The sealing of Outback Way has taken another giant leap forward with the completion of a major upgrade between Winton and Boulia.
The iconic route – sometimes described as Australia’s Route 66 – carves a well-worn 2700km track from Winton in Queensland to Laverton in WA>
The progressive sealing of the Outback Way is part of the Australian Government’s $330 million investment to improve the road for tourists and truckies.
Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia, David Littleproud, said the sealing and widening on the newly improved section would increase connectivity and reduce travel times … as well as as improving access for remote and Indigenous communities to health and social services.
The next phase of the ambitious roads plan will see $24 million worth of upgrades on Richmond-Winton Road.
Queensland Assistant Regional Roads Minister Bruce Saunders said the Outback Way works were progressively delivered across five projects since 2018.
“The final project sealed 25 kilometres between Boulia and Tobermorey and means collectively, the projects paved and sealed 43 kilometres of the Outback Way and widened more than 24 kilometres,” he said. “That makes a huge difference for locals and businesses moving freight because they know there is a safer and more dependable stretch of road between Winton and Boulia.”
The Australian Government contributed more than $21 million to deliver the five projects, with the Queensland Government committing about $3.6 million and Boulia Shire Council about $1.6 million.
is it going to be single lane? when is it planned to be opened? thank you
Subscribe to their newsletter Very informative Anticipated completion date is 2026/27
Most definitely will travel it if completed in my lifetime
You can do it now.Done it twice in 4 years with ordinary van.The road was great from Docker River to Laverton
I surely would love to travel it all the way to WA
Hi alan,also from w.a.
Not done it yet. But will do so now a lot of it is sealed.
WA side has approx 1,100 k’s unsealed and very corrugated, so the few k’s sealed in Qld barely scratch the surface on the full lenght journey.
10 years ago approx, I travelled west to east on this “track”. It was reasonable, but gravel, on the section between The Alice to Tobermory but then degenerated to a crap track (Donohue) to Winton. Any works to seal and widen should be welcome.
Amazing. Just a godsend out in the outback. We have been there. But bitumen so good to travel on. Congratulations to all concerned. God bless the outback workers.
So how much of it is actually sealed? We are used to Gov over promise and under deliver!
A bit more detail on how much and where the sealed sections are, and also condition of the unsealed sections would be useful. I appreciate that the condition of unsealed roads varies greatly at short notice, but it is difficult to get a useful road condition report for any of our outback roads
We will join the crowd to do it when it is sealed. Can’t wait.
It would be interesting. If I have the time, I would like to do it.
Just back from Flinders Rangers with now the road from Hawker up to Marree black tar which looses a little of I am in the outback challenge but must be so good for the locals
I’m in the planning stages of doing that trip next year – depending on COVID of course
Was in N.T./Queensland in 1995.
Everybody then was wanting it.BRING IT ON.
yes we have travelled it all in several trips not all in one go and enjoyed it dirt road and all..
Count us in!
Loved the Plenty Highway a few years ago. Drove Winton to Boulia in May 2021 – we enjoyed it again. If the Outback Way is Winton to Laverton, why are they talking about an upgrade Richmond to Winton?
I left from Kalgoola and drove Laverton to Alice and Winton to Boulia just not the bit in the middle Alice to Winton. i did this first park in 2007 and from Laverton to Yaula was not tar. Think i did the rest in 2010 and from Birdsville to Boulia was not tared either and was mostly flooded. Great trip
We did the Laverton to Alice in 1978 and it was mostly only a dirt track and did the Boulia -Winton in 2017. There is a lot of road in-between and a lot to get the WA end sealed. Unfortunately I don’t think it will be sealed in our lifetime.
Have tried to do this trip on two occasions but both were aborted.The first due to health issues and the second as a result of uncertainty caused by Covid.
Doing it unsealed was my wish!
Unsealed is the go it’s called a adventure. I love the dust flys and coragates it’s part of oz
Unsealed is the go it’s called a adventure. I love the dust flys and coragates it’s part of oz
We drove the Great Outback Way during late May and early June this year.
It was good bitumen on the Queensland end with about 90 kms of dirt to the Tobermorey Station in the NT (this was a fabulous place to stop over). I have read that this 90kms of dirt has now been sealed.
The Plenty Highway in the NT had 330kms of dirt road – some not bad and some not so good. Then bitumen to the Stuart Highway, to Alice Springs and to Yulara.
From Yulara to the WA border we had about 50kms of bitumen.
In WA the trip to Laverton took us 2.5 days with 2 stops for the night.
There were some patches of bitumen totalling about 155kms. The rest was a total of about 755 kms of dirt road, and it varied a lot.
We had one puncture and some damaged pipes under a caravan, all fixable in Alice Springs.
We enjoyed the scenery, seeing lots of birds but very little wildlife – possibly because there had been a lot of rain in that area several weeks prior to our travel.
Hi Tom. We are planning on doing the same run as you except we will be going from West to East direction. I read with interest that you towed your van. We will be towing our Off Road vans which we have towed on various off road trips including Gibb River, Lorella Springs etc. I am interested in your opinion of the road conditions from Alice to Boulia and whether or not it is worse /better than Laverton to Alice. I appreciate your response if you have the time. Cheers. Brian