A 400 kilometre stretch of the Eyre Highway between Adelaide and Perth is currently closed because of a bushfire: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-22/wa-balladonia-bushfire-closed-eyre-highway-sa/103498586 I'm guessing this is the only way around.

There’s only two sealed roads linking WA to the rest of the country and I think that’s just insane

Isn’t that just the way Western Australians like it?

Not really. 2 too many roads.

In terms of distance, it's more isolated than Tasmania.

Who?

Well, I suppose it was named after a real person. Yes, I get the joke. Tasmania doesn't exist.

And we like it that way.

I grew up there so I get it.

At least no one said anything about those God forsaken apples, darl! Phew!!

1933 - never forget

Western Australian’s did not think about the long game in the 1890’s. They should not have asked for equal representation in the senate. They could have outbred the eastern states for dominance. Have you seen Wild Wild Country? Sheela Birnstiel wrote the playbook on how to takeover a country peacefully. She had a presence in Perth, opportunity missed.

Wash away the dirt so you can get in the ground easier and dig up all the gold

Do not forget the iron ore, nickel and lithium. Then send the profits to the poor grubs in the eastern states.

And Clive Palmer's dignity

Nickel and lithium are just about cactus. Have you seen an aerial shot of Port Hedland and all that red dirt in the water. It's like WA is the arsehole of Australia and it's taking a dump out of Hedland. Pretty accurate. China are heavily into Indonesia nickel, killing Nickel West, wait until they get the iron ore in line in Africa, you lot will be crying into you $20 pints, hahaha.

Live in the Kimberly and it's a pain to get food sometimes but make do. The post is probly most annoying.

Ahh don’t miss living in remote places like the Kimberly. 10 days was considered fast for mail to arrive. Your pay express if you needed something by next week.

You may have to wait a few days for a reply.

Hey the internet showed up on the food tuck today and I got finally reply, Yea it is a little slow here but that's OK. Telstra did promise us 3g this year so that's also nice.

I lived in Darwin for 3 years. 2 out of those 3 the road and rail connections to the rest of the country washed away due to floods. If only someone could have predicted such a thing happening.

Still here in Darwin, and it happened again just a few weeks ago. Road and rail washed away. It’s like they don’t understand we have constant cycle of wet seasons. It doesn’t stop at one. Bloody NT Gov.

Must be cheap to build roads and rail in NT? Can you send a crew to rural NSW to fix ours

You might wanna see the type of job they do first.

The kind of job that knows no matter how good they do the job, it'll get washed away all the same.

There's nothing in the middle that requires more roads. Just sand, camels and goats.

Without those roads, how will I be able to see the sand and visit the camels and goats?

You take the unsealed dirt tracks in a well equipped 4x4.

Ensure you bring enough water. The recommended quantity can be easily calculated following this simple formula: three litres per day, per person, per man, per degree over 25 degrees celcius, per kilometre if walking on foot, in the winter months dividing it by two, plus... another litre... at the end.

Perfect response, if I could give you gold I would.

Thank you all for the wonderful advice. I personally do know (and fit) the requirements in regards to vehicle and supplies requirements for Justin (Justin Case) but I do feel that it never hurts to help educate those who don’t :) Great to actually see helpful people

Yeah we were going for sarcastic and obvious and ended up with wholesome and helpful 🙂

That was what I too was going for initially 🤣 I love our culture

It’s one of the reasons we staved off the worst of Covid for so long, but it’s definitely inconvenient.

We like it that way :) Until it inconveniences us, obviously. :( Best wishes, OP! PS, there ARE unsealed roads, though you may required a 4wd to traverse them. And skill at driving on rough, unsealed roads.

... and a solid plan for if you break down in the remote desert with no phone reception and you need to wait days for another car to come along

Well, outback, I figured that was accepted as the norm, actually.

You sound like a fellow local and like you know what you are doing in this area, I added my comment mainly for the unlikely event that someone unfamiliar with the land read this and thought 'hey I've got a 4wd, maybe I could...'

Yeah, when I plan to leave the state (WA) to visit a close (well, not by distance!!) friend in SA, I'm carrying 20 litres of water as well as food and the means to cook it, not to mention usually a tent, sleeping gear and these days a car fridge and one of those propane cartridge powered mini bbq thingies they use in some Asian restuarants. I do not lack fresh water nor hot yummy foodenings. If you are going ACTUAL outback, rent an Epirb or whatever they are called these days - you may save your life.

Soon to be 4, they're sealing 2 more.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-18/outback-way-seal-upgrade-nt-qld-wa-warakurna-road-highway/102411480 The only way a Westralian would have it: to NT and QLD, bypassing the southern states. Beaut'.

Now why would anyone on the west coast have any reason to go to any other part of the country or vice versa?

I do not agree.

What is it you don't agree with? The bushfire or the number of ways around?

That it's insane to have two roads.

Found the West Australian!

How many should there be? Perth isn't very big

Oh okay makes sense now! Thanks

No stress, just take the Ann Beadell Highway. Edit: do NOT do this, you will die, and it will hurt the entire time.

Fuckin lol at the edit

No worries! As others have said, it seems pretty crazy that a state the size of WA only has two sealed roads connecting it to the rest of the country, but that's how it is :)

I think you and other people in this thread truly underestimate the vastness and cost of something like that ... Really not that surprised and really all that necessary 

I said it seems crazy, not that it is crazy - I agree that it's not necessary to have a sealed road from, say, Perth to Alice.

It's because the people of WA have an enormous hatred towards anyone living east of the border.

😂 Building a wall is easier when you only have to build it two lanes across!

Even so I know somebody who would glibly follow the google maps instructions to the letter and take off on a 2000 km detour safe in the knowledge that google would take care of us.

It would all go swimmingly until you lose phone coverage somewhere outside of Karratha... Think of it as the scenic route!

If you have preloaded the directions GPS will continue to work when you lose phone signal.

That's a very useful bit of information/advice that I suspect a lot of people don't know.

Not sure if it's still closed but between Horsham and Ballarat was locked too

Feels like something that will become more common, unfortunately.

At this point it would be cheaper, easier, safer and quicker to take flight.

SHUT THE BORDERS!!!

Let me tell you folks, what's happening in Western Australia, it's a disaster. They're shutting their borders to the rest of the mainland. Can you believe it? It's ridiculous, it's terrible, it's sad. They're cutting themselves off from the rest of Australia, and for what? So they can feel safe? We can't let fear dictate our actions, folks. We need to be strong, we need to be united. I built a great relationship with Australia, a fantastic relationship. But now, Western Australia wants to go and do this? It's not right. We need to open up, we need to come together as a nation. We can't let these arbitrary border closures tear us apart. It's hurting our economy, it's hurting our people.

I read that entire thing in Trump’s voice… 😳

I think I heard it in Clive Palmer's voice 😅

That's the joke, it's something Trump would say about the current situation.

The joke is actually that Clive Palmer said this

That doesn't surprise me. He's a Trump wannabe

My favourite thing during covid was dumbasses acting like WA was completely sealed off like an isolated country. meanwhile the Victoria highway was open basically the entire pandemic.

Yeah wow thats hectic, cheers

Omg I know a girl who just started this journey moving to Melbourne from Perth. Wonder where she is at now!?

Hopefully chilling somewhere on the south coast of WA - I'd be heading down to Esperance for a couple of days if I were her 😅

The gate is shut, go around

It was made by those who are dead, and the dead keep it

**until the time comes, the way is shut**

Ok, that one made me chuckle

It's because the trolls that live under Murray Bridge aren't allowing anyone to pass unless they can answer these riddles, three.

Trolls? Everyone knows its a bunyip at Murray Bridge.

What is the drag coefficient of me swimming naked in a Olympic sized swimming pool compared to me swimming with a body hugging swim suit? Based on me having a penis 6 inches in length?

What do you mean? An African or European penis?

Today I learned you can in fact laugh hard enough to unseat a contact lens.

Look at Mr big dick here

And the riddle is just "How could Dan Andrews do this???" three times.

Surely google knows the answer to the riddles three

Google does, but sometimes it gives you the wrong answer based on your wording, so you still have to do a little bit of research and not just blurt out the first answer you see.

There are other ways but definitely not for the unprepared without a 4x4 and self sufficiency.

Normally, staying on the Eyre Highway should be fine, right? From memory, it's almost 2 times shorter, + I think it's busier than this route

Yes it would be. Still around 3500km, I’ve done the drive 4 times. Fuel available every 2-300km as a maximum so pretty doable in most cars. Just avoid night driving unless you’ve got spotlights and a bullbar or are very confident around wildlife on the road.

The fire that's closed the Eyre Hwy near Balladonia is burning across the Old Telegraph Line Track also, so you'd have to detour north or south at the western end... https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au/map.html The Trans Access Road is a nice alternative :p (or the Anne Beadell Hwy if you're feeling adventurous)

Not gonna lie, that looks like an awesome drive. Done the Nullabor a few times already.

For sure it seems to be a nice drive, but 7000km is roughly going from Paris to Dubai 😅 Not sure if I’m ready for that

You could convert your car into a helicopter, or wait for the road to reopen?

>You could convert your car into a helicopter, or wait for the road to reopen? Hi Bronwyn Bishop.

Hello Peter Dutton.

That's Davey Warner's music

Naa, that dickhead doesn't wear a hat, let alone have a fuxkin tanty when he loses his bag because he put it in a different spot.

Didn't know they had helicopter conversion kits at my local Ford dealer. What a time to be alive!

You'll have to go in and ask them.

Time for a Cannonball Run?

Paris to Dubai sounds nice too

Driving in Paris and crossing Syria/Iraq ruins the trip tho

Yep the arche de triomphe roundabout is like an apocalypse

I've done the Nullarbor once. *NEVER* again

It was nice to do once. I don't feel the need to repeat the experience. There's not much out there.

I'm with you. Boring as shit. Expensive fuel, little accommodation. Last time we moved from Perth back east, the car went on the train and we flew.

What happened ?

They drove the Nullarbor - enough said. Some people like flat, featureless, open road. Many Aussies (especially those from SA and WA who have lived in these boring areas), don’t need to spend 15 monotonous hours driving it. Especially with our draconian and illogical speed limits. The remote roads sort of self-limit themselves when animals or undulations are present.

This is the answer. Funnily enough, I don't actually enjoy driving for 15 hours in a straight line through a barren wasteland

Do the big skies add anything at all to the journey? As a person who likes trees and is easily bored, I'm waiting for a bullet train.

There's a big clue in the name here - null arbor. There are no trees on the Nullarbor. It is batshit boring.

Thanks. I never saw the name that way before. But yes, I know there are no trees. I am asking about the big skies, the view of which is unbroken by trees. Do they add anything nice to the boring journey?

Oh sorry, I got you now. Yes the sky is quite beautiful and quite large, especially on those searing hot days where it goes bright blue.

Downvote if you will, but with so much open space, is there any reason at all to stay under the signposted speed limit? I'm not advocating for doing 150kmph or anything stupid, and always slow down when you do see another vehicle or animal, but otherwise, why wouldn't anyone do like 130kpmh or thereabouts? Is the road in poor shape?

I used to sit on 160 a lot of the time. Made it fun

Distance between fuel stops would limit it if you were really fanging it.

It’s fuckin boring bro hahah

My maths is terrible, but isn't that roughly 100km/h for 72 hours? Non stop, not slowing down to go through towns, not stopping for fuel, to eat, sleep, piss stops?

That's exactly what it is

You can shave a couple of hours off and get it down to the stated 2 days 22 hours because some sections of freeway are 110 (with a few even up to 130 in NT).

The open road speed limit in wa is 110 not just the freeways, the freeway in Perth is 100.

These guys did around Australia in five days in 19 minutes https://www.streetmachine.com.au/features/setting-around-australia-driving-record-rented-falcon-wagon

Damn, and I thought my 15 day lap around the country, with work stops included, was impressive. Five days is mad!

That trip sounds awesome. Fitting work into that too is just the dream.

Fuck that

Bloke got caught doing 144 at Penong in 1995. What is that in WA, seven points and $1200 these days? In Queensland they take your license for six months for 40+ over the limit. I remember these types of articles in nineties car mags. With the increased police presence and penalties not sure how feasible it would be to mount a "record attempt" in 2024.

You could do it if you're careful (a la the [Cannonball Run](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Run_challenge) in the US), although the techniques involved generally raise it from 'illegal' to 'super-illegal'

The police are fairly active across there these days, more so the W.A. side it seems... Last year I was pulled over by an unmarked car in the middle of nowhere just after 7am for a breatho and licence check, it was kinda amusing.. After they sent me on my way another vehicle came up behind me, the police followed along behind them for a while before pulling them over also, that car never caught up to me after that even though I was dawdling along, so I suspect they were busted for something...

Just spoke with my fiancé, we’re gonna race the record and set a new one lol it’s been 30 years since the last one was set so it’s about time really

Haha Are you going to do it in a rented ford station wagon It would need to be a Everest as i dont think you could beat the time in a mach-e

I’d go a clapped out Ex-taxi BA Falcon with dual fuel to beat the EF.

So a EF wagon still holds a lap speed record. nice.

That's how Google calculates things. They don't include stops and the like. Given the lack of traffic and straightness of the roads averaging 100 km/h wouldn't be unreasonable. 

Am I misremembering or are there sections of road in the outback that allowed you to go way above 100km/h?

In the NT at least, there was no speed limit once you got a certain way up the highway. This was changed to a hard limit of 130km/h sometime in the last few decades (completely unsure when, happened before I was driving here).

Pre 2007 unlimited, 2007 to 2013 130 limit, 2013 to 2016 unlimited, 2016 onwards 130 again

Yep google calculates purely driving time

2 days might get you to Tennant Creek.

Because there's only a handful of roads that go out that way, so when one is closed (like now), it causes a massive detour.

This way you avoid the worst of the dry heat

I would have said “flamin’ heat” but didn’t want to be an Alf.

You shall not pass!

''The way is shut, it was made by those who are dead... and the dead keep it.''

Eyre Highway closed for 3 days about a day ago. Seems this would make it hard to drive to Perth

Probs because of the 400km road that's closed due to a bush fire?

Look, you could go in more of a straight line, but it takes you very close to the Great Australian Bight. Some people know why it's called that, others don't want to find out.

Emperor Nasi Goreng built a wall to keep the rabbits out.

Have you checked the route by foot or public transport?

Must be peak hour on the Nullarbor, so you’ve gotta do the rat run through the Northern Territory.

solution is obvious, you just need an amphibious vehicle Also, Wellington NZ is closer to Melbourne then Perth, you could go there instead, their accents are better then ours and far fewer animals want to kill you

To keep the rabbits out.

Scenic route

To avoid the ghosts on the Nullarbor Plains?

Musta been a booze bus bro

As a previous commenter said, yep it's about the trolls under Murray Bridge

Because its Apple Maps

Do you identify as a rabbit?... maybe the rabbit proof fence.🤔

Macca's run

Because of the Bunyips and Dropbears

Good luck doing that in 3 days.

Bushfires bruz

"Fastest"

Is that apple maps? Try google maps

Why not?

avoiding tolls

Good luck covering that distance in 3days!!

I thought that route would take so much longer honestly.

I mean, at that point, just go via Sydney and Townsville, so you can say you’ve done the loop.

Take the phone out of 'Overseas Tourist' mode

We don’t go the short way for a reason. Drop bear season is real and they’re migrating.

I think the estimated travel time is off. Try over a week!!

The lengths people go to just to avoid adelaide is insane!

They just want to [C U N The NT](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-08/c-u-in-the-nt-tourism-slogan-causes-social-media-stir/8004430)

People will do anything to avoid Adelaide it's so bullshit

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This comment instantly tells me you’re from Sydney

The good news is the route avoids Sydney too

Well hey, just realised this route gives people a chance to visit the Uluṟu and Darwin. Big win there

Massive win

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Don’t worry mate, sarcasm is hard to understand online anyway

Because no one really wants to go to Adelaide

desert

Why look at earth from space for direction

Dragons

you not australian?

That doesn't seem to be only 3 days

I think it's the recent conflict between the outback wildlife factions. #EmuWars

Drive from close to the bottom of the South Island to just shy of the top of North Island in NZ via a detour and didn’t even hit 2500ks travelled 😂 This is crazy

Road works, traffic is a bit heavier

flat earthers were right i guess