The Great Central Road is the most accessible route linking the Red Centre to Western Australia and is well travelled by tourists throughout most of the year. In fact, the number of vehicles travelling the route each year is around 10,000.

The area however, is remote and the road is actually a sandy dirt track that weaves through extremely remote desert scrub country with very limited facilities and attractions for travellers. This is predominantly land occupied by aboriginal communities. It is advisable to travel in a 4WD vehicle, although a 2WD vehicle will make the trip. The track is frequently graded and it is generally ok for trailers including caravans however conditions vary from sand drifts and corrugations making driving far safer and comfortable in a 4WD vehicle.

The route also passes directly into Aboriginal communities in the Central Reserves and it is a legal requirement for travellers to hold a valid Transit Permit at the time of travel.

Part III of the AAPA Act, stipulates that transit permits are legally required for any person visiting or passing through an Aboriginal reserve unless they are of Aboriginal descent; a member of either House of Parliament of the State or of the Commonwealth; or is a person lawfully exercising a function under the AAPA Act or otherwise acting in pursuance of a duty imposed by law.

The Great Central Road actually requires 2 sets of Transit Permits because there are Aboriginal Communities on both sides of the border (NT/WA) and each state has its own Aboriginal Lands office and issues its own permits.

Permit Application Process

Permits are free, however you must complete a written application form and wait for it to be stamped and returned to you with an approval stamp. It is a legal requirement that each vehicle carries the permit during travel on Aboriginal Land.

The application forms will require the names of all persons entering the land, with a nominated principal applicant who must also give their address and phone contact details. You will also be required to provide vehicle make, model, rego number and state. Note, one permit per vehicle. You will also need to describe the specific route to be taken whilst on Aboriginal land (ie. Great Central Road) and give an estimate of dates (maximum 21 days). Finally you must provide a reason for requesting access to Aboriginal Land, eg. "holiday transit en-route from Alice Springs to Perth".

Generally, the ALT can process applications in 24 to 48 hrs and it is the experience of the ExplorOz Team that they can be processed on the same day if travel is on the Great Central Road with no deviations.

Tour of the weather station at Giles, Lasseters Cave and the numerous rockholes in the area (if you can find them!).

Fuel

OPAL unleaded fuel is now available at Warburton,Warakurna (Giles), and Docker River. This replaces AvGas (which many travellers didn't like to use) as the only fuel available for petrol vehicles to combat petrol sniffing in Aboriginal communities. Opal ULP has similar properties to AvGas to discourage sniffing and is a new product from BP.

The Warburton Mission ran from 1933 to 1973, run by William Wade and his wife. In 1961 the Dormitories closed, but the school continued to run. In 1968, due to the large population from the clearing of the Woomera rocket range, Docker River was opened. In 1975, 4 more homeland communities were developed. Tjirrkarli and Tjukurla, although smaller communities opened in the late 1980's.