January 2021
Start of a new year and start of a new chapter. Having recently accepted a new position over in Perth, I packed up all my things from Melbourne and made the looooonng trip from Melbourne to Perth. How long you say, well, 3,500 kms!
The following is a day by day account of the trip, with photos taken from a bunch of scenic places on the trip.
Day 1 - 18th January 2021 - Melbourne to Adelaide (~750kms)
Unfortunately no photos from this section of the drive given that I’ve done it before, and primarily just wanted to get out of Victoria so that the clock could start ticking on the amount of days that I’d spent outside of Victoria (which had been re-classed as a ‘Low Risk’ zone by Western Australia that very morning.
Day 2 - 19th January 2021 - Adelaide to Kimba (~500kms)
A more relaxed drive today involved travelling from just outside the city centre of Adelaide to the country town of Kimba. During the drive I made a number of stops at various locations including the following:
Lake Bumbunga - An expansive salt lake right next to the Princes Highway in the town of Lochiel
Mt Remarkable National Park - A beautiful national park marking the southern point of the Flinders Ranges in semi-arid surroundings. Definitely a place that I’d like to explore further in the future.
Port Augusta - The main town on the drive through, Port Augusta is the crossroads for those heading west to the Eyre Peninsula and Western Australia and those heading north to central Australia
Kimba - One of many small country towns between Port Augusta and Ceduna, Kimba is almost smack bang in the middle between the east and west coasts as represented by an enormous sign at the entrance of town, showing it as ‘Halfway Across Australia’
Lake Gilles - Choosing to spend the night at a free campground in the middle of town, I decided to spend golden hour exploring the nearby salt lake of Lake Gilles until the sun went down.
Day 3 - 20th January 2021 - Kimba to Point Sinclair (~400km)
Today marked a new milestone for me in terms of how far west I have been within the country (with more to come!). Previously, back in 2018 when I had completed a trip throughout South Australia over the Summer holidays, I had driven as far as Smoky Bay (just south of Ceduna) prior to heading back to Adelaide. During the drive I stopped over at a few places include:
Wudinna - One of many small country towns dotted along the Eyre Highway, I stopped by here after finding that it had a number of salt lakes to the south of the town whilst browsing Google Maps the night before which I explored using my DJI Mavic Pro 2
Ceduna - The last main town before the start of the road leading into the Nullabor, Ceduna is beautiful seaside town with a busy port acing as a hub for the extraction and delivery of gypsum and mineral sands.
Point Sinclair - Known primarily for the western section of coastline known as Cactus Beach, this area produces some of the best surf breaks in Australia, and it was definitely popular! In addition to the surf, the road to Point Sinclair also passes through Lake MacDonnell, a salt lake with an almost over-worldly pinkish hue to it which makes for some amazing photographs. I spent the night at the Point Sinclair Campground before heading further west the next day.
Day 4 - 21st January 2021 - Point Sinclair to the Nullabor (400kms)
Today marked my foray into the start of the Nullabor. For those of you who aren’t from Australia, the Nullabor Plains are an enormous expanse of arid country comprising the southern coastline between South and West Australia. It’s the world’s largest single exposure of limestone bedrock and comprises an area of almost 200,000 square km. Which takes a fairly long time to pass. There are a number of road houses along the way, but with those as the exception, the landscape is most flat and barren.
I ended up camping right near the edge of the Bunda Cliffs, approximately 40km from the WA border.
Day 5 - 22nd January 2021 - The Nullabor (650kms)
Today marked my foray into Western Australia. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 restrictions, I was subject to a quarantine order and as such, was required to make the trip from the SA/WA border to Perth within 48 hours.
Day 6 - 23rd January 2021 - The Nullabor to Perth (700kms)
Today marked the last day of the road trip proceeding from the Fraser Range on the Nullabor through to Perth. I decided to take the 300km dirt Hyden-Norseman Rd from Norseman to Hyden and encountered the remnants of a nearby bushfire whilst travelling along this road. The fire fighters had actually closed the other end of this road by the time I got to the other side, which is not surprising given the size of the fire.
As mentioned at the start of this post, the drive totaled around 3,500kms which I completed over 6 days. It can definitely be done in less time, however taken some time to explore the areas that you’re passing through will make it much more enjoyable.
