Crossing the Nullarbor used to be one of the “rights of passage” of the big lap around Australia – like driving the Gibb River Rd. Today that has changed and thousands of tourists make the crossing all the time. But for us it was a first time adventure.
We stayed at Balladonia R/H on 17 Oct, Eucla on 18 Oct and Ceduna on 19 & 20 October 2018
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
Esperance > Norseman (official start of the crossing) (203km) > Balladonia (188km) > Eucla (513km) > Ceduna (495km) ~ 1,399kms
History
The famous Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast, with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world’s largest single exposure of limestone bedrock, and occupies an area of about 200,000 square kms.
This vast area does not consist of only a single community; the land plays host to numerous communities, changing throughout the centuries. Historically, the Nullarbor was used by the semi-nomadic Aborigines, the Spinifex and Wangai peoples on the western side who used it as hunting grounds. They referred to the Nullarbor Plain as ‘Oondiri’ which translates to ‘the waterless’.
The eastern side was originally occupied by the Wirangu and Mirning coastal communities, where they are able to fish and hunt, and use the land for their cultural purposes. Today the Yalata First Nations people can be found at the edge of the Victoria Desert, at the Southern margin of the Nullarbor Plain. Their home, known as the Yalata Indigenous Protected area, is over 456,000 hectares in span, full of coastal dunes, sand plains, and shrublands. Their interests are protected by the Nullabor National Parks and reserves such as the Great Australian Bight Marine Park.
The first Europeans known to have sighted and mapped the Nullabor Plains were an expedition led by Pieter Nuyts in 1626–27. The interior remained little known to Europeans over the next two centuries, Edward John Eyre became the first European to successfully make the crossing in 1841. His remarkable story can be read here.
In writing about Eyre’s voyages in 1865, Henry Kingsley wrote that the area across the Nullarbor was a “hideous anomaly, a blot on the face of Nature, the sort of place one gets into in bad dreams“.
The plain was later named the in 1865 by Edmund Delisser. It has a Latin origin and means “No Trees”.
Construction first began on the proposed highway across the Nullarbor Plain in 1941. The road was initially a rough track that simply allowed for limited traffic across the southern part of the continent. It was eventually sealed and completed in 1976. The highway was named Eyre Highway after the explorer, and stretches for 1675km from Port Augusta in South Australia to Norseman in Western Australia
During the British nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s, the government forced the Wangai to abandon their homeland. Since then they have been awarded compensation, and many have returned to the general area. Others never left
“Crossing the Nullarbor”, for many Australians, is a quintessential experience of the “Australian Outback”. Crossing the Nullarbor in the 1950s and earlier was a significant achievement, as most of the route then was a dirt track of variable quality, and presenting real hazards to the motorist. Today it is a good bitumen road all the way. The most difficult part is coming to terms with the high fuel prices.
Day 1 – Wed 17 Oct – Esperance to Balladonia Hotel/Motel
We left at 7.30, after saying goodbye to Lillian and Jon. It was a pretty uneventful trip. We stopped to stretch legs a few times noting that the wind was getting stronger all the time. The road increasingly stretched ahead of us, but the wind in our face made it an uncomfortable drive, especially when the road trains passed or overtook us.
We saw a few grain storage units early on, and a couple of lakes, and some of the dry or almost dry flat clay-pan areas. Later on we saw a fellow on a bike – he looked to have too little gear to be doing the crossing but was a long way from civilisation.
We stopped for fuel at Norseman, knowing this would be the last “cheap” diesel for the next few days. We put in 52.9L at $1.81/L , giving an economy rate of a very high 25.2L/100km. That bloody wind!
Norseman is seen as being one end of the Nullarbor, so we are underway.
We got to the Balladonia Roadhouse at around lunch time. We were told to pick any site – it was empty. We had power but no water – although there were toilets and showers. The cost was $30 for the night. The facilities were all ok, but everything there was expensive with fuel at 2.106/L. We knew we needed some fuel but as there were some cheaper options near Eucla we topped up with 44.5L.Our economy rate was 23.53L/100km
We lined Mobi up next to a set of table and seats, but then realised that our long power cord was missing and the short one would not reach. So we packed up a bit until we could take Mobi forward a couple of metres. We are not sure what happened to the power cord. We know we had used it a few days previously and that is had got rained on so I coiled it up and left it aside to dry next to the hoses. It either walked or I left it. I suspect it grew legs as we always check our site as we pull out for anything left behind.
Day 2 – Thu 18 Oct – Balladonia to Eucla
We were very happy to be on the road at 6.15, a good start for a long trip. The first hour or so was really good with little wind to bother us. But as we stopped to stretch our legs the stronger winds returned.
It wasn’t pleasant driving in that wind, looking at the revs, knowing the fuel economy was again poor. We stopped at Cocklebiddy R/H for tea and coffee and were glad we had not opted to stay there for the night. The van park was just a large open area of dirt, no trees to be seen.
We soon came to the longest straight section of road in Australia – 141.6km. And it was straight. I was driving this stretch, and not a single wriggle in the road for 90 miles. Unbelievable – and quite tiring really – hard to maintain concentration.
We got to the Madura Pass, such an unexpected high ridge and a fairly sharp descent. A remarkable feature in a rather boring landscape. Then we drive along with a ridge to the north, which seems to have extended from the Pass.
We saw some unusual things as we drove on – a wedge tail eagle flying off a roadside carcass and a warning sign,
We had been checking fuel prices and the cheapest was at Mundrabilla R/H, so we refilled there. We were not surprised to see that the fuel economy (or lack of economy) was the worst so far on the whole trip at 25.32L/100km. What a difference a head wind makes. We put in 114.7L at $1.95 – we had heard of prices as high as $2.17 from other travellers.
The road was marked in a couple of places as a Flying Doctor emergency runway – we had seen this in remote areas a few times on the trip.
We got into Eucla in the early afternoon – thank heavens for an early start. As we approach the village, the ridge to the north gradually comes closer and as we drive up that ridge to Eucla, we see that the ridge becomes the cliffs . A really striking feature. We turned into the service centre and caravan park and, yes, as so many reviews on Wilkcamps tell us, the driveway is really badly potholed. But we go very slow and manage the holes.
The man at reception had very poor English, but enough to tell us to park anywhere. There was no water – but toilets and showers – and the cost was $25 for the night. His description of where to go to see the ruin of the telegraph station and the old jetty were not so successful. We were set up pretty quickly under a tree.
We talked to some campers about where the ruins are. We had to drive past the “Budget Motel”, which looks pretty terrible, and there were 2 memorials at van park level, and a track down to the ruins, about 3 km or so away towards the coast. We skipped the memorials and drove to find the ruins.
We swung off the track into what was an obvious car park. It was only a short walk via an obvious pathway to the ruins. The telegraph line opened in 1877, and Eucla was one of the most important telegraph stations on the line. It was a conversion point because SA and Victoria both used American Morse code, while WA used the international Morse code that is the standard today.
A jetty and tram line were constructed for offloading supplies brought in by sea. The town was proclaimed a township and gazetted in 1885, and reached its peak in the 1920s, prior to the construction of a new telegraph line further north alongside the Trans-Australian Railway in 1929.
In the 1890s a rabbit plague destroyed much of the Delisser Sandhills’ dune vegetation, thus destabilising the dune system and causing large sand drifts to encroach on the townsite. The original town was abandoned, and a new townsite established about 4 km to the north and higher up on the escarpment. The ruins of the original telegraph station which still stand amongst the dunes, are today a tourist attraction. And they are indeed half covered in sand. There was quite deep sand to walk through to get to the ruins. Such a shame as the buildings would have been quite lovely – some of the remaining stones and massive door steps look amazing.
After that we started out to see the remains of the old jetty. Pretty soon Kerry said she would return to the car and I battled on – it was hot and it was difficult to see our endpoint through the open scrub. After a few minutes l looked behind me and realised I could get well and truly lost out here. So I started leaving a trail on hard ground with rocks and branches, and left very obvious footprints on sand.
I finally got to the beach – an incredibly long and endless reach of white sand in either direction. In the distance I saw the old jetty so made for that and got some photos.
By then I knew I had left Kerry behind a long time ago. I saw a track leading to/from the jetty and took that. I kept expecting to meet my footprints, which would have been reassuring, but that did not happen. I climbed a sand hill every now and again to get my bearings as to where the track was taking me. But it took a long time to get back to car. Kerry was distraught. I was just looking up the number of the Roadhouse to get assistance in finding this errant husband of mine when he appeared. I was so angry I burst into tears (again).
Day 3 – Fri 19 Oct – Eucla to Ceduna
It was a very windy night, we could really feel Mobi being pushed around.
We got away at 6.45am, going over the awful potholed driveway to get fuel. We only needed 28L to fill the tank but we wanted a full tank to make sure we got to Ceduna where fuel prices were a bit more civilised. But our short journey after filling up the previous day had been at a staggering 36.4L/100km. I was certain there was an error but I checked all figures. What a head wind we must have been fighting.
The were not many others moving, so the first hour or so was a good run. We soon crossed into SA – big sign welcomed us. It felt a bit sad to be leaving WA as we had been there since the 23 June, a bit over 4 months and had grown to love the place.
Near Caiguna the previous day we crossed a time zone, where we were to put our clocks forward 45min. But my iPhone did not do this as there was no coverage. At the border we had to put our clocks forward another 45min plus an hours for daylight saving. So 6.15 on my phone became 8.45. Ouch, where had the day gone! And we still had close to 475km to go.
Then the wind woke up and scurried to find us. But this day it had changed direction and came up behind us. What a difference from yesterday when we ended up doing 85kph at 2250 revs, whereas today we maintained 90kph+ at 1500 to 1750 revs.
We soon were at the first photo opportunity on the roadside. The views were back towards Eucla, and the sand hills that dominate that area.
We were quickly at the 2nd photo point, with general coastal views and just a hint of cliffs.
The drive is now a long one very close to the sea, in the Nullarbor Wilderness Protection area for 182kms. Sometimes the only excitement in a hour’s driving is seeing a sign.
The 3rd photo point was all about the cliff – magnificent and stunning cliffs standing proudly against the southern ocean. This is what we wanted to see. These are named the Bunda Cliffs – and are the longest line of sea cliffs in the world. Quite magnificent. They really do just go on, and on… and on.
But there were no further photo points despite 3 or 4 others being shown on the map we were using and on Hema. This was very disappointing, let me tell you. We actually did see a couple of tracks heading off, but with the van in tow, we couldn’t risk it in case we couldn’t turn around to get out again.
We went into The Head of the Bright, after first checking that we could turn Mobi around at the car park. This is the large bay at the most northern extent of the Great Australian Bight. It is one of two locations on Australia’s south coast where Southern Right Whales come to calve during their winter migration. The other is Point Anne in Western Australia’s Fitzgerald River National Park – we had been to the NP but not to Point Anne.
Head of Bight offers fantastic views of the Bunda Cliffs, we are relieved to see – quite an awe-inspiring coastline. The HoB provides great lookout platforms to see the whales and the cliffs. We did not really see any whales as it was close to the end of the season. There was one, way out there, but it was difficult to spot. But we did meet a man from Ennis in Ireland, just near the village in which I was born. All in all HoB was excellent despite the howling cold wind in our faces. I also spotted what I think were a couple of seals or sea-lions, but looking at a blown up photo, it might have been a great white shark or 2.
We drove through what is called the treeless plains – low scrubby bushes without a tree to be seen. Bleak looking country.
After about Yalata, we progressively saw more agricultural lands begin to emerge. We stopped to look at the windmills at Penong. Volunteers have created a very unusual museum on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain by rescuing and restoring broken-down windmills. They aim to preserve an important part of the farming community’s history at a time when windmills — which are used to extract underground water — are increasingly being replaced by solar pumps.
There are quiet a few there, all shapes and sizes, and they look great. From an old timber windmill to a 7-metre Southern Cross. The centrepiece is a massive Comet wind pump called Big Bruce, that was originally used by the railways to pump water to steam trains. Only 15 of these 10-metre wind pumps were made.
We came to the quarantine check point, just outside of Ceduna. The lady officer took our lettuce and cauliflower. This REALLY annoyed me. I’d frozen all the onions, mashed and frozen the potatoes, eaten all the tomatoes – anything that the official list said. The list said “leaves” and cauliflower were OK to take through. I pointed this out but she stated “not any more” and took them. She nearly confiscated my dried “everlasting” flowers too, but relented when I said they were perfectly dried as I’d had them for a couple of months.
Finally, we got to the van park only to find that there was a queue of 3 vans before us. We got there at 4.05 but did not get in until 4.25. We felt throughly whacked.
We parked Mobi. However, our short electrical cord proved a couple of meters too short so we had to make a dash to the hardware shop where we got 8m length. This was the only 15amp cord they had but perfect for us. At least we don’t have to decide WHICH one to get out any more – just one or two and they pack a lot smaller than a huge one and a short one.
Day 4 – Sat 20 Oct – Ceduna
We are having a rest day and went to the tourist office, before walking around town. Being a Saturday, there was not much going on. The waterfront is pretty nice – good beaches, and jetty with pool.
We called in to the National Trust Museum in town. This opened to the public in 1980, and is partially based on generous donations of an amazing range of goods, which make up a good deal fo the displays. The main building was the first school in Ceduna built in 1912. Other buildings include school classrooms from the area, the first post office in Ceduna, the first gaol in Ceduna, the Denial Bay Gaol, large machinery sheds, a blacksmith’s shop, a church, and a cottage. You can’t see this place on a 20 minute walk-through. There is also a “Maralinga Room” where some of the old equipment is… This place is vast and very interesting.
There is a focus here on the Maralinga Village, with lots of newspaper articles and other memorabilia on the atomic tests and then the abandonment of the town. What an atrocity that was – thanks UK for that!
There is also a large collection of household items and machinery of all types, along with a host of other goods. This was an incredible collection of all sorts of stuff – we think there is nearly 200 sewing machines on display.
On the front desk we see the “Rules for Teachers 1872”. Have a look – check out Rule 4.
We found some amazing books – they always intrigue me. A classic is the “The Woman’s Book – containing everything a woman ought to know”. Now doesn’t that whet the appetite. I opened this massive tome at random, it must be 75mm thick, and get the section on the “Duties of Servants”, the section on the cook – vital for the modern woman. It also shows essential tasks such as one I saw – how to measure a room to fit carpets.
I have always loved the kids books – those old boys and girls own books. Have a look at the difference between the girls and the boys books. Very funny.
We found an amazing book recording the things that happened, as newspaper articles, on every single day over the years. On the day I was borns, the state of Israel was born. On Kerry’s birth day, Elvis joined the army. Such a great book.
The map of the World in 1900 was also amazing. The middle east comprised the Turkish Empire, Persia, Arabia. Asia was made up of the massive Chinese Empire, Burma, Siam – Viet Nam was called Annam.
Following are a few other photos from this amazing place.
After lunch we went to check out the Fish Factories out at Thevenard, an isthmus just out of town. They don’t have a shopfront but We bought 2 vacuum packs of Whiting and half a kg of local prawns. As the prawns were frozen we could not have then for dinner.
I actually started to feel a little nauseous in the afternoon and wondered whether there was a bit of radiation left over, but soon felt better. Strange how it happened almost as soon as we left the museum though.
We drove around to Denial Bay named by Matthew Flinders in 1802. He named the inlet “Denial Bay” because of “the deceptive hope we had formed of penetrating by it some distance into the interior of the country“. Unfortunately there is not much to do there so we headed back into town.
We got a bit carried away with photos of shearwater birds – they are just everywhere but quite a striking bird.
We had crossed the quarantine checkpoint to get to the Bay. On the way back through the checkpoint again we had no problems getting through again. The man asked if we’d just been up the road and we said yes, so he waved us through. Just past there, we stopped at the Oyster Shack for some whiting, salad and chips, and Kerry got oysters.
Later in the afternoon, back at camp, we saw an amazing sight – a 1930s immaculate car towing a teardrop (what looked like an ancient caravan – so cute). I went around to get some photos. The car is a 1930s Ford Model A, and the owners had been to the annual convention of these cars in Victoria. The caravan had been made by the owner. What a great combination.
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