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Tanami | East Kimberley | North Kimberley | Broome Region | East Pilbara

This is a 51-day personal trip diary of the recent ExplorOz field research trip. On this journey we have done a number of things - including road testing new equipment/accessories along with recording GPS track files and new track information for adding to the Trek Notes on ExplorOz.com This has also been a our first trip with a baby, who was just 8-9mths old and crawling. From these experiences, we will add new content in Trip Preparation regarding travelling with babies.

So sit back, and enjoy your armchair travels from Perth - Alice Springs (via the Gunbarrell Hwy) then up the Tanami Track to Halls Creek, further north to Wyndham and then along the Gibb River and Kalumburu Roads into Mitchell Falls and Kalumburu and then further west to Broome before tracking south through the East Pilbara back towards Perth.

GUNBARREL HWY TRIP DIARY
DAYS 1 - 9

Heading out of Perth today was a major relief – after months of vehicle preparation (yet again) and some hiccups that delayed our departure by 3 days, we were craving the “leave it all behind” aspect of departing on a long trip. Probably the most difficult and frustrating part of our trip preparation has been the equipment supply from manufacturers and advertisers. Although we have spent the last 12mths carefully selecting our choice of equipment, the whole process of negotiating with suppliers and coordinating delivery, installation and associated promotion has been painstakingly slow and laborious.

In the end, some critical items were not received in time for installation more than 1 week before our departure. So, this 8 week trip will be our first real test-run with this vehicle set-up! Not exactly what we’d planned, but the formula is much the same with each vehicle and we’ve done this more than a few times now. Does it get better each time? Not necessarily – there’s no real “right” set-up that can account for individual differences and preferences and even the same people will enjoy using a different set-up just to experience a different way of “living”.

Our lunch stop today in Dalwallinu on the Great Northern Highway was our first opportunity to put the food and utensil storage to the test. The “Roller Drawers” came up a winner! Two days before we left home, I realised I needed a way to make access to the gear in the drawers easier so I had David build 3 wooden boxes from 3ply with cut-outs for handles. We have the utensils and condiments in the front drawer with a few days worth of tins, packets and lunch items in the 2^nd drawer and the 3^rd drawer, which needs to be slid forward to access, is tightly packed with Tupperware “Modular Mates” with flour, sugar, rice, couscous, dried soup mix, various dried fruits, baby cereal etc. For the two of us and our baby, we have all our foodstuffs and utensils in one drawer, with long-term food storage in one large fisherman’s tub stacked on top. This contains tins, UHT milk, juices, packets, nappies etc as stores to reduce cost and to increase bush camping range. The second roller drawer contains all the recovery gear and tools – and is very heavy!

 We had planned to stop overnight in Paynes Find, although I’d never heard of it – but had read it as a stopover on someone else's website – bad move! I can now advise 2 options for bush camps - 24km south of Paynes Find is a really great bush camp site with toilets, bins, water etc. Paynes Find is 144km south of Mt Magnet where there is a great little caravan park or you can continue another 8km north to another great bush camp called “The Granites” – beautiful views. It is well signposted on the RHS – we’ll stop there on the way back home. Taking the needs of a little baby into consideration has altered our habitual methods of travelling and camping and being our first day we opted for the caravan park. With an overnight temperature of just 6 degrees I was keen to get her into a warm bath after crawling around in the dust at our lunch and various stops. Just for comparison sake, I’ll take note here that we payed $8.80 for our unpowered campsite – on lush grass. We were quite impressed with our ability to set-up camp in just 30 minutes and had chicken burritos for dinner, washed up, put Leah to bed and all ready for bed by 8pm.

It was a very cold night after quite a warm day. It had been quite a scenic drive, quite similar to NT with rocky outcrops, ranges and plains of scrub. Saw lots of goats, roos, emus, feral cats once we crossed over the vermin proof fence/grid. There are also plenty of farm stay accommodation at homesteads along the way that we could look into for advertising on EO. Most of the area is heavily mined, mostly gold.  Had to dress Leah in 2 layers – a warm fluffy coverall suit plus her polar fleece sleeping bag with a blanket over the top and another cotton blanket hung over the mesh side of the portable cot to block out the cold draft.

So far, travelling to plan and Leah is settling in – dropping off to sleep about 15mins into the morning trip, and then again after our lunch stop meaning she is still on her usual routine of 2 daytime naps and is coping extremely well.

Found a good bush camp 15km north of Cue on RHS (blue lake, bush camp with shady trees).

Meekatharra had Telstra mobile phone service. We stopped here for lunch, refuelling and since there was a Woolies a small restock of things like fresh meat, fruit and veg. They even had meat pre-cryovaked. We found our fuel consumption to be much higher than we’d planned and decided to drive more economically – ie at 95km/hr rather than 110km/hr. The first day and a half of driving at 110km/hr used 140L of diesel over 750km. We expect to get a range of about 1300 out of that 140L. The 170L tank also seems to have a residual of about 30L that we cannot use – unless we siphon it out. So we’re going to monitor that some more.

We turned off the highway at 1.30 and made the trip from Meekatharra to Wiluna in just 2hrs 15mins. This was the first dirt road of the trip and it was just graded making travel fast and easy. Found an ideal bush camp 25km west (before) Wiluna on RHS – a grove of trees by the river, 22minutes from town. We continued on however as we’d forgotten Spinifex mesh for the radiator and wanted to pick some up at the general store if possible as we didn’t think they’d be open tomorrow – Sunday. Town was closed however and after talking to other travellers who’d just come off the Gunbarrell Hwy they said we didn’t need it.

The only camping option in Wiluna is behind the pub. $8 will get you a pretty rough camp but fresh water on tap, grass, and hot showers and laundry. The locals can get a bit loud with their partying and you will most likely be approached by hawkers wanting to sell you paintings or spears. We camped there with just 2 other cars. Probably the most striking thing about Wiluna is the night sky.

Not yet the official Gunbarrell Highway but it feels like it. No cars in sight, desert country scrub and red dirt roads. The track out of town is about 7m wide, flat, hard and only slightly corrugated. About 50km on the road gets a little narrower, but still about 5m wide. Also a little rougher with loose gravel but still no worries at all.

Early lunch stop at Yelma – ruins of cattle yard with working windmill – water pumping out into tank and overflowing onto ground. Banjo Creek flowing, but not over road. Lots of birds, emus, bustards etc. Wongawol Creek – another great camp site.

Crests and dips between Princess Ranges and the first requirement for varying travelling speed due to conditions ie. Down to 80km/hr. Many eagles in the area. Had a tyre blowout here – new tyre (Cooper ST) only done 1000km should be covered under warranty as there was no stake or evidence of picking up a puncture. The actual hole was a blowout along the running edge of the tread that had just torn open. Running pressures are 35psi (265/7.05 R16) standard GXL Toyota 80 series rims. Unfortunately had to put on the spare – a Grandtrek, but at least it is new.

While David was doing the tyre change I entertained Leah and gave her a breastfeed under a tree in the scrub, constantly on the lookout for snakes as the whole area was quite overgrown. She seems content however to stay on the picnic rug.

Pulled into camp at Harry Johnsons Water at 3.30pm its about as late as we can go with Leah as she starts to grizzle and carry on around then.

Harry Johnson Water is a near permanent waterhole named after the Surveyor General of WA in 1896. It is also known as Mingol Camp because it was also discovered by another surveyor a little later. The original stockcamp and yards is on Wongawol Station and we didn’t realise at the time that we were not meant to camp there. There was plenty of evidence of other recent campers and I had been told about it on numerous occasions by other travellers, including those we meant back in Wiluna. We put our yabbie pots in the waterhole and got nothing but a turtle. The waterhole was attractive to a huge range of birdlife, with Leah taking particular delight in the tweep tweeps of the budgies, galahs and rosellas. And with probably the best night sky we’ve ever seen it rates as one of the most memorable camps we’ve had – made all the better by the fact that it was our first with our baby.

Yesterday’s blowout needed to be removed from the rim and our spare rubber put onto that rim as our next spare wheel. The early sunrise, around 6am and a little baby wanting to get up meant that we were able to do our maintenance and lift camp by 10.15am. Leah screamed for a lot of this time however as she is teething quite ferociously. When we left home she had 4 teeth, 2 bottom and the top 2 “fangs” not the very front ones. But now we see the very front right coming down and the other cutting just after it.

We made Carnegie for an early lunch and refuelling stop. Our fuel consumption was as follows:

126L used between Meekatharra – Carnegie (?kms).

Fuel at Carnegie was $1.30, which is actually cheaper than at the Warakurna Roadhouse in Giles, even though that is on the main road. Carnegie get their fuel from Geraldton however.

Pam at Carnegie told us that engineers are out surveying to re-route the Gunbarrel from Wiluna to Carnegie to avoid low lying areas and also that there is currently a native title grab on Carnegie and the surrounding area!

There were 3 other travellers at Carnegie when we arrived, but we haven’t seen one traveller on the road yet. All 3 had come from the east – west, and travelling in the opposite direction to us. Conditions reported from them were varied, as always, depending on the person’s frame of reference. For example, Pam told us the next 200km east of Carnegie is good going, however one of the groups told us that it had taken them 3hrs to cover just 100km. So, we just headed out to find out for ourselves.

The track definitely deteriorates immediately east of Carnegie but as Pam said it was pretty good and we were travelling at a constant 70 – 80km/hr.

Views of Mt William Lambert are great.

Arrived at Mingili Claypan quite late – just on sunset by the time we’d driven the diversion track around the flooded section and selected a camp. The claypan in flood is quite interesting with lots of rosellas, budgies and galahs again but most interesting were the red-legged swamp hens living in the flooded bushes along the track. Another very cold night but no mossies.

We phoned Linda this morning on the Radphone to get her to arrange a tyre for us to pick up in Alice Springs. We didn’t want to take our chances on the right tyre size/type being available on the only day we’d be there. We bought our Coopers tyres from Richard’s Tyrepower in Osborne Park, Perth so Linda only had to ring him. Coopers offer a written guarantee for 80,000km on the ST tyres we bought and we felt it must have been a faulty tyre to not have held up the last 5 days (they were only fitted a few days before we left). 

We eventually lifted camp at 9.23am. Just one hour, 53km later we made Geraldton Bore – an excellent campsite. There is fresh drinking water at the bottom of the bore but you need to take your own string/twine etc to reach it. Water Depth 16m. New Bore Depth 42m cased. At the 78.8km mark from the claypan are some more possible camps and after 85km you meet Everard Junction but there is not a tree or clearing in site suitable for camping. We sat right on the junction with our picnic rug and had cruskits and cheese for lunch.

It was here we encountered a convoy of 2 vehicles – the first we’d seen since leaving Wiluna. They told of rough conditions and great wildflowers heading east.

9km past the junction we came across great views of Mt Gordon so we stopped for photography and a walk. There are great camps at the base of the mountain and wheel tracks to the top, which is pretty lazy and unthoughtful as driving on the mountain will just cause undue erosion. There are actually 2 small mountains together so an overnight camp and a walk to both would be ideal, however we needed to keep moving.

From here on we found amass of wildflowers. It took us about an hour and a half to make the journey from Everard Junction to Mt Beadell and Monument and we set camp just 6km further on at Camp Beadell. As we stepped out of the car we heard a distinctive “hissing” coming from the front left tyre – we had staked it coming into camp by picking up a wood chip. There was little choice other than to perform a puncture repair using our kit from Tyre Pliers. It was only a small hole but just outside the tread on the sidewall. Another Coopers hit the dust! If that repair didn’t hold we’d have to use our last spare before we’d hardly begun the Gunbarrell. There was a lot of rough conditions ahead of us so we weren’t’ too pleased.

We also had to contend with an over-inquisitive dingo prowling the camp. He kept coming back, each time a little closer and the Azaria stories in our minds, whatever our beliefs, encouraged us to keep a light on the tent while Leah slept with our chairs facing it and hurled stones at the dingo every time we came back. We suspect that other campers have been feeding him as it was not only game, but very healthy looking.

The puncture repair hadn’t held so we had no option but to use our second spare – so after yet another morning of tyre repairs. We had 2 nice new Coopers ST on the drivers side and a never used Grandtrek and a nearly bald Pirelli Scorpion ST on the near side. We rang Linda again on the Radphone and was happy to hear that she had arranged for a tyre to be available in Alice Springs for us on Friday, although we expected to arrive on the Saturday.

We finally lifted camp at 9.40am and made our way to the next bore camp, near Thryptomere Hill, which had a pump! We stopped for photos and to operate the pump. The Spinifex by the side of the track was as high as the bonnet and it not only felt remote but the whole area looked very unused. There were camps here but not as nice as at the next bore pump further on opposite the Len Beadell Tree. Immediately opposite the tree is a long track - we started to walk along it but it went for about 2km so we headed back for the car and drove down the back to find the pump. The water was clear and fresh so we all had a wash and topped up our water bottles.

Just ahead we came across the rear end of what looked like a gypsy-wagon with 2 camels in tow and 6 pulling it. The track was narrow and washed out so we had to follow at 5km/hr until a place to pass appeared. The girl driver wove us on so we continued without conversation but then came upon a 5tonne, 2wd Hino truck stopped in the middle of the track. I went up to his window and the driver nearly jumped out of his skin. We stopped to chat and heard their story and they heard ours. We sat on the red earth track and shared our lunchtime together.

We’re finding the details on the Hema Great Desert Tracks digital maps to be excellent and accurate and found the Gnamma rockholes and average camps nearby. If coming from the west all you see is a silver tin sign hanging on a tree.

This final section of the Gunbarrell to the Heather Highway Junction (Mt Samuel) was full of wildflowers but quite washed out. If conditions were wet it wouldn’t be fun, but for us it was very dry and easy to take diversion tracks. The section between the Heather Hwy and Warburton Road junctions was probably the slowest going of the entire trip with the very worst washouts slowing travelling to around 15km/hr. At Jackie Junction we stopped for photos but there was no suitable camp clearing so we took the left turn to begin the abandoned section of the Gunbarrel Highway and to find a campsite.

After about 30-40kms we still couldn’t find a clearing and had to settle for a patch of gibber and Spinifex in a burnt out clearing. This section of track was incredibly easy-going, travelling at 80-90kms/hr comfortably on a recently graded and wide track.

The graded track only lasted until we reached “Mipultjarra Junction” the turnoff to an aboriginal community. At this junction we were 157km from Warburton, although we didn’t go there, and 187km from Warakurna Roadhouse/Giles.

This junction has a fairly decent spot for a camp if you need it – probably the only clearing along the whole route from Jackie Junction.

Not far from the junction we read a sign “Million Dollar Corner” but have no idea what it referred to. We then started to look for Blaze Marks as positioned on our digital maps. BM401 just didn’t seem to exist as its GPS position put it right in the middle of a burnt-out area.

We stopped for lunch at the 2^nd of the Len Beadell plaques and met up with a convoy of 2 vehicles who had just done the Simpson and were now doing the full stretch of Gunbarrel and then up to do the Canning. They were running on CST and we were still on WST. Giles is also CST so we made our time change then.

From the second Len Beadell plaque into Giles was definitely the most scenic yet slowest of the abandoned section, taking us 2 hrs to get to Giles. We were too late for a tour of the weather station and had to camp at the back of the Roadhouse. It was our dampest and dirtiest camp and Leah cried for hours – teething? Cold? I also think she is fretting a little bit about the constant change of environment. I thought I was doing the right thing giving her a lovely long warm bath but the second I took her out she screamed and didn’t really stop for about 2 hrs. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only campers so I’m sure we were popular neighbours! I can’t believe we’ve become the people we detest at campgrounds!

We had tried to call the Giles weather station using our Telstra Radphone service through our Barrett HF radio in the car but couldn’t get a clear channel. The lady at the roadhouse had also tried for us but couldn’t reach them. In the end we decided to just drive up and walk in – knowing that they would be there. We timed it nicely, as the balloon goes up at 8.45am, and we arrived at 8.30am. The station is manned by 3 men, with just one engineer and an operator on duty while we were there. It is definitely worthwhile if only to get a better understanding of what goes on “behind the scenes” in the weather world. We seemed to befriend the engineer who conducted the tour and he very kindly told us some local secret campsites that we agreed not to disclose on ExplorOz.com

Giles to Yulara was an easy and surprisingly scenic drive through Docker River. We saw the first evidence of recent rains with some washouts, ponded water and even water in the river alongside Lasseters Cave. Contrary to most maps, camping is no longer permitted at the Cave, nor anywhere along the route between Giles and Yulara other than at the one designated aboriginal bush camp. Fees are $5 per person over 5yo, but it is an honesty system. A sign in the information shelter says “you maybe approached by locals bartering their art… please take advantage of this as you are cutting out the middle man and can get good quality art at good prices…” We didn’t get to see any of the art but when we swung by the Docker River community I was very impressed by the quality of the paintings I did see in town.

The drive from Docker River onwards is really very beautiful with the Scherwin Mural Crescent and Walter Samuel Ranges leading the whole way until you see the distinctive afternoon purple hues over Kata Tjuta.

We have a secret camping spot that we found in Xmas 1999 just past Yulara but with a baby and a setting sun we didn’t’ quite make it and settled instead to sleep with the masses at the Yulara Camping Ground on a lush piece of grass that costs us $24.50 for an unpowered site that we couldn’t get our car onto. It was cold and damp but the showers were sensational.

A long driving day on bitumen. Our fuel consumption from Carnegie to Alice Springs was 252.63L over 1580km, which equates to 12.5L per 100km – 4.2L diesel 80 series Toyota Landcruiser weighing 3700kg fully loaded.

We have been contacting the Jacka’s (my parents) every few days on the Radphone or selcalling via the 4WD radio network to see whether we can meet up in Alice Springs. They have spent the last few days at Ross River Homestead after coming from Sydney via Longreach, Boulia and across the Plenty Highway.

As we pulled into Alice and had mobile phone service we phoned them and discovered we were in the same street! We met up and checked into our camping ground for 2 nights to allow time for washing, shopping and tyre repairs/replacements.

Our setups are almost identical with Roller Drawers, Rhino Roof Racks, Bushranger Rack Sacks, Barrett HF radios (both using Telstra Radphone RDD service and AN4WDRN) and both carrying a GPS and two laptops each. 

Like us, Colin has one computer for work and one for interfacing with the GPS. We both run the Auslig Raster maps on CD and we are beta-testing Hema’s new Great Desert Tracks Map on CD. 

Colin and Sandy are using a Southern Cross centre-pole tent, although they’re replaced the centre-pole with a square-frame to enable side-by-side sleeping. We have our old faithful tent that has come around Australia with us since 1997. It’s a Nomad canvas van-tent, which enables us to leave our rear doors open into the back of the tent whilst in camp and to drive off for day trips. It makes getting to the back of the car very easy and because you can leave the doors open all night undercover, even in rain, means you don’t have to constantly put everything away. We also have a second tent, a small mesh dome tent for hotter weather or as a baby-safe crawling pen. The Jacka’s also have a second tent, a quick erect dome tent.