Outback Getting there & around

Getting there & around

Bus & tram

Bus

Greyhound Australia (13 14 99) runs a daily passenger coach from Adelaide to Alice Springs, stopping at Glendambo ($117, 8¼ hours) and Coober Pedy ($130, 11¾ hours). To Coober Pedy from Alice Springs/Port Augusta costs $148/95.

Premier Stateliner (08-8415 5555) runs from Port Augusta to Pimba/Woomera ($38, 1¾hours) and Roxby Downs ($53, three hours).

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Air

Regional Express (Rex; 13 17 13) flies daily between Adelaide and Coober Pedy (from $180 one way), and Olympic Dam ($100).

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Car & motorcycle

The Stuart Hwy is sealed all the way from Port Augusta to Darwin. The highway is a long, often boring drive and the temptation to get it over with quickly has resulted in many high-speed collisions between cars and cattle, sheep, emus, kangaroos and wedge-tailed eagles. Take care and avoid driving at night.

If you want to travel to NT by a more adventurous route, there’s the Oodnadatta Track. This option takes you from Port Augusta through the Flinders Ranges to Leigh Creek, Lyndhurst, Marree and Oodnadatta before joining the Stuart Hwy at Marla, about 180km south of the NT border. For most of the way it runs close to the former Ghan railway line.

The road is sealed as far as Lyndhurst, then you are on dirt (and often rough and dusty dirt, at that) all the way to Marla. There are several routes across to the Stuart Hwy: from Lake Eyre south via Roxby Downs to Pimba; from William Creek west to Coober Pedy; and from Oodnadatta either south to Coober Pedy or west to Cadney Homestead (a roadhouse on the Stuart Hwy). With a 4WD you can keep going up the old railway line from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs, visiting Witjira National Park and Old Andado Homestead (NT) on the way.

If you don’t have your own vehicle, it’s also possible to catch a bus to Roxby Downs or Coober Pedy from Adelaide and hire a 4WD from there to explore Lake Eyre and the Oodnadatta Track.

Two other routes of interest to outback travellers are the legendary Birdsville Track and Strzelecki Track . These days the tracks have been so much improved that it’s usually feasible (if not comfortable) to travel them in any car that’s in reasonable condition, has good ground clearance and a good range.

When soaking rain does fall on this usually dry land the effect can be amazing – flowers bloom and plants grow at a breakneck pace in order to complete their life cycles before the drought returns. On a much more mundane level, roads can either be washed out or turned into gluelike mud.

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