Melbourne to Rawlinna, March 1999

"Where's Rawlinna?" I hear you ask (we'll I would if anyone actually read my waffle). Rawlinna is a tiny siding on the Trans Continental Railway Line more commonly known as the route of The Indian Pacific, on the western side of Nullarbor. We decided to head over to visit a friend who was working as a caretaker for the old railway houses that were left there, an interesting bloke who was also a roo shooter with a heart, he'd bring orphaned joeys home to his family and hand raise them.

Now the easiest way over would be to head across the Eyre Highway,turn off at Cocklebiddy and after 150 kilometres of dirt we'd have been at Rawlinna, an easy two or three day trip. We had a bit more of an adventurous route in mind however. With our mate Graham in his 75 series ute and Sam and I in the troopie, we decided to head to Rawlinna via the Anne Beadell Highway, before turning south on the Connie Sue Highway. Now the word  'highway'  is a bit misleading, both these tracks are lucky to see a few 4wd's a week, in fact according to the log books we were the 3rd and 4th 4wd's to traverse the Anne Beadell that year, fairly remote country!

Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges NP.

So with permits in hand two clean 4wd motored out of Melbourne with our first nights camp on the Murray River near the Hattah-Kulkyne NP, a short day at only 528 kilometres, we arrived early enough for time for a swim. The next day saw us heading over towards South Australia, first to Mildura, and then up the Silver City Highway, after around 100 kilometres we turned to the west and followed station tracks past 'Loch Lilly' station to eventually call stumps on the banks of a dry creek near 'Lilydale' station a grand total of 346 kilometres today. The weather had been a little damp today so it was into the tent nice and early.

At the open cut, Leigh Creek.

The troopie was feeling the strain.

Next day dawned fine and we were soon packed up, hitting the bitumen at Yunta we re fuelled and then pointed the trucks north towards Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges NP, we have returned here many times over the years, its spectacular and remote country, I've written a walking journal if anyone's interested. Our first stop in the Gammon Ranges was Weetootla Gorge, we wondered through for a few kilometres before returning to the trucks and heading over to Grindell Hut for the night, todays grand total was 370 kilometres. We were now getting into more remote country, our fourth day saw us head out to the bitumen at Leigh Creek, where we headed north enjoying 30 kilometres of bitumen before once again taking to the dirt. Lunch was had at Marree checking out Tom Kruse's old mail truck, then after a beer at William Creek Hotel we headed towards Coober Pedy on the William Creek Road. After making a side trip to check out Lake Cadibarrawirracanna (you should try typing that with one finger), we pulled up stumps on a dry creek bed next to an old abandoned truck. Todays kilometres were 517.

Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.

Access track to Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.

Breaking camp the next day we headed to the big smoke, Coober Pedy. Here we filled up all our water containers, topped up with fuel and supplies and then headed off on the Anne Beadell Highway into some very remote country. The first 50 odd kilometres to 'Mabel Creek' station was a good dirt road, but from there to Rawlinna, still 5 days away, was all slow going with the hubs locked, mostly in high range, but also with some long sections in low range. Passing the homestead the track immediately deteriorated, the corrugations being the worst and most sustained that I have experienced, it was just a matter of dropping my tyre pressures as much as I dared and stopping frequently to tighten anything that was about to be shaken loose off the truck, you know the corrugations are bad when they start to blur your vision! Our first stop on the Anne Beadell was in the Tallaringa Conservation Park, no worries about finding a discreet spot, we hadn't seen anybody since leaving Coober Pedy this morning. Today we did 356 hard won kilometres.

Crossing the Ghan Line on the way to 'Mabel Creek' at the start of the Anne Beadell Highway.

Anne Beadell Highway

Next day we broke camp and continued our journey west, today we travelled through Maralinga Tjarutja Lands, famous for the atomic bomb tests that were carried out here in the 1950's at Emu. A lot of the roads we were travelling on owe there existence to the atomic bomb testing, Len Beadell having been contracted to push the roads through the deserts so that the scientists could monitor the blasts. We checked out totem 1 and 2 the sites of the two atomic blasts, however I wasn't keen to linger and we pushed on to make camp at Vokes Hill Corner, before we got a radioactive tan. The corrugations today were still bad and we were now starting to get sections of sharp limestone to contend with, not something to hit at speed. We managed 285 kilometres today, haven't sighted any other people for a day and a half now.

Red sand was heaps better than corrugations.

Len Beadell's original signpost, Vokes Hill Corner.

From Vokes Hill Corner we travelled through the Mumungari Conservation Park, the country got a lot more interesting and the driving more enjoyable, we were now travelling over and along small red sand dunes, with Spinifex and Red Gums giving the country the appearance of a park. The sandy track was a relief after the limestone and corrugations, now we had to be careful of Spinifex building up around the tail shaft and exhaust, its highly combustible and this is the last place you'd want your truck to burn to the ground. Crossing over the Western Australia border late in the day we made camp at the beautiful Serpentine Lakes, now over half way across the Great Victoria Desert we celebrated by listening to an AFL match on the radio that we picked up after the sun went down. Today we travelled 170 kilometres, haven't sighted another person for two and a half days now.

Beautiful desert scenery, well into the Great Victoria Desert now.

We had to watch out for the spinifex collecting on the tail shaft and the exhaust.

They stayed up all night to come up with this name.

A bit of erosion on the Anne Beadell Highway.

Continuing west the next day we past the site of the 'Ilkurlka' Roadhouse, unfortunately we were years to early as the roadhouse was still a long way off in 1999. Pushing on we made a side trip to the site of a light aircraft wreck, it'd be a long wait for help out here, but I suppose a least they weren't swimming. It was on this little trip that I got my only puncture for the trip, so I supplied the nights entertainment pulling the tyre off the rim and patching the tube, who needs TV hey. We were camped near Neale Junction that night, 352 kilometres from our last camp, oh yeah that was three and a half days since we had seen another person.

Trust me!

They would of had a long wait for help.

The evenings entertainment.

Today at last we turned south along the Connie Sue Highway towards Rawlinna. A low pressure system caused by a cyclone had dumped a lot of water here over summer, so we had to contend with quite a few wash outs and some long sections of mud, it was just on dark when we sighted a few lights on the horizon that had to be Rawlinna (don't forget these were in the days before Sat Nav). Pulling up we were quickly made to feel at home, being shown to our own abandoned house to use. Today we covered another 197 kilometres and after four and a half days we finally saw another person.

We turned south onto the Connie Sue Highway.

Graham next to the sign to Warburton on the Connie Sue Highway.

The next day, after making friends with all the Kangaroos hoping around, Sam and I decided to go and check out Lake Boonderoo, a fresh water lake filled over summer by the rains from the cyclone. Armed with a mud map and permission from the station we eventually located the lake and spent a relaxing day swimming and laying in the sun, feeling a million miles away from the real world. That'd be another 210 kilometres on our rest day! Heading back to Rawlinna we caught up with Graham and started to plan our return journey to Melbourne, it'll pop up on the blog one day!

The locals at Rawlinna.

Lake Boonderoo was a beautiful place to relax for the day.

The Dirt
We travelled 3161 kilometres on our convoluted route to Rawlinna including one stretch of 1500 kilometres without fuel or water (we still had another 150 kilometres to go for fuel).
Both trucks were 75 series Toyota Landcruiser's, I was able to carry 270 litres of diesel in my tanks, Graham supplemented his tanks with jerry cans. I carried 100 litres of water in various containers, including a 65 litre tank. We used a HF Radio (No Sat Phones in those days). I used the first edition of the West Print Map, from memory I think Graham got a copy before it was even published.
The only mechanical on the trip was a flat tyre, easily patched as I was running split rims.
Both these tracks are very remote, even by Australian standards, it would be somewhat easier nowadays with the roadhouse at Ilkurlka but it still a very serious trip. The first couple of days on the Anne Beadell had the worst sustained corrugations I've experienced, however.......  this was almost 15 years ago and conditions change quickly out there so it would pay to get up to date info if planning a trip along these tracks. Also, Rawlinna has no facilities, I just finished my blog there as that was where we turned east and started to head for home.

I've just finished part two of this trip, click here if you want to check it out.