Why you don't drive after sunset in the outback

I remeber one night not far from a little town called lawerance, near grafton, travelling out to mates place and we came across a herd of cattle, and hit done, road was foggy and we went really slow, but the cattle couldn't wouldn't move.

so yeah a wise move staying in camp and only leaveing in a medis\cal emergency, or life and death situation.

Its not only cattle you need to watch out for , you can just about set your watch by the roos on the road in central Qld , they leave the scrub round 4 pm to get the warmth radiating from the tar.

" Why you don't drive after sunset in the outback "


A good picture illustrating the need to .... Be careful driving after sunset.

Personally Ive found the odd wandering cow/horse and mobs of roos at night, much less concerning than the antics of motorists & pedestrians during daylight.

I doubt the road train would have worried too much about it.

And if you slow down a bit and not drive tired there is no reason why driving at night should be an issue. Mind you, I'd rather be sitting by a campfire with a favoured beverage, but if I had to I would not be too concerned with driving at night.

Very true, especially on a crest like that. I drive a fair bit at night but have good quality lights to help out. Hella 4000s converted to HID, they help out enormously.

you should be aware that an hour and 1/2 before sunset and after sunrise is the worst time, more so on extreams of temps, on very hot days all animals come out to drink just before the sun sets and likewise just after it rises ...
Coming home from work one afternoon at about 5-30/6-00ish half way between Paraburdoo and Nanutarra i hit a small roo, VERY hot day and i was only going about 100kmh ........ now it was a small roo so what??
It came out from behind a bush beside the road, it was on the "upstroke" of its jump so it's tail and feet smashed both spotties, it's body was ABOVE the top of the roo bar and landed smack bang on the windscreen in front of me, it came through taking the screen inside and landed on my chest, having both hands on the top of the streering wheel my knuckles were cut to ribbons, it hit it's head on the corner piller and broke it's neck instantly but i was plastered in blood, guts and fur and fine glass, i was wearing sunnies otherwise i probally would have lost both eyes, it was sitting on my lap wedged bettween me and the steering wheel while i tryed to stop the car and stay on the road and was thrashing around just to cap it all off ......
Sooooo dont be fooled to think it is ok to drive right up until dark as that is when most animals are hit, i now stop and take a break, wait until the sun has set well and truely and head off again, driving at night if properly prepaired is safe and fine, no need to speed as there is very few cars and so much more relaxing .......