Great Central Road NT

Hi Georgie in July this year the WA side from the Sandy Blight Rd west was in many parts better than a bituminous highway. There are now 3 sections that are sealed. Around Warburton and Tjukayirla each section is about 15km or so long.

We ended up driving the entire section from Warrakurna to Laverton in the day it was so good.

Changes month by month so we may have struck a really good period. Better off asking the question again in July/August next year.

The NT side is always notoriously atrocious.

Hi Georgie,

Have to agree with Duncan, it is a bit early to be asking about the GCR for a trip in 2020. The road is graded from time to time, and as Duncan mentioned, more of it is being sealed. We travelled the road in 2017, the area around Giles & Docker River were pretty bad, but a month later the grader was out. Better to ask again about a month out from your trip. There are also a couple of Web Sites you can look up that has this sort of information, if you google “outback road conditions” it will take you to the various State & Territory Road departments.

Macca.

We did it in early September and overall it was fine but the closer you get to the NT the rougher it gets. Allow 3 days and plan around your fuel range

As well ensure you have your permits. Ours were checked twice

Rob

I had my permits when I went east to west and they checked them at the Uluru gate before allowing me to proceed without paying.

We travelled the GCR from West to East in May this year. Our vehicle was a Ford Ranger towing a Sunland Patriot caravan.

The roads were summed up by a West Aust local before we left Leonora who stated that ".. the West builds roads and the NT grades swimming pools.' And we found that to be a fair description, with the West Aust road built up, often with a clay cap, while generally on the NT side the road was just graded dirt with the road surface lower than the surrounding countryside.

The first 100km of the road east from Leonora is travelled by heavy vehicles to and from the new Gruyere Cosmo Newbury gold mine and we found that section of road to be rougher than the sections from Cosmo Newbury east to the NT border.

With lowered tyre pressures we had no real trouble with the corrugations, generally doing about 45-60kph. We passed one road team maintaining the road in WA.

By contrast the NT section of the road especially east of Docker River was terrible with severe corrugations and it was obvious that no grader had been near the road for quite some time.

Regarding fuel it should be noted that while there are four fuel roadhouses (Tjukayiria, Warburton,Warakuma and Docker River) it is not guaranteed that all will have fuel available. On our trip there was no diesel fuel available at Warakuma and the roadhouse operator was only hopeful at best that they would be resupplied within 48 hrs. The lesson being to refuel at each availability rather than assume you will be OK until the next roadhouse.

We took three and a half days for the journey and while we had the required permits we were never queried about them

Came through 14th to 16th and found NT section a bit worse than WA. Tyre pressures and speeds down (100 series 'cruiser towing Tvan). No dramas. Watch for camels near Warburton later in the day.

Hi everyone. Thank you for your advice and information. As suggested, I'll ask again next year before we begin the trip. Cheers GeorgieM