first photo shows a 'typical' view of the scrub in this area, the second gives a bit of an idea of the road itself. Coolgardie is one of the WA goldfield towns; Patrick Taylor has a run-down on the gold rushes on one of his pages. Most of the gold mining has moved away now; the population centre of the goldfields is Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 40km further north-west.

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700km

Widgiemooltha About 90km north of Norseman, the scrub in this area is dominated by some fairly large gum trees. The time was approaching the end of our first day's travelling, the sun was low in the sky making the light more interesting. There are many turn-offs to mines along this section of highway.

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800km

10km east of Norseman The country east of Norseman was moderately hilly and covered with substantially sized mallee scrub. The small green trees in the left photo above are quandong trees (Santalum acuminatum), one of which had ripe, bright red, edible fruit (not visible on the photo). Travelling east, Norseman is the last town for 1000km until Penong – a very small town before fair-sized Ceduna, 70km further on. Stock up on fuel, water and groceries at Norseman, but remember that you won't be allowed to take fresh fruit or vegetables into South Australia. The highway at 800km

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900km

110km east of Norseman The country in this area was undulating and covered with large mallee scrub. There are some areas of large and impressive salmon gums (Eucalyptus salmonophloia, named for the colour of its bark, when fresh) in this region, although they were not right at this point. A long straight section at about 940km

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1000km

20km east of Balladonia There are a number of emergency airstrips along the Eyre Highway. It just happened that our scheduled 1000km stop fell on the western end of this one. These are available for use by the Royal Flying Doctor's Service (RFDS) when required, and are always on a straight and level section of highway. From about Balladonia the highway traverses flat ground until the Madura Pass. The country was covered with patches of mallee scrub alternating with blue-bush with scattered trees.

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1100km

60km west of Caiguna This is the first of the country that fits the common conception of a desert, although it's a park-like 'desert' in many places, as can be seen in the left photo. Grassland is mixed with shrubland and occasional small trees. The Long Straight The marker at the eastern end of 'The Long Straight', Caiguna. At 146.6km it is claimed to be Australia's longest straight road. A few kilometres west of Caiguna is the Caiguna blowhole, where, as the atmospheric pressure rises and falls, air rushes into or out of a hole that connects with extensive limestone caves.

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1200km

30km west of Cocklebiddy Grassland, some blue-bush, scattered trees. The trees on the right look like quandongs; quandongs (probably including the kernel) and mistletoe berries would have been important sources of food for Aborigines in years past. All this land is on the Hampton Tableland.

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1300km

20km west of Madura This was the second time on the trip when the scheduled stop happened to coincide with a roadside parking area; we took advantage of it to have lunch. There are quite a few such parking areas along the road, some with picnic benches such as that in the photo, many with natural shade (in areas where there are trees tall enough to provide it) and a few (on the WA side of the border) with toilets. Hampton Tableland The Hampton Tableland (above the Baxter scarp and the Bunda Cliffs, all the elevated country from about Cuiguna to Yalata) is composed of limestone, has poor soils, and karstic drainage – that is, the water does not generally erode creeks but drains underground through cracks and caves.

Madura Pass

Left, the Baxter scarp and the Roe Plain; right, the so-called Madura Pass Both photos were taken just above Madura

At the Madura Pass the road leaves the Hampton Tableland and drops down onto the Roe Plain. A couple hundred kilometres further east, at the Eucla Pass the road climbs back onto the tableland.

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1400km

40km west of Mundrabilla From Madura nearly to Eucla the road lies on the Roe Plain and follows the base of the Baxter scarp (seen in the distance in the photos above). The trees looked to me like Acacias, but I could not be sure; it seemed to be the same species that was widely scattered over the Roe Plain. Geologically the Baxter scarp is very similar to the Bunda Cliffs, the sea was once at the base of the scarp that you can see in these photos.

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1500km

8km west of Eucla Still on the Roe Plain, the left photo is looking back west toward Mundrabilla, with the Baxter scarp in the distance, in the right photo Eucla can be seen on top of the scarp.

Eucla Pass

The Eucla Pass

Like the so called Madura Pass this is not really a pass, it is a point where the road climbs from the Roe Plain up onto the Hampton Tableland. As far as the topography is concerned, many other places would have served just as well. There are a number of undulating areas along the Eyre Highway, as the photos on this page show, but the Madura and Eucla passes are notable by being within a long, otherwise very flat section of the highway.

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1600km

80km east of Border Village This is the only section of the Eyre Highway that runs close to the coast and there are a number of roads that allow access to the cliff-tops. There are few trees, but we are still not on the true Nullarbor.

Bunda Cliffs

The best view of the Bunda cliffs (left) is to be seen from the end of a closed road (right). The GPS coordinates are: Latitude S31.57778, E130.14634. When we were there a perfectly serviceable bush track, just east of the closed graded road, could be used to get to the view point; otherwise it is a walk of only a few hundred metres. If you drive, take care because the track leads right to the cliff edge.

Cracks in cliff-top, see text at left

Travelling-australia record the following about the Bunda Cliffs. "The light coloured base is Wilson Bluff Limestone, this is white, chalky material formed as part of an ancient seabed when Australia began to separate from Antarctica 65 million years ago. This Wilson Limestone is up to 300 metres thick but only the upper portion is observable in Bunda Cliffs. Above the white Wilson Limestone are whitish, grey or brown layers of limestone or crystalline rock. Some layers incorporate marine fossils including worms and molluscs indicating their marine origin; other layers are made up entirely of marine sediment (foraminifera). The cliffs are capped by a hardened layer of windblown sand laid down between 1.6 million and 100,000 year ago."

The shear Bunda Cliffs extend from somewhere east of Border Village to west of the Head of Bight. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica they vary from 60m to 120m high. They are composed of a limestone of Tertiary age.

Closed road to parking bay:
The Nanny Society in action

"Your safety is your responsibility"; what a novel idea! It will never catch on.

Of course this section of cliff will fall in the next decade or two or three; most sections of the Bunda cliffs will fall in a similar period of time. Coastal cliffs are unstable, it is the ocean eroding their bases that gives them their form; limestone cliffs are more susceptible to erosion than more resistant rocks. If the cracks worried the authorities, why could they not just place a couple of signs like that on the right (seen on the coast at Esperance) near the cliff tops; perhaps "These cliffs are unstable and may fall at any time, your safety is your responsibility"?

The drive across the Eyre Highway is much more dangerous than visiting the above view-point on the Bunda Cliffs; any drive on any road is more dangerous. Why do the authorities allow people onto the roads? Should there be signs every few kilometres saying "Your safety on the road is your responsibility"? We all know that, we don't need to be told; surely we all know just as well that there are certain risks in visiting hundred metre high shear cliffs, whether or not cracks are present.

Head of the Bight

Sign on the entrance to the Head of Bight Information Centre Is Australia the least dog-friendly country in the world?

The Head of the Bight (the most northerly point on the Great Australian Bight) is worth a visit from June to October if you'd like to see the whales that move into the area to calve.

We saw about a dozen, although none were close enough for me to get a photo worth placing on this page.

On a previous crossing we saw a couple at the Bunda Cliffs, but they seem much more common at the Head of the Bight.

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1700km

Around the Nullarbor roadhouse With the photo on the left we were quickly running out of daylight; for that reason it was taken about 8km before it was due. The photo on the right was taken the next morning at the Nullarbor roadhouse about 9km east of the measured 1700km point. These two photos show something close to the true Nullarbor, but the highway just touches on the southern edge of the Nullarbor Plain. The train line, which is about a hundred kilometres further north, crosses a much greater length of the Nullarbor.

Nullarbor

The sunset was taken just after the photo above it, the image on the right was taken several weeks earlier and is typical of the Nullarbor.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica the Nullarbor plain extends westward 650km from Ooldea in SA into WA and northward from the Great Australian Bight for 400km to the Great Victoria Desert. It occupies 260 000 square kilometres and has an average elevation of 180m. Quoting EB: Its vegetation chiefly consists of salt-bush and blue-bush, with some grasses and flowers appearing after rare winter rains (annually averaging 250 mm or less). The Nullarbor National Park preserves rare vegetation and fauna. The plain has many limestone caves, including Koonalda Cave, an important archaeological site. The name Nullarbor is derived from the Latin nullus arbor ("no tree"). Even the Nullarbor proper is not entirely without trees; there are occasional small native apricot (Pittosporum phyleriodies) trees. Some of the caves of the Nullarbor are below the water table and are filled with (saline) water. Exploring them is challenging and can be dangerous. Wikipedia has an entry on the Nullarbor plain.

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1800km

90km east of Nullarbor roadhouse The 1800km point happened to be on the top of a rise in a straight section of road through undulating mallee scrub country. The long-telephoto shot at the left gives an impression that the scrub is thicker than reality, the right shot is probably a truer impression. These undulations seem to be the remains of sand dunes that were once moving with the winds, probably in the last ice-age, when the climate was much drier.

Dog Fence

The Dog Fence

This is claimed to be the longest fence in the world. It runs beside the Eyre Highway for a short distance about 15km past my 1800km point. It is recognisable by its unusual height and the wire netting, which makes for a much more expensive fence than the plain wire usually used for sheep and cattle in the dry areas. This section appeared to have an additional short electrified section on the northern side (not visible in the photo).

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1900km

45km east of Nundroo Travelling east the first cropping land is encountered around about Nundroo. The windmills were on one side of the road, the lonely farmhouse the other. This is marginal grain-growing country, the cockies would be lucky to get one good year in two.

Penong windmills

These windmills at Penong symbolise the scarcity and importance of water to many 'across the Nullarbor'

Penong is about 80km east of Nundroo, the photo was taken on the eastern side of Penong.

A sign near where this photo was taken reads: "The picturesque massing of windmills near Penong developed over many years in order for the town to access one of the small underground water basins which lies close to the township. Each household obtained their water supply using their own windmill and the abundant winds to pump from the underground basin to their homes. The supplies were also used for water supplies for stock."

"The water supply for Penong township is now also carted by road tanker from Ceduna to top up local supplies at a cost to the consumers and subsidised by the South Australian Government."

In fact a pipeline was built to carry water from Ceduna the 70km to Penong, but we were told that the project ran out of money when the pipeline reached 7km east of Penong. Now water is carted from the end of the pipeline.

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2000km

7km west of Ceduna The silos at Thevenard, the port of Ceduna, can be seen in the left image, the right shot is typical of the local native vegetation: mallee, tea-tree (Leptospermum or Melaleuca species) and blue-bush. Cenduna is a large town by Eyre Highway standards; there is a choice of shops for groceries, coffee, lunch, etc., and the fuel prices are usually lower than anywhere to the west until about Merredin.

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2100km

3km west of Wirrulla The Wirrulla silos are to be seen in the left image. We were now well into the grain growing country of the northern Eyre Peninsula; still difficult country to make a living, but less so than further west.

Poochera

Socrates at Peter's Humpy

Poochera, 46km SE of Wirrulla, is worth calling in to, for two reasons (three, if you like; there's a good little park for lunching).

It is hard to imagine living in Peter's Humpy, photographed at the left, but it apparently was the home of Peter Sheridan for some time beginning in the 1920s. Peter's story is printed on the sign.

Poochera is also where the world's most primitive living ant, Nothomyremecia macrops, was discovered. An interesting story about the discovery is printed in the same park; the ant was first collected in 1931, but apparently its significance was not immediately recognised and the location was not recorded. Forty-six years of fruitless search followed recognition of the importance of the species, but it was not until 1977 that it was rediscovered at Poochera.

"They are extremely timid, nocturnal and rarely come out in temperatures warmer than 20°C. Since their discovery scientists from all over the world, including the Soviet Union, Switzerland and America have visited Poochera to study them."

Wikipedia has a page on Nothomyremecia macrops.

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2200km

Yaninee, 25km west of Wudinna Most of the northern Eyre Peninsula seems to be used for continuous cropping, but there were some paddocks to be seen that had been cut for hay. Horses were a rare sight. SACBH stands for South Australia Cooperative Bulk Handing.

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2300km

22km west of Kimba There are some large granite hills, called inselbergs, in the Wudinna-Kimba area. Most of the country is used for cropping, but there are substantial areas of mallee scrub; in fact a large part of the Eyre Peninsula is covered with scrub, but of course it is in the areas where there are fewest roads.

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2400km

15km west of Iron Knob Blue-bush and scattered scrub is typical of this area, larger scrub further west, closer to Kimba. There is very little cropping land between Kimba and Port Augusta. The abandoned Iron Knob mine can be seen in the distance in the left photo.

Iron Knob; Middleback Ranges

A closer photo of the Iron Knob mine taken a bit further along.

The Iron Knob mine is in the Middleback Ranges, whose rocks are about 1.6 billion years old (a third the age of the Earth), the hill probably stood for several hundred million years, it was knocked down in a few decades. I believe the iron-rich formations date from a period in the Earth's history when the atmosphere was becoming increasingly loaded with oxygen, which caused iron in solution in the oceans to change form, become less soluble, and precipitate out of solution.

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2500km

15km south of Port Augusta Mount Brown of the Flinders Ranges is the prominent point in the left photo; in this area the larger trees, such as the one in the right photo, usually occur only on drainage lines.

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Home: Crystal Brook The humps are huge tarpaulins over heaps of grain, the paddock in the foreground has had a grain crop taken off it. Notes Bunda or Baxter I'm not sure of the correct use of the names 'Bunda Cliffs' and 'Baxter Cliffs' or, as I have used 'Baxter scarp'. The two former names seem to have been used interchangeably by some; indeed, geologically the Bunda Cliffs and the Baxter 'Cliffs' are very similar. I have used 'Bunda Cliffs' where the Hampton Tableland is immediately adjacent to the ocean, and 'Baxter scarp' where the same geological formation lies at the northern edge of the Roe Plain. Accommodation The cost of accommodation is higher between Norseman and Ceduna than outside of that section, expect to pay around $120 or $130 for a room with a double bed (Oct. 2009). This should not be surprising; the costs of running a business in this remote area must be high, water is very scarce and expensive for the business owners, and getting and keeping staff difficult. Fuel prices, consumption, availability Prices are reasonable in SA from Adelaide to Ceduna, and in WA within a couple of hundred kilometres of Perth, but rise gradually out to Norseman. Fuel prices between Norseman and Ceduna are high, expect to pay perhaps 30% more than in a capital city. Mundrabilla seems to have had cheaper fuel than most other places on the more remote parts of the Eyre Highway for a number of years. If you want to reduce your fuel consumption try travelling at 80 or 90km/hr rather than the 110km/hr that is the limit on most sections of the highway. We went west at 90km/hr at a fuel consumption of around 4.6L/100km, on the return trip we travelled at 110km/hr and used 5.6L/100km (Honda Jazz). Fuel is available from at least the larger towns shown on typical road maps and all of the roadhouses from Norseman to Ceduna, with the notable exception of Yalata. At least some places would not be open for business 24 hours a day, but most seem to sell fuel from at least 8am to 8pm. Road quality In spite of some nonsense one hears about needing a 4WD (SUV) to travel the Eyre Highway the road is entirely sealed and we found it to be in good condition; we have travelled it in several small or medium conventional cars at various times with no problems. There are two lanes with overtaking lanes where needed. The sealed edges were wider in the WA section than in the SA section (Oct. 2009). If your car did break down you could expect repair costs to be high, and times required for obtaining replacement parts to be relatively long, because of the remoteness. Traffic For the length of the Eyre Highway traffic is usually quite light, as can be seen from a number of these photos. However, the road could not be called lonely. Quarantine It is against the law to take fresh fruit or vegetables in either direction between the two states. Honey is also not allowed. These laws are to try to limit the spread of diseases and insect pests. Environment A huge amount could be said on this subject; I will limit myself. The feral camels of central Australia could potentially devastate the blue-bush country near the Eyre Highway. They don't appear to have done so yet, but it could be simply a matter of time, if nothing serious is done about their fast increasing population. The Wheat-belt of WA is suffering from rising saline water tables due to the clearing of the native bush. South Australia's grain country west of Ceduna is economically very marginal; what will happen to it if the farmers give up? Will introduced weeds take over? We can hope that the native bush will gradually grow back, but this could be no more than wishful thinking. Other than the coastal dunes of Eucla there are no bare sand dunes to be seen along the Eyre Highway; however, some parts of the road cross country that long-ago was drifting sand dunes. With the rising temperatures and declining rainfalls of greenhouse/climate change it is quite possible that the vegetation now stabilising these areas will die off and they will become drifting dunes again. Water One notable feature of the journey from Perth to Adelaide is that the traveller is unlikely to see flowing water anywhere along the 2700km of road between the two cities, with the possible exception of near the beginning or end of the journey. Some streams in the Perth Hills may flow for extended periods, and approaching Adelaide flowing water may sometimes be seen in rivers such as the Broughton and the Gawler, but for 90% of the journey (Northam to Crystal Brook) flowing water will only be seen shortly following rare substantial rains. Any water that is seen will most likely be saline and undrinkable. Also note that many stopping places along the road have very limited water supplies, several have to desalinate the saline groundwater at considerable cost, so take care with water. You should take water with you any time of the year, at least a couple of litres per car in the cooler half of the year, at least a couple of litres per person in the heat, more if you intend to leave the highway; and keep your water supply topped up. Travelling with a dog If you are relying on finding accommodation along the road and have a dog, what do you do? Do you ask if dogs are allowed? What do you do then if the answer is no? Go on to the next place (maybe 200km away) and try again? I suspect that many people don't mention the dog when they book a room. See my page on Is Australia the least dog-friendly country in the world?