Nullarbor Plain

I first crossed the Nullarbor Plain in 1974 with my family in an XW Falcon station wagon, towing a trailer behind the wagon. (That is me in the red tee shirt at 15 years old, Terri, my sister in blue next to David and mother off to the left). This was a long time before fancy camping trailers were on the market. In those years, you packed everything in a trailer, including spare parts, water and tools and headed off! 4 years later, I crossed again, staying at Cactus Beach. Then three years after this, I made a return trip across the Nullabor Plain on a motorbike on a beautiful sealed road.

The Eyre Highway links Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. It was in September 1976 that the final section of the Eyre Highway (across the Nullarbor Plain) was sealed with bitumen. Building a road to link Western Australia with the rest of the Commonwealth had never been a national priority for the federal government. The last 400 km (250 miles) of road between Penong in South Australia and the WA/SA border was sealed in 1976.

Nullabor Crossing 1974

Often the road consisted of very fine dust (commonly called “Bulldust”). Holes were often full of bulldust. They could seen after you smashed a wheel into them.  Overtaking vehicles was hazardous and you could see trucks coming from miles away, kicking up huge plumes of dust. No recovery vehicles or service stations, wrecked vehicles abandoned.  Ours was an uneventful trip in terms of problems as my father carefully planned the trip. No hotels or motels in this crossing we camped and cooked on the side of the road.

Eucla

Below is a picture of my mother and father (Ann and Kevin Ewings) near the Eucla Telegraph Station. Eucla is the easternmost locality in Western Australia along the Eyre Highway. Approximately 11 kilometres (7 miles) west of the South Australian border. At the 2006 census, Eucla had a population of 86.

Near Eucla Telegraph Station