The Big One: The Complete Circuit of Australia

Barry and Margaret Williamson

The following article was written for the MMM (Motorhome Motorcaravan Monthly) magazine in the UK. It is due to be published in the summer of 2005. The article describes a 6-month, 16,500-mile journey right round the Australian continent - the Big One!

For a map of the journey, click here.

Introduction

Many people in this far-off country dream of retirement, becoming Grey Nomads and setting out on The Big One. Among other things, they need a campervan or caravan, up to 2 years of their time, cards for EFTPOS and the AA/RAC, factor 30 suncream, a big hat, filter jug and large map. Their campervans have to have names like Coast-Away, Itchy-Feet, Break-A-Way, Scampervan and Yukan II.

What is The Big One? It's the complete circuit of 3 million of the flattest, emptiest and driest square miles on earth – Australia, over 4/5th the size of the USA.

We first learned about The Big One in 2000 when we cycled 3,000 miles across Australia from Perth to Brisbane. We immediately decided to return and buy a small campervan! Route planning was easy – just keep as near the Pacific and Indian Oceans as possible and see if you can touch the Gulf of Carpentaria! There are only 2 surfaced roads across Australia, so it's out on one and back on the other, and only one road along the west coast.

The big decision is how to fit in the one road up the middle – Port Augusta to Darwin via Alice Springs (and not much else). We did it in 2 parts: a foray from the south as far as Coober Pedy, and one from the north down to Ayers Rock and back, missing about 350 miles in between. Some travellers do a figure of eight and others divide The Big One into 2 halves – an eastern and then a western circle - but that's cheating.

The next decision is which way round to travel. Most go anti-clockwise, claiming the prevailing winds do the same. Setting off from Brisbane in early April, we drove clockwise so that we were in the south before it got too cold and in the north in September, well before the wet season. Somehow, we also avoided Australia's notorious fly, snake and mosquito population.

We averaged about 100 miles a day, covered 16,500 miles (or 26,400 klicks as a true-blue, dinky-di, Aussie bloke would say) and stayed in 123 different places. The shortest distance round is about 11,500 miles, avoiding side-trips, but give it a year or 2 and you can have The Big One with The Lot.

The Campervan

We bought a 14-year-old Toyota HiAce Pop-Top campervan for £4,500 in Toowoomba, 120 miles inland from Brisbane. It had 2 facing bench seats/lockers and a table in the rear which manoeuvred into a large bed, a small gas/12-volt/mains fridge, 2-burner hob and grill, small sink with hand-pumped cold (or tepid) water from a 50-litre under-van tank and a food cupboard whose drop-down flap made a work-surface.

One gas bottle fitted into a small outside locker and another bottle gave us a spare and the chance to cook outside. Two 25-litre drinking water containers fitted on a rear carrier, along with a simple device on which to hang our bicycles.

This hot little cupboard on wheels, home for 6 months, came our way through a former friend and you should learn from our experience! Friends make promises, dealers give warranties.

RACQ (Queensland) offer pre-purchase checks by mobile inspectors at a member's price of £47. The Repco chain of garages offers a free 62-point safety check or sells a thorough 150-point pre-purchase check. Make sure that your comprehensive insurance is valid for a non-resident and get the vehicle serviced yourself; don't trust that the friend's son's mate next door did a good job. Learning?

Big W and K-Mart supplied our extras at low cost – kitchen and tableware, bedding (or 'Manchester') and a large filter jug, essential for outback rainwater.

The Journey

After 2 months travelling in South Africa, a Qantas night flight over the Indian Ocean dropped us into Sydney's welcoming warmth and an opportunity to cycle the famous waterfront, harbour and bridge.

The journey and the campervan started well enough with a drive down to Brisbane and then south, along the Pacific Coast and through the high-rise pleasures of Surfers' Paradise. We paused at Cape Byron, Australia's easternmost point, and caught up with Paul and Gen whose house perches on a steep hillside overlooking Lake Macquarie near Newcastle (NSW). We first met 6 years earlier, motorhoming together in Monemvassia in south-west Greece.

Much has been written about the vastness, dryness, emptiness and fascination of the Australian Outback (the wop-wops, bush, never-never, back o'Bourke, beyond the black stump), and it's all true. The red earth curves to a blue horizon and red dust coats every surface. A narrow strip of bitumen spins beneath the campervan's wearing tyres, bisecting the world into mirror images, left and right. Ahead, the bitumen defines the future ever waiting; behind, it creates an identical past never to be revisited.

Roadhouses and small settlements (with names like Cocklebiddy, Nevertire, Humpty Doo, Mumballup) interrupt the dream of the road and weave their own spell of surreal character and makeshift existence, under the merciless sun. Gaunt Brahmin cattle crack the fragile crust of soil, ruminating on an earlier sacred life in India. Kangaroos and wallabies stand and stare, heads turned, before silently bounding to places only they can know. Emus, in plague proportions in South Australia, outrun any Olympian, their young stringing along behind. Roos, possums, wombats and wild camels are seen more roadkilled than alive, providing take-aways for crows, dingoes, wedgetail eagles, feral cats and foxes. Colourful birds (parakeets, rainbow bee-eaters, sulphur-crested cockatoos) abound, while cuddly koalas sleep up gum trees and in their own hospitals.

Across this landscape we appeared and disappeared, ever listening to our hesitant engine, ever looking for the nightly gathering place where stories or insults might be exchanged with unknown neighbours. Radio National on medium wave kept us in touch with the world, its frequencies a closely guarded secret, its strength sufficient to carry only a few miles from small-town transmitters. To spend an evening under one of its towers was to feel a part of the human race again. Only then could we understand what the advent of wireless - the Flying Doctor, the School of the Air - meant to families on remote outback stations.

Our journey took us round the coast - we can list some places: the Snowy Mountains, the southernmost point at Wilson's Promontory, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, the Murray River, Adelaide, Port Augusta (the crossroads of Australia with side trips into the Flinders Ranges and up to the opal mining town of Coober Pedy), crossing the Nullarbor Plain, Esperance, Albany, Perth, the lonely wreck-haunted coast of Western Australia, the westernmost point on the 'Useless Loop Road' near Denham, the Tropic of Capricorn, Ningaloo Reef seen through a glass-bottomed boat, the Great Sandy Desert, 80-mile Beach, Broome, Wyndham, Darwin (our northernmost point), Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, the Gulf of Carpentaria at Karumba, Atherton Tablelands, Cairns, Cooktown, the Great Barrier Reef, Townsville, the rum and ginger-beer town of Bundaberg - and so back to Brisbane.

We can list some highlights: cycling to the summit of Australia's highest mountain, 7,350 ft Mt Kosciusko in the Snowy Mountains; the Anzac Day Parade in Mt Gambier; driving 800 miles across the empty Nullarbor Plain and reliving our cycle ride 2 years before; feeding time for saltwater crocodiles on their farm near Wyndham; staying with Bec and Kev at their home-on-stilts in the tropical rain forest of northern Queensland (we first met them motorhoming in 1997 near the Greek-Turkish border); negotiating gravel roads to Cooktown, where Captain James Cook beached the Endeavour in 1770 for repairs after grounding on the reef off Cape Tribulation.

We followed in the footsteps of early explorers who made their 19th century way inland from the settlements on the coast: Eyre, Stuart, Mitchell, Sturt and the ill-fated Burke and Wills. We met Kathy and Alan, each on a solo Bicycle Big One and Malcolm and Michael, English and Greek, cycling together from Adelaide to Darwin 'up the middle'.

We can write of our low points: pausing at the place near Barrow Creek, north of Alice Springs, where Huddersfield's Peter Falconio was abducted from his campervan, shot and spirited away while his partner Joanne Lees escaped to tell the tale; the misery of the Aboriginal people, strangers after 40,000 years in their own land, and being unable even to make eye contact with them; having to sell the campervan and fly out from Brisbane to Auckland, the day our visas expired.

To know Australia, to feel Australia, to understand a little of Australia, you should drive The Big One yourself. In the words of the Aussie song: life begins at the end of the bitumen. But don't be like the legendary Australian character, Hardway Harrigan. He bought his camper from Pommie Dave at 'Cut Price Cars', stocked up at 'Silly Sollies', tried to pay with a pound note in Foggarty's bar at the Timber Creek Roadhouse in the Territory and followed the fading tracks of Burke and Wills across the Simpson Desert.

General Information

Buying a Van: Buying and selling privately is possible (we did), but it's a lot of work and risky. Try a reputable dealer such as the Travellers Auto Barn (www.travellers-autobarn.com) which has branches in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns and offers comprehensive campervan sales and service with guaranteed buyback. Or contact hire companies, not to hire but to see if they are selling off old stock!

Buy and sell in the same State, since legal requirements vary. In Queensland, the seller must provide a Roadworthy Certificate (green slip, £22) and a Safety Certificate for the gas and electrical fittings. The buyer pays a 2% stamp duty and can make a £4 REVS check to see if the vehicle is stolen or if money is still owing.

The Queensland 'Rego' (equivalent to our vehicle licence) costs £50 for 6 months, compulsory 3rd-party insurance £145 for 12 months and the transfer fee is £7. Comprehensive insurance would be extra. Visit www.consumer.qld.gov.au and www.transport.qld.gov.au.

Camping: Around the coast and in major towns there are good sites, including the excellent Big Four (www.big4.com.au) and Top Tourist chains. In the outback, roadhouses and free camping fill the gaps. Many of the 1,000 National Parks offer simple bush-camping with an honesty box.

Climate: The golden rule is: Keep south in the summer (December to March) and head north for the winter (May to October). In between, visit the interior! Bec writes: 'Best not have a tight schedule if heading north in the Wet (December to April). It is quieter, cheaper and a pretty impressive time to visit, but air-con recommended'.

Currency: £1 is currently worth A$2.4. ATM's are widely available and UK credit and debit cards are accepted everywhere including major fuel chains.

Food: Expect a British diet plus many 'veggies'. Excellent supermarkets include Cole's, Woolworth's, Pick 'n' Pay and Aldi. Look for bargain meals open to all at Bowling and Golf Clubs and the RSL (Returned Servicemen's League).

Fuel: Petrol and diesel are less than A$1 (£0.40) per litre. Woolworth's and Cole's give discounts to their customers.

Internet: Even quite small towns have good facilities for emailing. In some States, public libraries provide a free hour.

Maps and Guides: For overall planning, we used GeoCenter's excellent 1:4 million map and most towns have a tourist office with local maps. Take your UK AA/RAC card (or pay from £22 pa plus £14 joining fee in Queensland - visit www.racq.com.au) to get a wide range of free or subsidised route, town and State maps (and a breakdown service). For desert crossings, maps show roadhouses and water supplies, but don't rely on the latter.

The Lonely Planet (on its home territory) or Rough Guide is an essential companion. Both are very thorough. Highwayman Productions publish useful guides to bush camps and rest areas around, across and throughout Australia!

Roads: Interstate roads, even Highway 1, can be narrow and poorly surfaced and dual carriageways are a rarity away from the south-east. Many outback roads off our route are unsealed and would mean any or all of dust, floods, potholes and rocks. Off-road, ground clearance is often more important than four-wheel drive.

Roadhouses: On average, there is a roadhouse every 100 miles on desert crossings. For example, there are 8 (and nothing else at all) on the 800-mile-wide Nullarbor. They offer food, drinks, fuel, rooms, camping (sometimes with electricity from their generator) and advice. The water is either pumped from a salty borehole or collected in rainwater tubs, cloudy and jealously guarded. Don't expect to fill your tank!

Safety: It is essential to carry plenty of fuel, drinking water and food at all times. Off-road ('going bush'), tell someone your route and expected time of arrival. If you break down – stay with your vehicle! Emergency satellite beacons are available for hire.

Telephones: Mobile phone networks, including Vodafone (www.vodafone.com.au), operate around most towns and are being extended along major highways. A local pay-as-you-go SIM card can be bought for £12.50. Emergency radiophones are located at long intervals across the Nullarbor and other desert crossings.

Visas: A 90-day electronic visa (ETA) usually comes with the aeroplane ticket for a small fee. For £27 each we obtained a 6-month tourist visa from the Australian High Commission in London.

For More Information, contact Australian Tourist Commission, Gemini House, 10-18 Putney Hill, Putney, London SW15 6AA – visit www.australia.com. Each State has its own tourist office in London.

It's also worth contacting and even joining the Campervan & Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA). It offers a monthly magazine 'The Wanderer', insurance, a Members' Market with 300+ vehicles for sale, publications, campsite discounts, offers to swap and a website: www.cmca.net.au.

Many thanks to Bec and Kev in Queensland and Paul in NSW for their help in getting our Australian facts straight.