THE NULLARBOR

My first crossing was by air in the middle 1960’s, when Shell Oil paid. [I won a competition they sponsored.]

The second time we drove: Dianne, Duncan and I in Duncan’s 1960 Holden which had bench seats. We all belonged to Lilydale Young Farmers Club, and he and I worked at the same place. We’d both got a bit disgruntled and resigned, saying we were going to Perth. When Di heard this she said to wait a week while she tossed in her job, and she’d come too.

What a trip! Our tinned and packet food was stored in the boot, with a gas ring, billy, frying pan and a cane picnic basket. Plus tools. Car fridges had yet to be invented.  ⅔ of the back seat was covered with our three suitcases stacked on top of each other. We each had a sleeping bag, and alternated the position of sleeping each night; one on the floor under the dashboard, on cushions packed either side of the transmission tunnel; one on the front bench seat, and the third one sitting up in the back … because of the suitcases on the seat. One night in three you had a decent sleep on the front seat.

Our meals were three course: the billy heated up a can of soup, while something was either grilled or ‘stir-fried’ in the frying pan, after which we had tinned fruit followed by milk coffee out of a tube when the billy boiled again. We’d spent hours working out the menu while we drove along.

There was still 600 miles of unsealed road then which we completed in one day by making a 5.00 am start and stopping for breakfast at 8.00 am; bacon and eggs that day. When we returned over the Nullarbor, we put the car on the train at Kalgoorlie, getting it off at Port Augusta, which was a common practice then. As we were driving back into Victoria at Mildura, we decided we were having too much fun to go home [none of us had jobs to go to], so headed back up to Queensland, where we’d been earlier in the year, taking a route north from Wentworth to Broken Hill, then to Wilcannia, and following the Darling River through Tilpa and Louth to Bourke, Cunnamulla, St. George and back to Kingaroy. We broke down north of Louth when it looked like it was going to rain … but that’s a story for another time.

My third time across the Nullarbor was by train … four different ones. You changed at Adelaide, Port Pirie, and Kalgoorlie [near where we are now]. Why did you change trains they ask today. Pre standard- gauge is a mystery to many. The last leg into Perth was a nightmare, with four women in the sleeping compartment, one of whom was hallucinating. Subsequent trips to Perth were by air.

   

Five years ago we drove the iconic Nullarbor road again. It’s all sealed now, and realigned in places; It goes much nearer the Coast. Roadhouses have replaced the outback pubs …. no doubt an improvement, but losing the frontier corrugated-iron uniqueness.

We’re still looking forward with anticipation to crossing it again, though, hopefully starting tomorrow.