Great Central Road

In 2001 we embarked on a caravan trip leaving Armidale, NSW travelling West to pick up the Plenty Highway, then down through Alice Springs to Uluru. We had planned to continue West along the Great Central Road, but torrential rain closed the road. After waiting for a week at Uluru, the road looked like it would be closed for another few weeks, so I dropped south and crossed westwards via the Nullarbor Plain to Perth. We headed back East from Perth, stopping at Leonora to visit friends, then headed 1,541km eastwards on the Great Central Road to Alice Springs.

The Great Central Road, also known as the Great Central Highway, connects Laverton in Western Australia with Winton in Queensland, a total distance of 2,720 kilometres.

Yamarna Camp

The Laverton to Uluru section of 1,098km is the most isolated section. Fuel is available at the Tjukayirla Roadhouse (303km East of Laverton). Also, Warburton Roadhouse, 548km (East of Laverton) and Warakurna Roadhouse (773km East of Laverton).

Limited facilities exist for mechanical repairs. This is not a road to take an old ‘clunker’. Summer is a scorching time of the year to be on Outback roads. If you are travelling at this time, please make sure you budget and carry enough water to cater for emergencies. Keep an eye on the weather, which can be done through the BoM website.

The road from Laverton to Kata Tjuta (The eastern perimeter of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park) is unsealed. This split it into two sections:

Laverton to the WA Border

Has some well-formed, graded, and relatively smooth sections. However, some sections are deeply corrugated, sandy, and rutted with bulldust holes. There is minimal road signage and limited forewarning of sites, features, bends or crests. Make sure you have good maps! You might also be interested in an article I wrote called the Kapi (water) Road.

WA Border to the Kata Tjuta

section has rock-sand limestone or red desert sand with rough corrugations, ruts and soft, boggy sections on dune rises. Some of the creek-river crossings have dry, soft surfaces that are susceptible to seasonal flooding January-March. This section of road is often the most vulnerable to damage due to the sandy (desert) substrate.  The 230 km from Kaltukatjara (Docker River) to Kata Tjuta is often badly corrugated and may test your vehicle’s mettle.