Balladonia to Border Village - Old Telegraph Station & Eucla Jetty

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With a few minutes to spare this morning before our scheduled departure time, Tracey decided that she should at least have a look at one of the holes on the Nullarbor Links. The ‘Skylab’ hole at Balladonia is a Par3, 175 metre hole. Tracey photographed the tee then walked along the fairway to the green to take a little bit of exercise before driving 500 kilometres today.

Tracey took the first driving shift and not far from Balladonia we found ourselves back on the 90-Mile Straight. We stopped in the first parking bay because Bernie wanted to put the drone up to take some photographs that hopefully accentuate that it is a very long, very straight section of road. Fortunately, it was not windy this morning, so Bernie flew the drone over the highway and took some photos. He landed it successfully too!

After another hour on the road (probably about 50Ks out of Caiguna?) we stopped for a driver change in a parking bay/free camping area that has to be one of the nicest on the Eyre Highway. There is a decent road that goes well in off the highway and there are treed bays for vans and picnic tables for travellers just passing through. Bernie put the drone up again hoping to take a shot that captures how green it is after the recent rain.

The desert certainly looks different from our westward journey having received so much rain while we were in the west that the Eyre Highway was closed between Norseman and Eucla due to flooding. The highway was closed for three days reopening on the 13th of March, but the damage done to the Trans-Australian rail line sees it still out of action after being closed on the 10th of March with water over the track at Rawlinna. Lucky we are driving both ways and didn’t have a plan to put the truck on the train for a return journey on the Indian Pacific!

At the eastern end of the 90-Mile Straight we pulled into the Caiguna Roadhouse. We didn’t stop at the Caiguna Roadhouse on our way west so decided to stop in to check out their facilities. Having relieved ourselves at their loos we thought it only fair to spend some $$ on morning tea. We are trying to spend money in as many places as we can and not just on fuel. Our feeling is that if travellers want these facilities to cater to their needs on the Nullarbor Plain then they need to support the businesses to ensure their survival.

Our next stop was a return visit to the Madura Lookout that looks over the Madura Pass where the Eyre Highway drops down onto the Roe Plains from the Hampton Tablelands. Bernie flew the drone one more time hoping for a photograph that will capture the demarcation between the woodlands on the Hampton Tablelands and the low scrub on the Roe Plains below. It was a bit windy here on the edge of the Madura Pass, so the drone was only up for a short period of time. Once it gave a warning about the strength of the wind Bernie brought it down very quickly!

Spreading our tourist dollars around a bit more we drove down the Madura Pass and pulled into the Madura Pass Oasis. A bit of a posh name for their roadhouse! It was ham, cheese and tomato toasties all round today.

We continued east with the Hampton Tablelands on our left and the Roe Plains on our right. The area forms part of the Nuyts Nature Reserve and continues for hundreds of kilometres. We just could not remember having the escarpment on our right for so long as we drove west. Tracey thought that was because she was probably asleep for much of it but then Bernie couldn’t remember it either??!

With another 180Ks on the odometer we drove up the Eucla Pass to arrive in Eucla. Bernie was a bit panicked initially that they had no diesel. The first diesel pump was out of order, the second diesel pump was out of order, phew the third diesel pump was good to top up the tank with 60 lites of fuel. And according to Bernie’s research 30 cents/litre cheaper than the fuel is in Border Village 12 kilometres over the border in SA!!

From the Eucla Roadhouse we drove out to the site of the Old Telegraph Station. Back in the early 1900s Eucla had a population of over 100 people and was the busiest telegraph station in Australia other than the capital cities. The Eucla Telegraph Station opened in 1877 and helped link WA with the rest of Australia and the world, sending 11,000 messages annually. Today there are just a few graffiti-covered walls partially covered by a sand dune to mark a place that was once such a hub of activity. How times move on.

From the telegraph station we slogged our way out through the dunes to the ocean to look at another ruin, this time the picturesque timbers of the old Eucla Jetty. Before the advent of the highway and the railway this too would have been a busy, busy place. Back in the day when everything was shipped in and shipped out of this remote location there would have been people, cattle, food, fuel and building materials all arriving and departing from the jetty. We waited a while for the sun to come out from behind a cloud bank but in the end had to settle for some dull photos.

We drove back out to the highway and turned right. After 12 kilometres – and nearly four weeks in the West – we crossed the border back into South Australia. Travelling eastbound it’s straight through the border without inspection. Eastbound traffic goes through the quarantine checkpoint at Ceduna. We turned right (across the queue of westbound trucks waiting to be processed through the quarantine checkpoint) and pulled into the Border Village Roadhouse where we will spend the night.

We checked in and received a confusing briefing on what time it is in Border Village. OMG, it’s so complicated having this Australian Central Western Standard Time. It’s an aberration similar to the one that exists in Broken Hill where a settlement across the border adopts the alternate time zone of another state because it is where most of their business is done. What? Anyway, I think it’s only Eucla and Border Village and maybe Mundrabilla that work to this time zone?

Anyway, after photographing True Blue Rooey out the front we made our way to our rooms. Small, but clean and tidy and perfectly suitable for a one night stay out in the boonies! With our watches, minds and tummies on completely different time zones we decided that we would head to dinner in 15 minutes.

At dinner Steve’s analogue watch was the only one that was correct having been changed manually to the right time. Steve’s watch said 7.02pm. Bernie’s and Cathy’s watches were still on WA time (45 minutes behind at 6.17pm) and Tracey’s watch had leapt ahead to SA time (1 hour and 45 minutes ahead at 8.47pm). Aaargh! We want to be on the road about 8.15am tomorrow morning BUT that could be anywhere between 7.30 and 10.00am … depending on whose timepiece is being consulted. How on earth to set an alarm? Cathy and Steve always wake with the sparrows, so we’ve asked whoever has the first shower to knock on the wall between our rooms to get us going.



Steps: 9,448 (6.33kms)

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