Day 01 - Scarborough - Westmar 29 January, 2024
And so, the odyssey begins!
A year or more exploring Western Australia at our leisure, with no time constraints.
Leaving the Scarborough Campground after staying there for the last week, we drove to Caboolture to leave the Mazda with family while we’re away, then drove to Wamuran for a mobile weight check of Mata.
Our fears of being overweight were confirmed, with being fully loaded for our trip, with the GVM exceeded by 68 kg, and the rear axle being 100 kg overweight. As a temporary measure we moved some stuff around to relieve the rear axle of some weight, and decided to try to run with less fuel in the 140-litre diesel tank to minimise the extra weight, while we worked out some longer term solutions (and cross fingers that we wouldn’t be stopped.
On the road proper, we drove to Blackbutt where we stopped for an early pie and coffee lunch in the Blackbutt Bakery, then continued on towards Dalby, where we were considering staying for the night.
As it turned out the next day, our decision to carry on past Dalby to Westmar was the right one. If we had overnighted in Dalby, we would have been trapped by floodwaters the following day.
We free-camped behind the Westmar Hotel and sat out torrential rain, thunder and lightning from late afternoon through to late evening, causing us to worry about our plan to do the Darling River run, thinking all the rain may beat us down there and scuttle our plans.
We travelled about 400 km on our first day on the road, so only about 5,000 km to go to get to WA!
Day 02 - Westmar - Nr Dirranbandi 30 January, 2024
The rain stopped overnight and the day looked ok, with some cloud and light rain here and there.
Driving to St George, we stopped off at the visitor information centre to enquire on road conditions for the next part of the drive to Dirranbandi. No negative information came our way so we thought it would be ok to continue with that plan.
Across from the information centre we wandered down to the Balonne River to check out the historic flood height marker, the drove to the Unique Egg Shop, where they sell carved Emu eggs, but the shop was closed until later in the morning.
Next up was a short drive to the Nindigully Pub for lunch, arriving around 11:00 A.M. Unfortunately, the pub didn’t open until midday, and meals weren’t being served until half an hour after that.
We had a walk along the Moonie River across the road from the pub, which was partially flooded after the recent rains, reading the information boards on the local history, flora and fauna.
Once the pub opened we got a cold drink and, to kill some time until we could order lunch, spent the next half an hour looking at the extensive information on the pub and surrounding area that covered all the walls around the pub itself, and the dining room.
Lunch was a typically large country pub meal that neither of us could finish, but very tasty all the same.
Our next stop was the small town of Thallon, which we had stopped at briefly on a previous trip down south. We drove around the small metal sculpture trail, then revisited the impressive silo art, where there was a free camp that we considered staying at for the night. However, it was stinking hot and there was no shade anywhere, so we carried on driving towards Dirranbandi, where there were more camping options.
Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that, saw us drive towards Dirranbandi, but we were halted because of a road closure caused by the recent flooding rains. We considered driving through the water that we were told was about 400mm deep, and about 100 metres long, but eventually decided against it because the road was officially closed.
Driving back towards Thallon we stopped at the Castlereagh Highway intersection truck stop free camp for the night, hoping that the floodwaters would recede by morning.
Day 03 - Nr Dirranbandi - Bourke 31 January, 2024
In the morning, we drove back towards Dirranbandi from the free camp and the road closed signs had been removed from the section of road that was flooded. There was still water over the road, but only 100-200 mm deep, so it was no drama navigating that.
It was too early for anything to be open in Dirranbandi, so we carried on driving to Hebel, where we stopped to ask about road conditions on the Hebel to Brewarrina Road, via Goodooga. Nobody had any up-to-date information, so we decided to risk driving as far as Goodooga at least. Turns out that the road was sealed and in good condition for the majority of the drive all the way to Brewarrina. We crossed the border into NSW a little way out of Hebel.
In Brewarrina we stopped for lunch beside the Barwon River, filled up with diesel (125 litres @ $2.03 per litre), then stopped briefly at the Aboriginal fish traps that we weren’t able to see on a previous trip because the river was too high.
Along the way today, for most of the day, we were pleased to be spotting loads of emus, numbering we estimated to be over 100. There were solitary emus, flocks up to a dozen in number, and every size in between, including many juveniles. One ambitious emu got stuck on the opposite side of the road to rest of its group, and made a mad dash across the road in front of us, causing Meg to have to brake sharply to avoid hitting it.
Leaving Brewarrina, we drove another 100 km to Bourke where we checked into the Mitchell Caravan Park on a powered site, because the temperature was 39 degrees, there was no breeze to speak of, and we would probably melt if we didn’t have air con.
Because it was so hot we stayed inside for the rest of the day & night.
Day 04 - Bourke - Dunlop Station 01 February, 2024
Today was going to be a short, easy driving day of just over 100 km, to Dunlop Station where were booked in for a 2-night station stay.
Dunlop Station is located not far from the small rural town of Louth, so that was our first destination.
Because of the short driving distance, we expected to get to Dunlop Station quite early, but that changed once the sealed road ran out, and turned to unsealed road, which for a start was in quite good condition.
As with many of these roads we’ve travelled over, the condition of the surface varied widely from reasonable (up 70 km/h) to not very good at all (@ 20 km/h) for long stretches. The unsealed sections were interspersed occasionally with short sealed sections that teased us into thinking that was the end of the unsealed road.
As was the case the previous day, we saw huge numbers of emus, but unfortunately the number of emu sightings dropped of dramatically to be replaced by even larger numbers of wild goats.
Judging on the numbers we were seeing, we thought that there must be thousands of them in the area. We read that in the Bourke Shire there are an estimated 600,00 wild goats.
Our only brief stop was to take a photo of a sign indicating the end of one of Sturt’s failed explorations.
After an hour or so more driving than we anticipate, we arrived in Louth, where we stopped at the cemetery, to view a more than 7-metre granite monument to Mary Matthews, which her husband had gone to great pains to erect in her memory.
After more driving on unsealed roads, we finally arrived at Dunlop Station around lunchtime.
We were met by our hostess, Kim, who drove in front of us to our campsite for the next 2 nights, adjacent to an old 45-stand woolshed that was used to shear tens of thousands of sheep every year, for many years.
The site was very rustic, with old buildings in various stages of disrepair, rusted farm machinery and the Darling River a short walk away.
After setting up, having lunch and checking out our surroundings, we took the e-bikes off the back of Mata, so we could use them to explore the area without having to walk too far. Unfortunately, our cheap Bunnings BBQ cover we’d used to protect them from the elements didn’t work too well, and the bikes were covered in red dust.
The early afternoon temperature was in the high 30s, so we couldn’t do too much apart from wait for it to drop down to a sensible level.
We were forced to chill for the rest of the day due to the heat not abating until well into the night.
Day 05 - Dunlop Station 02 February, 2024
Thankfully the temperature dropped to around 24 degrees overnight, allowing us to have a reasonable sleep.
While it was still reasonably cool, we mounted the e-bikes to have a ride further along the track we’d taken in to the woolshed camping area the previous day. The road was quite rough for the small wheels on the e-bikes, and there wasn’t much to see, so it ended up being just a short ride.
Back at the ranch we did some cleaning, then Meg worked on covering the e-bikes better so that hopefully we could stop them being covered in dust again, while I worked on lowering the tyre pressures, with the knowledge that we had many more kilometres of unsealed roads ahead of us.
By then the temperature was starting to rise again, so we found a shady spot with a bit of breeze and relaxed catching up with blogging and socials.
The interesting buildings around our camping area included a rustic old toilet that included a family of frogs living in the toilet bowl, the original mess room for the shearers, a butchery house and various other bits and pieces. The buildings also included a very rustic shower room that required a generator to be started in order to have running water.
As with the previous day, the temperatures were too high to attempt to do anything physical, so we had to resort once again to staying in the shade and trying to find any available breeze.
Staying inside Mata with fans on wasn't an option either, because overnight our power level had reduced to around 40%, with running fans all of the previous night, and because we were parked under trees, the solar panels weren't capturing enough sunlight to recharge the batteries.
We eventually decided to move Mata out into full sunlight to try and charge the batteries enough that we would be able to run the fans later in the day.
I wandered down to the river later in the afternoon to try and catch one of the, what we were told, abundant fish residing there. I had a couple of lures that I tried with no success, and also tried a suggestion from Kim, our Dunlop Station hostess, which was cheese, but I wasn’t able to get the cheese to stay on the hook.
The rest of the day we spent moving around to avoid the sun, capture the breeze and not waste any more power than was necessary by not running fans.
Day 06 - Dunlop Station - Paroo-Darling NP 03 February, 2024
We’d taken to putting a bug zapper in the bathroom overnight to keep the bugs off us, and for the last two morning we woke to a bug massacre all over every surface in the bathroom. The bug zapper was our new best gadget.
One of the reasons we wanted to stay at Dunlop Station was to do the historical tour with Kim. The station was started in the late 1800s, so there was a lot of history.
We packed up ready for the day’s drive, then waited for Kim to meet us at the woolshed for the start of the tour.
She arrived promptly at 9:00 A.M. and began to tell us the long history of the original owner of the million-acre station, subsequent owners, the area and in particular the 45-stand woolshed, the first woolshed in Australia to be mechanised. Part of that story involved the blade shearers going on strike for months because they thought they would lose money, having to learn a new method of shearing which would reduce the number of sheep they could shear in a day, as they were paid on a per sheep shorn basis.
For the next part of the tour, we drove back to near the homestead and stopped off at the Dunlop Store, a huge building constructed with stone walls quarried from a hill on the property, and with timber produced from local trees. As was necessary back in those days, the store carried a vast array of goods to supply the hundreds of people living and working on the station. The goods were delivered to within a few hundred metres of the store by riverboats, plying their trade on the Darling River.
After a short drive around some other points of interest we finally went up to the homestead for the last part of the tour, which commenced with morning tea and a chat with Kim in her kitchen.
Once morning tea was done we were given free rein to explore the homestead in our own time. There was a clear distinction between the servant’s area of the house, and the main part of the house, which was delineated by a change in the surface of the outside walls.
The house was certainly impressive, with most rooms full of period maps, pictures, memorabilia and furniture. We took our time to take it all in before saying goodbye to Kim and getting back on the Darling River run to Tilpa.
The Tilpa Pub was another historic hotel with lots of information dotting the walls to keep us amused while we waited for lunch, enjoying a nice cold beer with it to cool down.
The last drive for the day was about 85 km to the Paroo-Darling National Park campground, where we’d booked an unpowered site for the night on the banks of the Darling River once more.
The camp contained about 20 good size sites, with some of those beside the river, and because we were the only ones there, we got to choose the best site!
The temperature was still in the high 30s, so we had to manage our power usage again, as the percentage had only risen to 80% during the day.
Spent what was left of the day relaxing, enjoying the beautiful surroundings but which were spoilt somewhat by the rabid flies.
In our attempts to keep cool, we stayed outside as long as possible and had the added bonus of a beautiful sunset.
Day 07 - Paroo-Darling NP - Kinchega NP 04 February, 2024
We had another short driving day in front of us today, only 160km to Menindee, but the roads were mostly unsealed, as was the case the day before, so we knew it would take a long time.
Our first stop was in Wilcannia, only 44km from our camp, but the drive took about an hour because of the poor road surface in many places.
After a brief stop at the shop and to take some photos of the historic buildings, we continued the drive towards Menindee, a further 120km along challenging roads.
On that stretch of road we saw a lot of different birdlife that we mostly couldn't identify, flocks of emus and a lot of domestic animals.
We shared the driving, as it required intense concentration to avoid obstacles, animals and extremely rough patches of road, and was quite tiring.
It was 1:00 P.M. before we arrived in Menindee, where we stopped to pick up a few things at the shop that we couldn't get in Wilcannia, and to fill up with water.
Our final destination for the day was Kinchega National Park campground, which was about 13km out of Menindee, and once again on the banks of the Darling River.
After setting up and having lunch we relaxed outside for the afternoon to try and catch some breeze and get some relief from the 37 degree temperature.
As we were relaxing the constant noise and sight of fish jumping in the river prompted me to get the fishing rod out to have a crack at them.
On my first expedition I tried using my last lure by itself first, until it got tangled and I lost it. Next up I tried some cooked chicken and silverside as bait, but I didn't have any success in keeping either of them on the hook. I did have one bite with silverside though. Back at the ranch the sound of the fish jumping prompted another attempt, this time with vegetables as bait. I tried carrot and spud, but once again got nothing, not even a nibble, so I gave it up for the day.
We stayed outside for as long as possible, and even ate outside because the flies had given up on trying to eat us for a change.
Day 08 - Kinchega NP - Curlwaa 05 February, 2024
We woke to a menagerie of birdlife on the river this morning, with dozens of Pelicans floating down the river towards us, White Herons, Cormorants, Kookaburras, Galahs and many other varieties we couldn't identify.
This confirmed our feeling that this was one of the best campsites we'd stayed at and, being a National Park, it was only $12 for the night.
The first part of the day's drive took us to Pooncarie, where we stopped for a leg stretch and change of driver, then continued on to Wentworth.
Wentworth is where the confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers is, so our first stop was Junction Park to see the confluence, and to have lunch.
A short distance away from the park was the old Wentworth Gaol, which opened in the 1880s and closed in the 1920s. Unfortunately is was closed to tourists so we couldn't go inside (probably for the best - may not have gotten out again!)
After stocking up on supplies and filling up with diesel, we went to the Wentworth Military Collection, an absolutely amazing experience for such a small town.
The collection isn't huge, but they'd spent around $170,000 on a world-class audio tour experience, so there was plenty of information on all the displays. The small area was jam packed with displays from all wars that Australians have fought in.
The campground in Wentworth had been closed for a couple of years for renovations, and was then flooded a year ago, so we couldn't stay there, and we badly needed showers, which lead us to drive to the nearby small town of Curlwaa, where we booked into the campground on a powered site for 2 nights.
Day 09 - Curlwaa 06 February, 2024
We needed a down day to do some cleaning and washing, particularly removing the dust that everything was covered in, and to attempt to clean the solar panels, who's performance had become degraded over the last few days of driving on unsealed roads.
We spent the morning doing those chores and filling up an empty gas bottle at the camp shop.
Luckily a neighbouring camper had a ladder that I borrowed to be able to reach the solar panels to give them a thorough clean.
With all the chores done and lunch out of the way I took myself down to the Murray River, a short walk away from the campground, to try my luck at fishing again.
At the recommendation of the campground owner I purchased some frozen prawn bait and had high hopes of catching something. However, a couple of hours later I returned empty handed once more, wondering where the next meal was coming from!
As it was a down day, and all the jobs were completed, we made the most of relaxing for the rest of the day.
Day 10 - Curlwaa - Burra Gorge 07 February, 2024
With no clear destination for the day, we set out from Curlwaa with Renmark, SA as our initial goal.
Approaching the border there were sternly-worded signs indicating that no fresh fruit and vegetables could be taken over the border. After debating the seriousness of this we decided we'd better be good little vegemites and either eat or dispose of our fresh food. Lucky we did! At the border every vehicle is stopped and searched for fresh fruit and vegetables, as we were, in the cab and the motorhome.
The drive was on good, sealed roads all the way, and with changing the time back 30 minutes at the SA border, we were in Renmark by 10:00 A.M.
After a brief stop at a shopping centre, we drove up to the Renmark lookout, which wasn’t much of a lookout because it’s pretty much flat right around Renmark, and the lookout was actually a small platform accessed by climbing up some steps.
Back in town we called in to the information centre to grab some pamphlets on the local area, and also looked around the PS Industry paddle steamer, which is parked up on the river behind the centre.
There was nothing else we wanted to see in Renmark so we got back on the road, this time headed for the Overland Corner Hotel for lunch. The hotel is a magnificent old building, constructed in 1855 by three brothers, for the publican, with all the timber and stone used to build it being cut by hand. There was plenty of history dotted all around the small hotel, which kept us amused while we waited for lunch.
We could have stayed in the camping area behind the hotel, but we decided it was a bit too early in the day to stop.
Before we set out, we called a station owner in Rawlinna, WA, who I’d been communicating with on Facebook, and who we were planning to housesit for, for 2-3 weeks, as soon as we arrived in WA. The call went well and we agreed to take on the housesit, hoping to be there some time during the next week, although there was still over 1770 km to drive to get there.
To knock off some of that distance we carried on to the Burra Gorge free campsite and got setup for the night.
Unfortunately, this was the first time since we left home that we didn’t have any internet, so that severely restricted our activities for the rest of the day. Also, because the temperatures were a little lower than we’d been experiencing, I thought it would be good to have a fire and burn some the huge amounts of firewood we’d brought with us, but there was a fire ban in place from the start of November to the end of March.
So it was analogue activities for the rest of the day.
Day 11 - Burra Gorge - Port Augusta 08 February, 2024
It was another shortish driving day today of about 220 km, initially to Port Augusta.
We chose to stay off the main A1 road that follows the coast, and take to our favoured back roads, half expecting that we may encounter some gravel along the way.
We were surprised to find all the roads we travelled on to be sealed and in very good condition, we believed because of all the grain farms we passed by.
After nearly two weeks of travelling over mostly flat countryside, we finally encountered some hills to break up the vast expanses of flat land either side of the hills, that stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction.
We discovered that SA has a huge number of wind turbines producing their power. We passed hundreds upon hundreds of turbines, which dotted the tops of the hills we went through and over, and we guessed we would have seen about a thousand of them.
We only had a couple of short stops along the way, one for a driver change in Jamestown, and the other in Boolaroo Centre to visit the dump point, before we came down from the hills and into Port Augusta.
As it was coming up to lunchtime, and we didn't have any lunch, the first stop was a supermarket to stock up on a few supplies, but not so much that we would have to dispose of food at the WA border, as we had at the SA border.
After lunch and a couple of more shop visits, we headed to the Port Augusta Visitor Information Centre, which includes the Wadlata Outback Centre experience, a look back in time to the early beginnings of the area millions of years ago, up to the present. The experience was excellent, providing loads of visual and aural information covering a huge span of time.
Our last short drive for the day was to the Port Augusta Free Camping Ground, only 15 km out of PA, where we set up for the night and relaxed for the rest of the day.
Day 12 - Port Augusta - Wudinna 09 February, 2024
Leaving our free camp and driving a short distance along that road, we came to the A1, the main east-west highway, that would eventually take us into WA.
Highways aren't our preferred roads to travel on, but there was no other good options for the day's driving. Even though the A1 is a major thoroughfare, traffic was generally quite light for the day's journey.
Our first touristy stop for the day was at Iron Knob, an iron ore mine that, up until 1998, supplied iron ore to a number of refineries around the country.
During the next part of the drive to Kimba, the landscape changed dramatically, from wide-open vast expanses of flat land to densely vegetated land covering meandering hilly countryside. We remarked on the lack of wildlife, seeing only a few sheep, a couple of goats and a handful of birds for the day.
In Kimba we stopped at the "Halfway Across Australia" monument, then a little further along the road at the Big Galah statue.
After visiting the local IGA and dump point, we drove the few kilometres out to the Kimba lookout, where there was a good view of the surrounding areas, and metal sculpture statues of the explorer Edward Eyre and his Aboriginal companion Wylie.
Next up was a stop at the silo art to take some photos, and to make use of a water tap that we used to fill up our fresh water tanks.
After lunch we continued heading west, stopping for the day at the small town of Wudinna, where the showground offered unpowered campsites for $10 per night, that included toilets and a shower.
After washing the road dust off in the well-appointed shower we chilled for the rest of the day.
Day 13 - Wudinna - Nundroo 10 February, 2024
Continuing on our odyssey, we headed west once again, with no firm destination in mind for the day, but an initial destination of Ceduna.
Our first stop for the morning was at Poochera, where we stopped to read about Dinosaur Ants, and to take a photo of the large metal sculpture of an ant.
Driving out of the Dinosaur Ant Park we were treated to a large flock of Major Mitchell Cockatoos, eating seeds off the ground.
We were getting bored with driving along the A1 highway, so we turned off at Poochera onto the Streaky Bay Road, to drive out closer to the coast and hopefully see some more interesting countryside. The countryside was just as boring on that road, but we eventually came to Perlubie Beach, where we had our first views of the Great Australian Bight.
Driving around the coast road was a little more interesting, with occasional views of the sea, but we were still mostly surrounded by farmland, consisting mostly of grain paddocks.
The coast road eventually met up with the A1 again, just before the port town of Ceduna, where we planned to stop and stock up as much as possible with everything we would need for about 3 weeks, while doing the station house-sit.
Ceduna is know for shipping products related to salt, like salt, gypsum and mineral sands. In the 2017/2018 year, there was over 2,000,000 million tonnes of gypsum, 390,00 tonnes of grain and over 100,000 tonnes of salt shipped out of Ceduna.
We were still limited though by the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables we could buy and either eat or take into WA without getting fined.
Once stocked up with wet and dry comestibles we headed out to Thevenard Bay, more commonly known as Pinky Point by the locals, for lunch.
The wet comestibles situation is not good for us in places like Ceduna, because they have alcohol restrictions in place for the local Aborigine population. We were only allowed 1 2-litre cask of wine each, but oddly we could buy as many bottles of wine as we wanted, and we each had to make separate purchases, showing our licences as part of the restrictions.
After lunch we wandered around Pinky Point reading the information boards and admiring the views of the bight.
Carrying on our touristing ways, we continued the drive west, stopping at the “Pantry” (think Pan Tree), which was weirdly a tree with pots and pans hanging off it!
Next up was a stop at Penong to check out the town’s collection of windmills of all shapes, sizes and ages, which included the biggest windmill in Australia (apparently!).
A little further along the A1 we detoured off onto an unsealed road for 12 km to checkout Lake Macdonnell, a lake that turns pink when the conditions are right. Luckily for us, the conditions were right, which made the drive on the sometimes rough road worth it.
Our last brief stop was to take photos of a large Wombat sculpture, just off the highway. When we first saw mention of Wombats in the area, we were a bit sceptical, but as we drove closer to the sculpture site, we started to see roadkill Wombats on the side of the road.
Our last mission for the day was to find a place to camp, so we headed for Nundroo to a cheap camp behind the roadhouse. However, on reading quite a few negative reviews, we stopped at a free camp on the side of the highway for the night.
For only the second time since we set out from home 2 weeks earlier, our free camp didn’t have any internet, so we had to spend the rest of the day amusing ourselves using old-fashioned amusements.
Day 14 - Nundroo - WA Border 11 February, 2024
We woke up to foggy skies this morning, and everything outside was covered in moisture, including our outside chairs and footwear.
Breaking camp and heading back out on to the A1, we continued the westerly journey, keeping an eye out for the cheapest fuel in the area, as we expected prices to rise once into the Nullarbor.
Our trusty Petrol Spy app let us know that the cheapest fuel was not far away at Yalata, at $2.06 per litre, compared to up to $2.80 per litre nearer the WA border, so that was our first stop for the day.
Then it was on to the Nullarbor Plain Road, long, straight and as boring as advertised, particularly in the treeless section, where there was nothing to see but scrubby country in every direction all the way to the horizon.
About halfway to the border we stopped at the Nullarbor Roadhouse, primarily to use their internet, after not having any the day before. We weren’t that rude though and bought a coffee and sticky bun to consume while catching up with the socials.
Further along the road, our first stop was at one of the scenic lookouts of the Great Australian Bight, where we had impressive views to the south and east.
After lunching there we continued on, stopping at another two scenic lookouts along the way, before searching for a free camp for the night, which proved to be a little more adventurous than we’d imagined.
There are a number of free camps dotted along the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight, and we wanted to stay at one of them. The first one we tried was already populated, so we drove a little more towards the border, then off onto a rough, rocky track that took us a few kilometres towards the cliffs, where we finally settled on a camp for the night.
The views of the Southern Ocean were expansive and amazing, despite the cool south-easterly wind that kept us inside for the rest of the day, as it was quite strong and cool. It was an amazing campsite that we had all to ourselves.
We did have some internet, but it was patchy at best, so we managed to catch up with some basic online activities.
Unfortunately the wind didn't abate as we'd hoped, so we had to forgo the amazing views from outside, and enjoy them from inside instead.
We attempted to stay up a bit later to see the night sky, which we’d been told was amazing where we were camped, but cloud cover in every direction prevented that.
And that was our last night in SA before crossing the border into WA.
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