Category: Big Australia Adventure (2025)

Travel adventure duration: 3mths, 1 wk

Hottest temperature: ~35° (Kimberley)

Coldest temperature: -3° (Gunning)

Total travel distance: 14,200km

Repairs / flat tyre / broken windscreen (car or van): Surprisingly none given some of the most challenging dirt roads (Oodnadatta Track, Gibb River Road). The van’s fridge and inverter failed but these issues could have happened at any time.

Most challenging walk: Emma Gorge (G.R.R.)

Best meat pie: Mt Elizabeth Station (G.R.R.)

Worst road with caravan: Ellenbrae Station to Mt Elizabeth Station (G.R.R.) or Hermannsburg into Palm Valley, Finke Gorge National Park NT

Worst road – car only: Finke Gorge National Park campsite to Palm Valley

Favourite campsite: Pender Bay (Dampier Peninsula)

Best Adventure/Experience: Mitchell Falls (Ellenbrae Station, Kimberley region)

Worst campsite: Timber Creek Roadhouse NT (crammed front to back/blocked in and bats)

Best swim: Edith Falls NT

Most bush flies location: Devils Marbles NT

Best sunset: So many, can’t pick just one

Things we took but didn’t use: 2nd spare tyre; recovery treads; spare diesel (20L container); portable fire pit

Most expensive fuel: $2.59/L (average guesstimate $1.95~$2.00/L for the trip)

Fuel consumption average: 19.6L/100km

Departing late Tuesday morning from Port Hedland & taking the quickest route home the journey took 2.5 weeks over a distance of 5,200kms. Travelling on every day except 2 (visit Kalgoorlie and a service for the van in Berri SA) the variety of landscape scenes made the tiring drive more interesting. From the mountain reds of the Pilbara to the sparse Nullarbor Plains and so much more, I saw a good cross section of what the vast Australian outback has to offer.

For just short of 3 months the weather was picture perfect… with very, very few exceptions the sky was blue with no clouds. Travelling home the weather was more typical winter… cold, windy and cloudy skies. During the last week I encountered rain on most days. The drive to the overnight stay at Burra showground was the heaviest.

Overnight camp with wet & windy weather… a 1st in over 3 months.

This iconic roadhouse is about “half” way between Norseman & Ceduna. It offers the basics which now include an EV station and the most expensive fuel on the Nullarbor. If you look more closely at the EV station photo you can see a diesel generator and tank needed to power EV’s… crazy!

I could not resist visiting this spectacular site for a second time (2020 being the first). The views are absolutely breathtaking. The cliff edge is less than 400m from the Eyre Highway.

The truck road noise was minimal being set back from the highway about 100m. A really good free camp. There were a only a few other campers here overnight.

Famous for the gold discovery in 1893 by Irish prospectors Paddy Hannan, Tom Flanagan and Daniel Shea, Kalgoorlie-Boulder continues to thrive with a multitude of mining and processing companies operating in the area. The City features some of the grandest turn-of-the-century architecture and character buildings.

Time for a break while driving from Mount Magnet to Leinster.

Not much sign of life in Sandstone

Sandstone was built on the back of gold mining

WOW, what a beautiful free camp location for an overnight stop. Very popular for good reason.