Another stretch of the Plenty Highway in Central Australia has been sealed, improving access for grey nomads and truckies, as well as those living in adjacent communities.
The newly sealed section extends from three kilometres west of the Plenty River to the Lucy Creek access road turn-off, including access to the Jervois Station Roadhouse.
Its completion brings the total length of dual-lane sealed road along the Plenty Highway to 155 kilometres.
The Plenty Highway is a 499-kilometre highway connecting the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory to the Donohue Highway at the Queensland border.
The remote Plenty Highway will eventually be fully sealed. PIC: NT Government
It forms a key part of the Outback Way, a 2,720-kilometre route connecting Laverton in Western Australia to Winton in Queensland via Alice Springs.
The 27-kilometre section forms part of the Plenty Highway project being delivered under the $217.5 million ‘Outback Way Corridor Upgrade – NT Project’.
It is said the broader program will deliver safer and more reliable journeys by widening 80 kilometres of single-lane sections of the Plenty Highway to a dual-lane seal.
Federal Member for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, was thrilled that another big step forward had been taken.
“This milestone is another step forward in fully sealing the Plenty Highway, which will build equity for the bush, boost local tourism and ensure remote Australians are connected to the rest of the country through safer, more resilient roads,” she said. “Connecting the bush through modern, upgraded road infrastructure, unlocks real economic opportunities for central Australia which creates local jobs, reduces freight costs, and ensures our remote industries keep moving safely all year.”
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As someone who has lived and worked off and on in the bush over the course of a lifetime all I can say is, it’s about time. Everyone who thinks that travelling the corrugations and bull dust is an adventure obviously only does it occasionally before heading home to suburbia.
Bring it on, and quickly seal through toLaverton WA
Oh yeah.
Ahh the Plenty. We’ve done it twice. The first trip towing our then big van we got a puncture, rear tyre on the Colorado, I had to disconnect the van to get the spare out, an hour later we were on our way. Though we had plenty of fuel we decided to fill up at Jervois Station, we got more rust than fuel. 50kms down the road the car went into limp mode but we made it to Alice. We swore we would never take that route again but we did.
The second trip as another adventure, everything was going great until we stopped for a break and have coffee & lunch. My wife opened the door of the van and screamed. The fridge had walked out of it’s mountings, the door had come off and everything was just a mess on the floor. But the worst has it had broken Ammonia gas line (3 way fridge). It took a few hours to clear and clean. Again we made it Alice, the Insurance gave us a new fridge.
So never ever again will we take the Plenty until it is fully sealed.
Sorry Tom those issues sound a bit rough. Yes i would love to do that route but as mentioned by Tom and Greg, who in their right mind would want to destroy a van and possibly the tug as well . Possibly one problem would be good quality fuel that has not sat in the below ground tank for months on end.
The sealing of these remote roads is a godsend for these small communities and property owners. Not only do they rely on these roads for supplies etc but also to get cattle etc to market. After all the Queensland government many years ago built and improved the outback roads (development roads) with the aim of improving the access for the isolated remote properties.
We have travelled the Plenty, Birdsville Track,Tanami,Oodnadatta and the Gibb River Road with swags or tents in a 4wd without any problems early in our travelling life. We recently tackled the Great Central towing 19ft van with only minor damage. They were all an adventure and we are grateful we had the opportunity to do them before they are sealed. But as grey nomads with a van we would love to do them again but fear we may have used up all our dirt road luck. Bring on the sealing.
Of course these road need sealing, especially for those that live and work there, but it will forever change these places…..no more a challenge, or adventure….just a road trip, bringing big numbers of tourists of a different nature….ah, progress….!!
Spending millions of dollars sealing rural roads that are only used by 3 people a year is a waste of money. The plenty highway was a better road in dirt form than most sealed roads in Queensland.
Fix the roads that a majority travel on, like the potholed death trap Bruce Hyway.
I bit there are more accidents on the Bruce in a day than in a year on the Plenty!
They are fixing it
By the sounds,you have never ,worked lived or had to get stock and supplies in and out along these roads ,they were originaly put in there for that purpose not for the few tourist that have an adventure out their.There is a lot more out there then the 2 or 3 tourist , using these roads, people depend on these (highways) for their work and buisness survival.
Conflicted views, firstly l get it for those that use the road for their lives and they should have a road as good as possible for the area but secondly its sad for those seeking an adventure in the rough and not wanting to be incased in cottonwool like most Australians. It would be great if there could be areas along the way where those wanting a bit of rough and tumble could divert from the tar.
When it’s sealed, I will travel on it.
Carry enough fuel so you can travel the whole length without having to top up in remote Roadhouses.
Opens it up for fracking gas.
For those of us that travelled these “tracks” at their worst I certainly appreciated the newly sealed sections of the Tanamai and from memory the worst part of the aplenty Highway was around Jervois .