Rail side tracks on Nullabor - from Eyre Highway

Koonalda is worth a look, interesting roadhouse/car dump on old Eyre Hwy now abandoned. Is about 30 km nth of new Hwy about 90 km west of Nullabor Roadhouse.

Hi Kate,

I drove some of those tracks from the border west around Christmas.

A blog I wrote may be of some assistance: Western Nullarbor Tracks

Cheers
Alan

If you propose to follow what was the access road along the railway line you'll find it is now restricted access.

The company with the track maintenance contract is A.R.T.C., and they do not maintain the road, because they use 'high rail' vehicles to get around.

I pulled this off this site in the section titled 'Topics - Permits':

Quote,
"The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has confirmed that the only publicly accessible parts of the access road which runs parallel to the transcontinental rail line are those parts between Kalgoorlie and Haig in Western Australia and between Kingoonya and a point a short distance west of where the recently realigned northern end of Googs Track now exits to the transcontinental rail access road in South Australia. Both of those sections remain gazetted as public roads.

It is thus illegal to travel east of Haig or essentially west of the Googs Track northern exit point utilising the rail access road. It is private property and absolutely no permits are being issued. This situation arose consequent to the corporatisation of Australian National Railways some years ago. Regrettably, there had been far too many instances of travellers breaking down, or needing help, and they were, incredibly, flagging down the trains! Management have simply barred access and will have transgressors dealt with as trespassers. The fine can be quite hefty. You have been warned!

Additionally, ARTC advise that the only places where it is legal to actually cross the rail line are at properly constructed and marked rail crossings." End of quote.

From Kal to Haig, it's a public road and it once was graded, though it's has its moments. We encountered signs saying no access some years ago to the railway access track at Haig, so we turned south to the Eyre Highway. That road was fun too.

What we saw of the access road, and that was only a few km. was a pretty rough track that hadn't been maintained since goodness knows.

Unfortunately we were a couple of years too late.