Kalgoorlie- We spent two nights in Kalgoorlie and had a small service and oil change done on the car before heading off across the central road. The main street of town is quaint and beautiful. The buildings are particularly lovely and were built at a time when thought was put into the making things look nice. We visited the best retro/vintage/second hand store called “Sassy Sues”, definitely worth a visit! There are two big supermarkets in town so we stocked up on all our supplies as well.
Kalgoorlie Super pit was worth checking out.
Lots of shingle back lizards on the road.This one was trying to frighten us away.
The Rabbit Proof Fence
Lake Ballard – After leaving Kalgoorlie we took a side trip from the town of Menzies. 50km to the west of Menzies is Lake Ballard. The Lake is a salt lake that was once part of a river system when central Australia was an inland sea. It now only has water when a cyclone moves through this part of the country – a rarity. An artist called Antony Gormley was commissioned to install an artwork on the lake comprising of 51 statues. It is titled “Inside Australia” and he refers to the statues of men, women and children as ‘insiders’.
Leonora- At Leonora we visited the ghost town of Gwalia. We loved walking around the old houses abandoned when the gold prospectors moved on to greener pastures. Herbert Hoover (former American President) even built a house here as he was the owner of a gold mine once here. The houses were all built by the individual residents of the time using materials they could find or acquire cheaply. Each building contains household items that once were commonplace in the past. It was great fun exploring the houses and buildings including the local hotel.
Laverton-380km from Kalgoorlie. We stayed at Laverton Caravan Park for the night. A nice, clean park with grass. It was great to open the camper up and set all the chairs up to dry after the heavy rain in Kalgoorlie. We needed to wait until 9am to purchase our permits from the Aboriginal Land Council. You need permits to be able to cross the Central Road.
Warburton- 550km from Laverton. Warburton Roadhouse closes at 5pm, we arrived at 4:30 due to our late start from Laverton. The campground at the roadhouse is gated at night and fully fenced. Nice hot showers, and lovely clean amenities.
Warakurna- Warakurna Roadhouse operates on Central Time even though they are positioned in W.A. We paid $2.40/litre for diesel here. The staff were very friendly and helpful.
The central road from Kalgoorlie to Warakurna is an easy drive. The road is wide and well graded and we hardly passed another car. Once you cross the border into the Northern Territory the road quality almost instantly deteriorates. It was rough and corrugated. We were glad to reach the bitumen as you near Uluru-Kata Juta National Park.
A great website to help with planning of your journey along the Great Central Road is ‘Outback Way’. There are brochures available at tourist information centres also.
We saw lots of camels on our drive across the centre as well as lots of wildflowers.
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