Madura WA, Great Australian Bight, Eyre Highway, Eucla, Telegraph Station

Madura WA April 8, 2015

Out of the van park gate turn right onto Eyre Highway and drive.  Not much to see, you just have to stop at Lookout #1, which is 50km or so from Nullarbor Roadhouse. You drive down a short dirt road to a fenced in lookout (to stop you all falling off the cliffs) and the views of the cliffs falling straight into the Southern Ocean are quite spectacular. This is the postcard Great Australian Bight.

Great Australian Bight Lookout #1

Great Australian Bight Lookout #1

A second lookout appears after another 50km or so and its just Ok compared to the first. 

Great Australian Bight Lookout #2

The third lookout (there used to be 5 but 1 has disappeared and the 5th one is just a carpark) is so totally different. Instead of towering cliffs, the rocks form a well rounded slope down into the ocean. Not much to look at really, but anythings good for a break from the monotony of the highway.

We pulled up at the WA border to be inspected by the quarantine people. It was the ladies 3rd day on the job and she looked in every nook and cranny and admitted that ours was the first ACT car she had seen. 20 metres past the gates, the WA police were having fun with a breathalyser but by the time we got there they had decided to stop testing and instead to go through some fellow’s car with a fine tooth comb looking for contraband. 

Eventually we reached Eucla, which is where the Overland Telegraph from Port Augusta to Albany was joined in 1870. The line became disused in 1927 and the station abandoned to the invading sand-dunes.

Telegraph Station. Eucla WA

Telegraph Station. Eucla WA

Telegraph Station. Eucla WA

Telegraph Station. Eucla WA

Telegraph Station. Eucla WA

Another 120km or so later we pulled up in Madura, which is just a road house with caravan park and motel attached, where we took our pick of the park and settled in.