With the cruise control activated and a feel-good beat on your vehicle’s music system, hit the open road and experience the freedom and space of Australia.
Here are four classic road journeys to whet the appetite…
GOING STRAIGHT – Nullarbor Highway (West Australia/ South Australia)
This is the big one. The longest, straightest, flattest road journey in Australia is often thought of as one of the continent’s most boring ‘stretches’. But this so-called no man’s land of featureless monotony deserves a closer examination. Formed from the world’s largest single slab of limestone, this is a land of remarkable surprises both above and below the surface.
There’s the longest straightest stretch of highway in the world (90km) between Balladonia and Caiguna, blowholes around Caiguna where you’ll feel the air rush up from deep below, the remote Eyre Bird Observatory at Cocklebiddy offering environmental courses and at Eucla where the highway draws near to the Great Australian Bight, the remains of the old town can be seen submerged in the sand dunes.
Despite the arid environment, the Nullarbor Plain contains life of many kinds and a hike through one of its parks or reserves is liable to reveal much more of interest than might be observed by the casual traveller in a car or train. The endangered southern hairy-nosed wombat is the Plain’s most famous inhabitant, having found its last refuge here and may be seen in the late afternoons.
The name Nullarbor sounds Aboriginal, but in fact comes from the Latin word nulla, and arbor meaning no trees. Heading east from Norseman on the Eyre Highway it’s difficult to tell where the plains actually begin. The first surprise is that there are so many trees. Mallee eucalypt and acacia woodlands march on either side of the highway for most of its length.
Shortly after crossing the S.A border there are several tracks leading to lookouts providing spectacular views of the world’s longest sea cliffs. Here the Nullarbor comes to an abrupt halt plunging over 100 metres to the ocean below. Nearing Ceduna the landscape takes a decidedly rural and hilly turn and there is a sense of completion. The ‘all-time’ crossing is made and the experience is one to remember.
COASTAL MAGIC – Great Ocean Road (Victoria)
One of the world’s most inspiring coastal journeys – Australia’s ‘Great Ocean Road’ offers all the haunting drama and windswept magnificence of Victoria’s ‘Shipwreck Coast’ and the lush dripping rainforest and towering eucalypts of the Otway Ranges. Officially, the road runs 247kms from Torquay through to Warnambool. Although it can be driven in 1 to 2 days, there is so much to see and experience that it is better suited to a journey of 5 to 6 days, staying in the many B&Bs or camping along the way.
The building of The Great Ocean Road began in August 1918 to commemorate the Australian soldiers who lost their lives in WW1. Carved from precipitous cliffs and sodden rainforests it was an amazing undertaking and was finally completed in 1932. Tens of thousands of years of erosion by the powerful forces of the Southern Ocean on the soft limestone cliffs have gone into creating the spectacular natural sculptures along this coastline. Sites such as the Blowhole, the Arch, London Bridge and the famous Twelve Apostles are guaranteed to inspire the weariest of motorists and there’s much much more to see.
Spectacular coastal sculptures were not something appreciated by sailors sailing their ships to the port of Melbourne in the 19th century. Today, over 100 shipwrecks along the coast bear witness to the fact that the first sight of the new land for many would-be settlers and gold seekers – was their last.
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100 MILLION YEAR JOURNEY – Flinders Highway (Queensland)
The section of Queensland’s Flinders Highway that runs between Hughenden and Mt Isa is known locally as the Dinosaur Highway – a bitumen journey into outback terrain that carves a swathe through 100 million years of history. Today the red earth around Hughenden is famous for its rich fossil finds such as the Muttaburrasuarus , a 14-metre high reptilian giant that lived long ago, and some of the world’s most intact dinosaur specimens.
At Hughenden’s Flinders Discovery Centre in the main street, you can view a Muttaburrasaurus replica skeleton which was made from castings taken from two individuals fossils found in the district. Interpretative information and displays enable visitors to envision the tropical forests and the dinosaurs that once roamed the region. The township of Richmond also offers a unique view on the past with a fabulous display of fossilised bones at the Richmond Marine Fossil Museum. These displays are some of the finest in the world and the only museum of its kind in Australia.
Shortly after Hughenden off a side road, a gorge of immense proportions dissects the landscape. This is the Porcupine Gorge, also known as ‘Australia’s Little Grand Canyon’, and it’s well worth the diversion off the Flinders Highway. The gaping chasm of Porcupine Gorge cuts a jagged path through a horizontal landscape where enticing green pools shimmer far below and sheer walls of sandstone plunge over 200 metres on a scale of awesome proportions, a heady sensation of height and depth that dazzles the eye and sends the jaded spirits of weary motorists soaring.
The multi-coloured layers of the sandstone walls mark the immense passage of 280 million years. Pinks, whites and golds represent sediments laid down in an ancient river system capped by the volcanic basalt layers of relatively recent years. Where water has found a weakness in this harder capping, it has slowly and surely carved one of Australia’s most spectacular gorges.
The track down is gently graded and takes about half an hour. For those with a love of geology, the descent will fill their imaginations with the passage of millions of years of geological history with every metre. The main feature in the gorge is the monolithic Pyramid. Dominating the gorge and visible for most of the descending track, this sandstone pyramid rises separate from the surrounding walls to an impressive height, creating an incongruous contrast. A pyramid in the outback?
At its foot lie soothing green waters that reflect the perfectly triangular formation above. Reeds and paperbarks flank the sandy beach where it would be easy to spend the rest of the day between dips to cool off. A gently graded track from the car park leads visitors safely to the gorge floor and takes about half an hour.
For the majority of its length so far, the Flinders Highway cuts through sweeping plains of Mitchell Grass, but approaching Cloncurry where it joins the Barkly Highway, the constant line of the horizon is broken by rocky outcrops and spinifex cloaked hills that rise up from the plains. Arriving in Mt Isa you’ve hit the ‘big smoke’. This mining town has progressed to be the world’s largest single-mine producer of lead and silver with copper and zinc also playing an important role. Surface mine tours are popular but it’s the underground tour that steals the limelight and bookings need to be made months in advance.
A TASTE OF THE OLD TERRITORY – Victoria Highway (Northern Territory)
Travellers motoring east-west or visa versa between Kununurra in West Australia and Katherine in the Northern Territory shouldn’t miss the great opportunity to experience this little-developed region in their hurry to cover kilometres. The Victoria Highway is rich in attractions and offers a taste of the old ‘Territory’ – as wild as it is west.
This is the Victoria River Region, a rugged landscape that rivals anything else that the Northern Territory has to offer. The mighty Victoria River, 800km long and 40km wide at the mouth, weaves through a unique terrain. For the Aboriginal people of the area it provided a hunter-gatherers paradise, for the early explorers it was a highway for transportation and for the cattle stations that followed it was a lifeline. Today that lifeline is the highway.
The roadhouse pub and camping ground at Victoria River Crossing makes an excellent stop and base to explore the eastern sector of the region. There’s a number of lovely walks climbing the surrounding escarpments rewarding the energetic with panoramic views of the river and gorge which are signposted from the highway.
The spectacular roadside scenery of flanking escarpments continues on to the small township of Timber Creek, with the addition of the characteristic boab tree. This unusual tree varying from a perfect bottle shape to a grotesque profusion of many stems dots the land west to the Kimberley coast. In Timber Creek, a real-life wild west town if ever there was one, the infamous and certainly characterful Wayside provides accommodation, a van park, supplies and meals including a delicious barramundi burger. Local operators in town offer barramundi fishing safaris on the Victoria River.
Judbarra National Park (formerly Gregory National Park) borders the Victoria Highway around Victoria River Crossing and again close to Timber Creek offering a bounty of wonderful camping spots and fabulous walks. The western sector is gaining fame for its challenging 4WD routes along old stock routes. Only 3 kilometres east of the WA border is one of the region’s greatest treasure – Keep River National Park providing visitors with excellent opportunities for bushwalking through magnificent gorges to view spectacular Aboriginal art sites and Dreamtime landscapes.
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