Still on our road trip through Australia’s southern, central, and western states, we recently left the rocks and beaches, and our buddies in Western Australia (WA), and drove north to Norseman, also in WA. From Norseman, we picked up the Eyre Highway to drive across the Nullarbor Plain, a vast, flat, windy, and arid limestone plateau.
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| Typical road scenery crossing the Nullarbor Plain |
The Nullarbor Plain is the world's largest single piece of limestone. It stretches for around 1,200 km and would take us out of WA and into South Australia (SA) traversing the southern edge of Australia including the Great Australian Bight. This huge, largely treeless plain, is a very empty place apart from a few roadhouses.
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| Signage: 90 Mile Straight and camels, wombats and kangaroos, Nullarbor, WA |
Driving the Nullarbor is considered a ‘bucket list’ activity due to the challenges of the remote location; the long distances between fuel, water and food places; wildlife dodging; lack of cellphone reception, and the concentration required to drive such a long, flat, straight road for hours. In fact, part of the Nullarbor includes the longest straight stretch of road in Australia at around 146.6 km. It makes you realise how big really Australia is.
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| Salty billabong, Caigna Blowhole, Flying doctor runway, road train |
On our first day, we stopped several times for a break, fuel, or sightseeing. Some of the more interesting sights were the salt-crusted billabongs near Fraser Station, the Caiguna Blowhole which is a big hole in a rock that “blows” when the air pressure changes, and the sections of the highway that are Royal Flying Doctor Service emergency landing strips. We also endured the many, many long road trains that rocked us violently when they passed.
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| Old telegraph station ruins, Eucla, WA |
That night, we stayed at the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse which supplies plenty of flies but no water, and cooked our fresh fruit and veges to meet the quarantine regulations at the upcoming WA/SA border. After a windy, noisy night, we were on the road early the next morning, passing some tiny settlements, most with only a roadhouse. Our first stop was the ruins of the Eucla old telegraph station. Built in 1877 it is now half-buried by sand dunes and covered with graffiti so we didn’t linger.
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| Bunda Cliffs, the bottom edge of Australia, WA |
Soon after, we arrived at the WA/SA border. But there was no quarantine station, so on we went, now officially in SA. Our next stop was the spectacular Bunda Cliffs, a 200 km stretch of rugged limestone cliffs that jut out of the Southern Ocean at the Great Australian Bight, at the bottom edge of Australia. They are a stunning piece of geography formed when Australia broke off from Antarctica about 65 million years ago.
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| Leigh at the Great Australian Bight Marine Park, Nullarbor Plain, WA |
Leaving the cliffs, we resumed our drive across the relentlessly flat landscape, before arriving at the Great Australian Bight Marine Park. We stopped for a look, finding spectacular views over the turbulent and dramatic Southern Ocean. Apparently, in the whale season you can spot whales from here.
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| The original 1950s Nullarbor Roadhouse, Nullarbor Plain, SA |
It had been a long drive again, so we overnighted at the Nullarbor Roadhouse. It was as noisy, windy and fly-ridden as Cocklebiddy, but had more character with its quaint original 1950s roadhouse building. The roadhouses along the Nullarbor are 200-300 km apart and supply fuel, food and accommodation. We stopped many times to refuel (at an exorbitant price) as you never know whether fuel will be available at the next place due to the remoteness.
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| Bunda Cliffs over the Great Australian Bight, Nullarbor Plain, SA |
The next morning, we drove to the nearby Head of Bight Visitor Centre. This centre tells the story of the Great Australian Bight and its make-up and history and we found it very interesting. We walked out onto a very long boardwalk for a great view of the Southern Ocean and cliffs. This was our third stop across the Nullarbor to view the historic and atmospheric cliffs and we never tired of the view.
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| Windmill Museum in Penong, SA |
Leaving the Visitor Centre, we had a two-hour and seemingly long drive before we stopped again. This time it was in the wee town of Penong (pop 280), which is famous for its windmill museum. As we arrived, we were astonished at the dozens of working windmills and one in particular that is a Comet model. Its fan is the largest in Australia at 10.6 metres (35 ft) in diameter.
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| The quarantine station at Ceduna, SA |
A quick 45 minutes later we had finally reached the quarantine station, which is around 5 hours from the actual border. We sailed through our inspection, which included the fridge and freezer where we had stored our cooked veges, then we drove 5 mins up the road to the village of Ceduna, the official end of the Nullarbor.
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| Grain bunker near Ceduna, SA |
The area around Ceduna is a grain-belt with the main crops being wheat, barley, and oats, and we saw field after field of golden, swaying grain. We also saw grain bunkers which are used for large quantities of grain storage. Most of the grain from hereabouts is shipped from the Ceduna port area of Thevenard, and we saw many silos there but no ships loading at that time.
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| The jetty at Ceduna, SA |
Ceduna (pop 3,717) dates back to 1901 when it became a town. It is a nice tidy and clean town with a bit of character in its several historic buildings. We liked its impressive 380-metre-long jetty and foreshore development, and after a look around, decided to stay for a few of nights.
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| The beach and sand dunes near our camp in Ceduna, SA |
Our camp was right on the beach behind some giant sand dunes, so we went for walk along the beach and returned via a track along the top of the dunes. The water was a spectacular turquois colour, but eventually it was time to move on. Next, we drive SAs Eyre Peninsular to Adelaide before flying home, but that’s in the next blog.
This post is the fourteenth in a series about our travels through Australia’s south, centre and west. The first post was about Adelaide and can be found here.