£10 Poms? You must be kidding.
By Richard Ward, October 2023.
I had a long-held ambition to drive across Australia from Perth to Sydney, via the infamous Nullarbor Plain, which derives its name from the Latin for “no trees”. Thus in early October, my wife Wiena, daughter Sparkle, and I took the 17-hour direct flight from Heathrow to Perth, hired a car at Perth airport and set forth. A tip is to get your mobile ‘phone sorted on arrival, particularly useful for satnav directions if you can’t get the one in the hire car to work correctly!
We spent the first three days in Perth, visiting a good friend. Perth is a pleasant city on the Swan River which flows into the Indian Ocean at the nearby port of Fremantle. A visit to King’s Park in spring-time is magical, where a collection of 2000 species of Western Australian flora is on display in the Botanic Garden. Another sight to visit is the Perth Mint, one of Australia’s two mints issuing legal tender coins, where we heard the fascinating story of gold discovery in Western Australia.
On day four we drove directly East for 550 km to Coolgardie, marvelling en-route at the abundant wildflowers beside the road. Coolgardie was one of those early gold mining towns; in 1891 there were 25,000 people living in and around the town; the largest ever gold nugget in Australian history was discovered here in 1931. Now there are fewer than 1000 people, many relying on tourism and random gold prospecting for a living. Well worth a visit for its pub, museum and historic 40 yard wide main street!
Leaving Coolgardie and nearing the south coast, vegetation becomes sparser, predominantly millions of eucalyptus. Australia’s longest straight road, at 146.6 km, passes by very quickly into the Nullarbor Plain, nearly 500 km west to east.
The first European to cross the Nullarbor was Edward John Eyre who completed an eventful journey in June 1841. A century later the Eyre Highway was carved across Australia and this is now a well maintained tarmacadam road, with adequate fuel, accommodation and refreshment areas en-route towards Adelaide. In October the weather is comfortable, chilly at night, but accommodation is limited, so it is essential to book in advance. The only drawback is the many flies – netted hats are useful!
Sparkle returned home from Adelaide, while Wiena and I carried on down the coast eastwards to Robe, a thriving seaside town with a lovely climate. Our fourth and fifth week were spent travelling to friends in Ballarat, then past Melbourne to Corryong, on to Canberra, and through the Blue Mountains to Newcastle before heading South to Sydney. We left the car at the airport and flew to Perth to connect with a direct return flight to Heathrow. Five weeks of travel, 6000+ km, only 1 half day of rain.
