Wiluna via the Gunbarrel Highway to Alice Springs

From Wiluna our next journey would most probably be a rough, dusty and bumpy ride to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. during this part of the journey we would travel probably the most recent of the great Australian outback roads, the Gunbarrel Road. This road was surveyed and built from 1956 to 1958 by Len Beadell. The road was needed to set up measurement devices in a straight line from Woomera in South Australia towards Eighty Mile Beach near Broome in Western Australia. This devices were needed to collect flight data on test rockets fired at Woomera heading for the Indian Ocean.

Not only would it allow for this defence program to go ahead, at the same time it would as well open up a piece of the Australian Outback, so far nobody had set foot on. It would be the first road crossing Central Australia from east to west, a distance of some 1500km from Alice Springs to Carnegie Homestead, which was the most eastern established homestead in that part of Western Australia. For a good part Len Beadell would entirely alone survey the road purely based on astronomical observations, often in country that was only known to even very few aboriginals. He would not only survey and build this road, but at the same time he built as well the Giles Meteorological Station and Aerodrome. Len Beadell is often referred to as being the last of the true Australian explorers. He has written 6 bestselling books about expiriences of his life in the bush. The book "Too Long in the bush" tells the story of building the Gunbarrel Highway. It is truly a very amusing book that very well describes the characters of people living in the bush.

The Gunbarrel Highway received rather jokingly this name because the intention was to build a 1500 km long road as straight as a Gunbarrel. In Order to travel parts of it today, it is necessary to obtain permits in order to travel through Aboriginal land. This has to be done by applying at an Aboriginal Affairs office in Western Australia as well as in the Northern Territory.

For Western Australia:
Phone: +61 8 9235 8000
Web: www.aad.wa.gov.au

For the Northern Territory:
Phone : +61 8 8951 6320
Web: www.permitsatclc.org.au

It is advised to request the required permits well in advance, although we expirienced very quick and friendly services within the next business day, but we were travellling in the off peak times.

The road itself leads through a biological very diverse and very flat country. We must have hit a really good year with plenty of rain since we still found so late in spring a colourful display of wildflowers. Along the way we didn't meet any other cars for 3 days and roughly 700kms. But we met an almost endless number of Kangaroos and Emu's and even a Snake. We as well found a novelty to us on this trip. We spoted for the first time wild camels crossing our path along the track. After mechanized transport became possible in the outback, the camels were freed in the middle of the 1900's and they are living foot loose and fancy free in the deserts of Australia now. Just around the border between Western Australia and the Northern Territory, we met a thunder storm which accompanied us for the remaining 250 kms to the Uluru Nationalpark and almost to the Erldunda Roadhouse. It was the first time that we saw the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the rain. But at the same time we were not too tempted to venture out onto extensive walks and the same day traveled on to Alice Springs.