The prolonged closure of the Eyre Highway as bushfires raged has once again prompted calls for the development of a genuine alternative route for crossing the Nullarbor.
Hundreds of grey nomads, truckies and other travellers were recently left stranded for 12 days on either side of the South Australia and WA border as they waited for the road to be given the all-clear.
Voices calling for an upgrade to the Trans Access Road – which runs parallel along the Trans Australia Railway line from Kalgoorlie to the South Australian border – are now growing louder.
Eucla pastoralists, in the remote Nullarbor region of Western Australia, also want a link road built between the Trans Access Road to the Eyre Highway, so travellers trying to drive between WA and South Australia have an alternative route.
Mark Forrester, who runs a couple of stations near Kalgoorlie, said his family rescued several stranded tourists after the highway was closed in late December.
He told the ABC that some travellers tried to get across to South Australia via the rough four-wheel drive Trans Access track, and other station roads. He found a family of six who had been stuck for at least two days on a track near his station, with only five litres of water between them.
“It really does highlight the dangers of not having a defined and maintained link road,” he told the ABC.
The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder is hoping a new federal infrastructure program could provide essential funds for these Nullarbor roads.
The chief executive of WA trucking group Western Roads Federation, Cam Dumesny, said it would also be lobbying for more Outback roads to be upgraded and sealed. These include the Great Central Highway (which connects Laverton in WA to Yulara in the Northern Territory) along with the Tanami Road, which was further north and also connected the Northern Territory to WA’s Great Northern Highway.
Instead of duplicating a road that’s already there, why not accelerate the sealing of the Great Inland way through Kalgoorlie/Laverton/Uluru? Sure, it’s a thousand k’s longer, but there are already plans to do this in the long term. 1 to 2 extra days travel is a lot better than sitting on your bum going nowhere for 3 weeks.
Totally agree. If they wasted money on duplication nearby then it could possibly be caught up in similar events simultaneously and have 2 roads blocked.
Yes I too support the upgrading and sealing of these roads . !st priority would be sealing the Great Central and dump the permit system on it.
I have traversed this road several times towing and if one takes precautions then all is well. However sealing it would make it one of those precious drives like the great ocean road. So get off your butt federal government and look after Australians first.
Where’s the sense of adventure gone? Every road has to be sealed?? At least the current gravel/dirt roads prevent too many people travelling in areas of severe climate where temperatures reach into the 50s during summer. We (Telstra staff) used to strike people who must have been GNs in the 80s coming to grief in the heat on the then sealed Eyre Highway.