Scores of grey nomads were among the hundreds of travellers stranded in remote Western Australia as a bushfire swept across the Nullarbor, forcing the closure of the Eyre Highway between Caiguna Roadhouse and Madura.
According to WA Today, many of the grey nomads, truckies and other long-haul travellers were trapped between roadblocks 170 kilometres apart.
Firefighters have been fighting to control the blaze since it was sparked last Friday by a lightning strike about 20 kilometres south of Cocklebiddy. It was finally downgraded to a ‘watch and act’ late yesterday afternoon shortly before the highway was reopened.
However, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services has advised motorists to avoid the area if possible, reduce speed and drive carefully due to smoke. The fire originally started in the Nuytsland Nature Reserve in the vicinity of the Tommy Graham Cave and all roads and tracks within the reserve remain closed.
One of the travellers who was stranded at the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse, Andrew Ivey, told WA Today it had been like driving into a thunderstorm.
“It looked like a thunderstorm cloud, but it was obviously smoke not a cloud, but it had that real thunderstorm look about it,” he said. “There were a couple of people that actually drove through it right at the last moment … the fire wasn’t across the road but it was pretty hairy, they could hardly see, their visibility was so low.”
· Were you caught up in the Nullarbor drama? Comment below
