Travel permit?

Travelling over to the west.....your going back in time so you should be OK!....sorry.

Hi Odog

I have just received our travel permit for the GCR and point 3 on the permit states - If your travel plans have changed significantly, your travel dates may be adjusted by contacting the Permits Officer (08) 6551 8000 or 1300 651 077
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about a few days, or a week.

Just don't do it..
West of the border for 1000km there is a lawless anarchist land. This is not laid back south west qld. The Cops will laugh at your indiscretions.

You go through without a valid permit you will be roped up, your car stolen or burnt and your wife will be taken away. They may just leave you up the tree, or force you out into the bush to fend for yourself with the dingoes.

You have to play by the rules over this way - please, please don't travel on an out of date permit

We've just travelled for seven weeks on tracks in the west, requiring a total of six permits. At no point were we asked to show the permit, even when in company with local rangers.
However, so long as you have done the right thing and actually purchased all required permits and have them to show, I am sure that having to adjust your travel plans by a day or two would not cause any problems.
Enjoy your trip.

No need to organise your W.A. permit a month ahead, most of the populated places in the NT have satisfactory internet connections - you apply online a few days before you reach the border, and you will have them in time.
The time between application and receipt of a transit permit is rarely longer than 48 hrs, and mostly within 24 hrs.

Personally, I think the 3 days maximum allowance for transit through the GCR is BS, but that's the way the W.A. bureaucrats in the Dept of Aboriginal Affairs operate.

Fortunately, when I went through the GCR, I was in a hurry, so the transit time limit wasn't of concern to me. If I was travelling in a relaxed manner, though, it would be nice to have a week to do the trip.

Further good advice is to take extra fuel and water above your requirements, because you are bound to run into Aboriginals who will hail you for supplies of both, such is their lack of planning ability.

One bloke in a Barina with a shredded tyre, stopped in the middle of the road West of Docker River, had no wheelbrace, no petrol, and no water - and it was 38 deg!
I gave him about 10 litres of Opal and I nearly ran short myself because of higher fuel consumption than planned, and a tight limit on the amount of extra fuel I'd carried.

Cheers, Ron.

You can use a fax service (small fee to send and receive) from the Yulara Visitor Centre to the Ngaanyatjarra Office in Alice Springs to update or re-apply for your WA permit - allow one working day. With a three day window, organising when in Alice Springs a few weeks before was too much of a guessing game.

The permit from the CLC office in Alice Springs had a travel window of three weeks. We got one, then it looked like we would take longer to get to Yulara so got another, so had a span of six weeks.

Thank you for all the replies, I don't know how this couple got on, but she was in a panic... sounds like it would be a great way to go, next time I head over to Perth.. thanks again.. cheers Odog