A Road Journey to the Western Half of Australia

For some time, my son-in-law Konfir had been talking about making a road trip to Darwin – to see for himself the truck traffic between Adelaide and the capital of Northern Territory since he is also in fuel stations business. He asked if Hwa (my wife) and I would like to join him and Monica (my daughter) for the journey. He suggested that from Darwin we continue to drive westwards to Perth and even Albany. We could then leave the vehicle with his staff and fly back to Melbourne from Perth.

On the eve of my 76^th birthday, we embarked on the journey.

Our route

We geared ourselves fully – bullbars for our Toyota Prado, Starlink communication system and alternative SIM cards, first-aid and emergency medicines, plenty of biscuits and cartons of water, containers, umbrellas and shades and even face veils (to avoid doing Australian salutes!) etc.

From Melbourne to Darwin, Konfir did most of the driving, with me chipping in from time to time. However, from Darwin onwards, it was my show all the way.  

Our first night stop was Adelaide and from there we headed north. We stopped for lunch at Port Augusta and then proceeded to Coober Pedy – an opal mining town – where we spent a night in a cave hotel. Our next meal stop was Alice Springs before we put up a night in Tennant Creek. We continued to Darwin and Monica and Konfir had to fly back to Melbourne from there. We spent two nights in a Hilton Double-Tree hotel in downtown Darwin.  

Hwa and I then swung eastwards to visit Jabiru and then southwards to Katherine. We spent a night each in these two towns, which are parts of the Kakadu National Park. From Katherine we headed west to Western Australia’s Kununurra, where we visited the Ord River region, where huge agricultural schemes are now taking shape.  After two nights in Kununurra, we tracked southwards to Halls Creek. After a night there, we hit westwards again, stopping at a roadhouse at Willare for a meal before resting for two nights in Broome. There were no high-rises in Broome; the city, like Darwin, is vulnerable to cyclones. From there we headed southwest and stopped at a roadhouse at hellish Sandfire before hitting Port Hedland (1 night). A string of towns followed: Karatha, Exmout (1 night), Coral Bay, Carnavon, Denham (2 nights), Monkey Bay, Kalbarri (1 night), Geraldton (1 night), Perth (2 nights), Albany (1 night), Augusta (1 night), Margaret River and back to Perth (1 night). From Perth, we flew Jetstar back to Melbourne.

Our itinerary from Darwin (5^th April) onwards was planned by Hwa. Everything went according to plan. Not bad for a 74-year-old grandma!

We only travelled during the day, and we tried not to do more than 800 km each leg.

We were on the road for a total of 24 days and clocked 11,500 km.

I am sure many readers have visited the western coast of Western Australia. I would therefore not touch much in this ‘travelogue’ about the cities and towns from Port Hedland southwards. Exmouth, Coral Bay, Carnavon, Denham, Kalbarri, Geraldton, though isolated, are ocean-fronting tourist destinations. The Perth-Albany-Augusta triangle countrysides are as urbane and charming as you see in Victoria.

Road Conditions and Landscape
Despite the region’s remoteness, the roads are generally well-kept. In many stretches of the NT roads, they even allow a speed limit of up to 130 kph, even though some parts are really not up to scratch for that speed. In one stretch, we drove for 160 km or so without seeing any vehicle either ways. Because there are no human settlements for hundreds of kilometres on end, and hence no police presence, there is a tendency for one to often push well beyond these speed limits. Road trains – trucks hauling three or four carriages – can be intimidating, and they travel at high speeds too. Surprisingly, though, there were not that many between the Adelaide-Darwin stretch.

Many sections were designated floodways, which I just cannot imagine. Judging from the terrains, they do not appear that vulnerable to me. I am sure they are, since we were travelling during the dry season. (Creeks, which we had to cross so often, were largely dried at this time of the year.)

Once in a while, we did see wallabies but most of the time, what we saw were their carcasses, together with those of kangaroos. Our bullbars were an unnecessary investment! Birds of prey were always hovering if there were dead animals around.  and birds.

The landscape is largely Savanah – endless expanse of generally flat brownish soil and greyish vegetation (if any). Termite mounds are everywhere. There are some mountain ranges in between, but they are not spectacular.  

I did harbour some regrets for making the journey when we were doing the Broome and the Port Hedland stretch. The temperature was around 40⁰ C most of the time. If anything untoward were to happen, we would be doomed!    

The weather was kinder after Port Hedland, even then, distances between towns are still hundreds of kilometres apart, until we reached Perth. The Perth-Albany-Augusta-Margaret region is as picturesque as any region in Victoria. Half of white Aussies appeared to be on Easter holidays in resorts from Exmouth to this region. There are more caravans, many complete with fast boats, than commuter cars on the roads. They are parked like sardines in most destinations.  

Accommodation

In cities and bigger towns like Adelaide, Darwin, Broome, Perth and Albany, the hotels and the motels that we put up at are no different from those in the east coast – comfortable, clean and with good WiFi. However, maybe because of the Easter holidays, the rate for a modest motel we put up in Albany was $330 a night.

One of the "Hiltons" we put up in

Motels in Tennant Creek and Halls Creek were totally ‘outback” – built of container cabins or of the barrack type. Notwithstanding, the rates were not cheap. The one in Halls Creek, which was totally basic, charged $250 a night – a rip-off by any standard. And surprisingly, WiFi service was very weak or outright not available in some lodgings, including Mercure’s in Jabiru. 

Food and Wines
Hwa always prefers Chinese food. They were usually available; otherwise, we settled for fish and chips or fast foods.

In Darwin, we celebrated Monica’s PhD award in a wharf restaurant. The house wine we ordered was not pricy; and it was good.

In Alice Springs, we had lunch in an eatery run by Indonesians from Pontianak. In Tennant Creek, we had dinner in a restaurant run by a Sabahan Chinese. In Darwin, it was a Thai restaurant. In Kununurra, we patronized a Chinese restaurant owned by mainland Chinese. In Exmouth, we ordered fried rice from a truck stall run by an ex-Malaysian woman who hails from Penang. In Geraldton, it was Golden Dragon. And, of course, anyone can be spoilt for choice in Perth and Albany.

Margaret River is a major wine producing area. Unfortunately, I did not try any of their wines, since I had to drive.

We did not suffer from any food poisoning, which I tend to be susceptible to when eating in rural areas.

Aboriginal Australians
Northern Territory and the top-end of Western Australia are the heartlands of aboriginal Australians.

Aboriginal Australians, also known as First Nations people, are the original inhabitants of Australia. Aboriginal people consist of hundreds of distinct ‘nations and language groups.

Aboriginal Australians number about 1 million. About 76,000 of them live in Northern Territory, the total population of which is only about 250,000, hence their pronounced presence. Western Australia has about 120,000 of them.

Their presence is most pronounced in the Alice Spring, Tennant Creek, Katherine, Kununurra and Halls Creek regions. You see families in tow or individuals – largely shabbily dressed and ungroomed – loitering around. Some tried to solicit money to buy meals. Few seem to be gainfully employed. 

Chinese in Aboriginal Australia heartlands
I remember reading an essay saying Chinese are like cockroaches which can be found everywhere. One should not be surprised to see them in Aboriginal Australia’s heartlands too.

Chinese began to settle in Broome in the wake of its burgeoning pearling days in the late 19th century. There is a Chinese cemetery there; however, its Chinatown is quite insignificant. There are not too many Chinese living in this city now. Japanese are said to have left a more impactful presence in Broome, though.

What did surprise me, though, is the presence of young Chinese serving in outback towns like Tennant Creek, Kununurra, Halls Creek and even in roadhouses like Willare, where conditions are really harsh. They are apparently there on work visas. I had to take my hat off to them. Indeed, we Chinese are cockroaches; we can survive in any environment.

Was the Journey really worth the effort?
I had been to Darwin – in the early 2000s to see if it was possible to develop palm oil plantations there – and Perth before. I could still recall some of the landmarks of Darwin, but Perth, which Hwa and I visited in the early 1990s, appeared foreign to us. The city is beautiful, especially its majestic Swan River.

I wanted to see the Darwin port, which is now again a subject of contention amongst politicians in the wake of Australia’s coming federal elections. We were unable to see much and form any conclusion, since we could only reach up to the entrance of one of the wharves. The port was leased in 2012 to a Chinese party – against 32 other competing bids – for 99 years when the government was short of funds. The lease had actually been reviewed (in 2021) as a non-national security threat to Australia, yet it has again surfaced as a bogeyman. Politicians are politicians!

The few things that will usually come to our mind about this outback country are (1) Aboriginal Australians and their cave paintings, (2) “Crocodile Dundee” and (3) huge iron ore mines and the road trains. Would I do another 10,000 km trip to see them? My answer is No.

The region is full of national parks. We have not ventured deep into any of them. But we have certainly not seen anything that is truly awesome. Even the Kakadu National Park left few deep impressions in me, save for the little town of Jabiru where our hotel – the Mercure Kakadu Crocodile Hotel – is located. The town was without a single soul when we walked there in the evening.

The other part of Kakadu is in the Katherine region where we took a two-hour river cruise along the Katherine River. The heat was quite searing and the rock formation at the two stops were too rough for me to scale. In Katherine we met two Malay ladies who were doing their veterinary accreditation there.

I have been fascinated with crocodiles since I was young. But the “jumping” saltwater crocodiles we saw at the Adelaide River near Darwin and the freshwater crocodiles we occasionally encounter at the Ord River/Argyle Dam near Kununurra (where we also took a four-hour cruise) were a far cry of the type I like to see. I had also come across pictures of crocodiles perching by the side of the Ivanhoe Crossing, but I could not see any when we went there. Nonetheless, “Crocwise” signs were everywhere to warn people of their danger.

However, I did learn something new about the difference between saltwater and freshwater crocodiles. Apparently, the latter were not quite dangerous to humans – unless you blatantly offer yourself as a free meal to them.

Minerals, especially iron ores, are the backbone of this region’s economy. The Pilbara region is said to be full of huge mines. Unfortunately, they are not visible from the roads we were travelling on. But we could see trains carrying the ores before our eyes from time to time.

As one who is always interested in anthropology. The images that keep floating back into my mind are those of the Aboriginal Australians. Few have broken out to join the modern world. (We chanced upon one in Karratha who is working for the mining giant Rio Tinto there; but he is not fully ‘aboriginal’.)

They are proud of their cultural diversity. But devoid of a common leadership to instill discipline and advocate the importance of education amongst their young, what’s the future for them? (Aussies are obliged in public speeches to pay tribute to their ownership of the land, but I honestly think this is lip-service than anything substantive.)

End