A family road trip across the Nullarbor
Fifty years ago, in 1975, our family of five set off on a trip to Western Australia in our V8 HQ Kingswood, towing a 15-foot 7-inch, sixberth Millard caravan. Leaving Narraweena in Sydney, our first major stop was the Pioneer Settlement at Swan Hill; and then Renmark, Peterborough and Port Augusta, where we camped. There were five bodies (including my wife Helen and our young ones Keith, Alison and Luke) all cosy in a van, but we coped.
From Port Augusta, we motored through Kimba, stopping for fish and chips at Ceduna (so good). By then we were well underway on the Eyre Highway, which stretches for 1,675 kilometres from Port Augusta in South Australia to Norseman in Western Australia. At this point we were still on a sealed road through to Yalata. From there, we started driving on the unsealed section which continued to the Western Australia border. It was awfully rough in parts, then of course it started to rain heavily which became quite exciting with both car and caravan finding their own way to a certain degree until the skill of the car captain (me) regained control. This situation continued to the Nullarbor Service Station, where we set up camp in the backyard. The next morning, hitched up, we set off and got nowhere. Bogged. A servo staffer arrived with a tractor and eventually pulled us and a couple of others out.
Sights of the Nullarbor and Outback WA
Setting off, the road had dried out and we drove on to Eucla and inspected the Old Telegraph Station, partially covered in the continually shifting sands. In those days, we could go into each room of the building (which is not easy today). Down the Eucla Pass, we entered the long 365-kilometre stretch to Madura, filling up at Mundrabilla along the way. It was here we saw many wedgetail eagles, some feeding on roadkill (and some were roadkill themselves, unfortunately). The birds were feeding and couldn't get airborne quickly enough. They are magnificent creatures, and we saw lots soaring over the coastal hills nearby.
Up the Madura Pass we travelled, through Cocklebiddy and Balladonia to Norseman, stopping along the way to inspect one of the many sinkholes that cover the region. We camped in the Norseman caravan park for the night. The next morning, we hitched up and drove to Kalgoorlie, where we explored the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Super Pit – a huge opencut gold mine. Today the mine is about 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and 600 metres deep. It produces 800,000 ounces of gold annually, about eight per cent of Australia's total gold output.
Afterwards we travelled to Coolgardie, another historic gold town with beautiful architecture to photograph. There were no mobile phones in those days, just my simple Kodak Retinette 35mm camera taking slide film only. The accompanying photos have been taken from those slides. In a local park we chatted to an old Aboriginal man who had an 80cm carved wooden snake for sale that we purchased; it's beautiful and we still treasure the artwork and the story behind it.
Travelling to Southern Cross on the Great Eastern Highway, we took the turnoff to Hyden where we saw the amazing Wave Rock and Hippos Yawn. From there it was a straightforward run across the state to York and Perth, where we stayed for a few days, feeding swans on the Swan River and enjoying lots of other things that the city and surrounding area had to offer.
Hitting the Coast
After Perth, we started the journey home - sort of – motoring down along the coastal roads to Bunbury, Pemberton and the iconic Gloucester tree, which my wife Helen and I climbed, but not the kids. Our daughter Alison recently reminded me that 'mum wouldn't let us climb the tree'. Years later – in 1994 on a motorcycle trip to Perth with my son Keith and his twin brothers (born in 1977) – we again visited the tree and Keith said: "Well, Mum wouldn't let me climb it in 1975, now I'm 26 I'm going to climb it!" True to his word he – and all of us – did!
From Pemberton we travelled to Albany and went out to the whaling station at Cheynes beach. We saw a large whale being towed in by boat. The whale was covered in seagulls before being winched up the ramp. Two men then climbed onto the carcass and proceeded to use a whaling spade to cut free the flesh on the oil-producing blubber. Parts of the whale were winched to other areas for processing.
The whole process was noisy, and the area was pungent with whale flesh. This scene may not appeal to lots of people, however this was an industry of the period and was important to Albany. Probably not a savoury part of our history in today's thinking, but it is what it is. Processing there ceased in November 1978. The site was later preserved and can now be visited as a historic site.
Leaving Albany, it was along the Esperance-Coolgardie highway to Norseman where we again turned onto the Eyre Highway, retracing our tracks eastwards. Arriving near the community of Yalata again, we were greeted by a group of Indigenous people sitting in the middle of the road. We of course stopped and, after having a chat, purchased some beautifully made artefacts. There was hardly any traffic in those halcyon days of caravanning and travelling, so everyone was quite safe. Next we travelled to Port Augusta, Peterborough and Broken Hill, where we did an underground mine tour; then out to Silverton for camel rides. From there we motored home after an amazing adventure.
Since those days, we have travelled across the Nullarbor on many occasions – on two wheels and four – and enjoyed every trip. It's an incredible driving/riding adventure and highly recommended.
