AutoRoute: A different approach to 4WDriving Central Australia
May 1, 2009 by Matt Brogan
-by Josh McKenzie
I guess I can only blame myself for having been in this position. You see, I would normally do 25,000km a year as stipulated in my novated lease.
However, for reasons that can only really be justified by a sense of adventure and youthful exuberance, I felt the need to spend parts of the last year or so in cars and countries other than my own.
OK, so I’m not going to get much sympathy, but I did get an excuse for another road trip …
So that’s why I drove to Uluru. It was an easy choice really, being just over 2000km away from Melbourne and somewhere I had never been before.
Now the drive was going to be a little different than if I’d chosen say … The Sunshine Coast, as I would be contending with long, straight roads, isolation and the threat of the unknown.
My main concerns with setting off to Uluru were attributed to my vehicle; the VW Golf R32.
Firstly, it requires premium unleaded. Would this be available, and how far would it be between premium pumps?
In an attempt to answer this, I called a service station along the Stuart Highway in South Australia and asked if they had premium unleaded available.
“Nah matey, we don’t sell that brand. We do have Mobil petrol though”.
Right – great to hear that expert response.
My second concern was my space saver spare wheel. A trip to the local auto store helped ease these concerns with a few bottles of octane boost and a couple of cans of tyre goo.
What do you do at the beginning of a four-day break at 6am? You drive from Melbourne to Port Augusta.
It’s always liberating to set off on a holiday during rush hour – driving in a direction opposite to the masses, knowing that within a few hours they’ll be in offices whilst you’re in the sunshine.
My trip across the Westgate Bridge, that great escape venue from Melbourne, was no different to that.
Leaving a grey, cloudy Melbourne, I was greeted by sunshine and warmth as I approached the Grampians along the Western Highway.
But lets face it, how excited can I get about driving to Adelaide?
As beautiful as the hills are as you approach Adelaide, there’s a reason why there’s a giant Koala along the Western Highway.
Much of the same can be said about driving to Port Augusta; the most interesting aspect being the 40-degree temperatures causing some trees in the area to smell like cannabis.
Lucky my motel in Port Augusta had air-conditioning and the stale stench of early ’90s decor.
Day two is where the adventure begins. I start out early, brimming the tank with 98RON at the local servo before setting off.
Within a few kilometres of leaving Port Augusta on the Stuart Highway I’m introduced to the by-product of this bitumen: road-trains.
For the most part a road-train is a B-Double needing an ego boost, consisting of two or three trailers at tops. Easily overtaken by most cars and drivers given the great lengths of straight road.
Be warned though; there are five or six trailer behemoths.
Continuing on through Woomera to Coober Pedy, the main form of entertainment comes from cattle grids and road signs.
The cattle grids and signs indicating the animals on the road (also in German and Chinese) go hand in hand – but people, please, if you feel the need to get out of your car and into the sun, do not walk backwards through a desert.
The opal mines surrounding Coober Pedy make for a positively alien landscape.
That would normally be enough to make a town stuck in the middle of nowhere interesting, however, since it’s unbearably hot in Coober Pedy, people have decided to head back to the caveman era and live underground.
The locals told me the tourists seem to enjoy seeing the many underground churches, which may be an idea if you want to escape the heat for a bit.
With the first half of the day gone, it’s time for me to hit the road again and head on to the great Northern Territory.
Hours of relatively boring road later, I’m at the border and feeling welcome – by a nice big one-three-zero!.
While a 130km/h speed sign is no where near as exciting as the now defunct “de-restricted” speed signs, it’s still slightly liberating as a Victorian to not feel like a criminal for wanting to cover distance in an efficient and timely manner.
My arrival into the resort town of Yulara (at the entrance to the Uluru National Park) is about an hour before sunset, with just enough time to shower, eat and get to Uluru for the sunset show.
Although we’ve all seen the giant rock in various media, it really is quite a bit more impressive in person.
Closer to the resort there are a few dunes you can hike to in order to watch the final moments of the twilight sky disappear from over Uluru and the Olgas. If you’re as lucky as me, you’ll be alone to witness this as the hordes of tourists bus it back to their hotels.
As you may have guessed, Uluru also puts on a sunrise show. Although it’s the lesser-seen side of the giant rock, the sunrise paints it the most brilliant shades of red. It really was unfortunate that I couldn’t continue to be a tourist though.
High winds had closed the controversial climb up the rock, and high temperatures had closed all but the shortest of hikes. That disappointment was my cue to leave, reversing my journey to get back home to cold and dreary Melbourne.
So what did I get out of this road trip? Apart from 4680km extra on my odometer, I’ve learnt that I really need to see more of my own country. I’ve learnt that, despite its reputation, the Stuart Highway is actually an excellent road to travel.
Its excellent condition would put Victoria’s “A” roads to shame, with adequate services and more then enough other drivers on it to help you out if, heaven forbid, you broke down.
Its greatest dangers involve fatigue and overtaking – both of which can only be left up to you, the driver, to manage and common sense should prevail.
As for the car? Well, it’d be just a little unfair for me to attempt to provide you with an unbiased review, which is why I won’t. All the positives mentioned in previous reviews of the VW R32 still apply.
I’ll just state that I’m now in love with my car – a phenomenon many car enthusiasts can attest to.
Print it: 
Thanks for a good read. Thinking of doing Sydney to Uluru trip around November.I want to buy a camper trailer first.
Would love to see the rock in all of it’s glory
good stuff
good story
Oh Yes, thanks for good story.
And I remember my similar road trip from Adelaide to Darwin with my parents 3 years ago…
My car was MY06 Subaru 3.0R required premium unleaded petrol.
During total over 8000km trip, my car’s maximum speed was 230Km/h plus when my parents were asleep XD !!!
I brought 20L plastic petrol tank, but fortunately we used it only once.
And I filled normal unleaded petrol just once.
Puncture at side wall of front tyre at Kakado national park was only our painful memory.
Because, replacement of a tyre costs $400 !!!
My best wise decision was I bought Engel car fridge for this trip.
I love to go again, but next time I will with off road capable 4WD and extend to north Western Australia.
That’s my dream road trip in my life !!!
Did Ularu in 2000 by myself, went Brissie to Emerald, Kynuna, Tennant Creak, Ayres Rock, (4 days there) then Glendambo (great little bunk house for a tenner) Broken Hill, Inverell (3 days) and Brissie. 8,100km seven days driving. NT highways were unrestricted back then and 170km was comfortable and nowhere near as fatiguing as the 130 limit.
Recoment to all Australian car fanatics to do the trip.
Great story! I was thinking about doing the same trip to get the kms up with my diesel i30 on a novated lease. Glad to hear the roads are up to scratch!
Thankfully won’t have to worry about the space saver or premium fuel. Also looking forward to giving the 1000 km to a tank of diesel a nudge too.
I wish I could just take a quick trip into the Red Center…
I also wish I had a Golf R32 :)
I too have an R32 and I too, love my car. Good read.
I don’t normally like silver cars (after all, silver is the new white), but damn that’s a very sexy looking machine – I wish VW imported some of the lower spec 3-door models as well.
Tell me, was it a manual or DSG? I drove my brothers GTI DSG a few months ago, which was nice, but to me the DSG system sounds like it’s farting when it changes gears. Strange…
just did bathurst/melbourne/TGOR/bendigo/boardertown/adelaide/balrenald/bathurst/sydney/bathurst in a jumbuck camping with the misses. Your story makes me want to do it again tomorrow.
Great story
Sometimes it’s just great to get out and drive just for the sake of driving. Nice trip.
Wish I could do it, thats further than I can travel in the UK doing Land’s End to John O Groats a trip of 833miles.
love this article. which website have more of these stuff?? anyone know? thanks
yes, more of this stuff and real road tests, less of super cars we will never see or use. CA get back from your junket and start giving us some real road tests and comparison drives please.
Even if the car in question is a 103kW, 182Nm regular sedan like mine, the article is still pleasurable to read. It’s journals like this that make this website unique. Kudos to the writers!
Have done this sort of trip twice. 2nd time was in 2002 with my wife and, at the time, 7 & 9 y.o. daughters. We had a VW T4 semi-camper pulling 16.5 foot caravan – 40000K in 6 months. Great driving, great country. Averaged 15L/100K – no flats, no probs.
First time was in a 1600cc T2 Kombi camper in 1979 – 27000K in 5 months (once again no punctures). Back then Highway 1 had lots more dirt road and there were also no rangers telling you it was 4WD only to get to the Bungle Bungles, etc.
Tack – agree, the best buy was my Engel – the 2nd best was the VWs.
Meant to add:
Josh, thanks for brilliant story. Trouble is I now want to go and do it all over again.
Yeah but Cupid, we get all the great driving roads. Many Australians have to travel a very long way to find great windy driving roads that I can find ten minutes out of London. However, writing that, I’m not sure if windy driving roads are what you want when you own a diesel Vectra Estate. No offense intended but the Vectra isn’t exactly known for it’s driving dynamics.
Thanks for the positive comments everyone. Glad to see it’s rekindling old memories for some.
Phillip: It’s a manual. I do love the DSG box, especially in the GTI. I just felt the VR6 had a bit more aural character with the manual (even if performance and economy suffer).
Josh, what a great read! So refreshing to read something other than the usual specs/review/rating article. My only negative was that the story was too short. I would love to hear more about what you thought of the R32 after such a trip, even if it is biased :)
Full respect Josh. I believe what I read about the DSG, that it’s economical and far superior to a normal auto, but after a while I was really rather bored when driving my brothers GTI. Even though there are steering wheel paddles to change gears manually, I found myself just driving it as I would a standard auto. It just didn’t feel very playful.
Great reaqding Josh.
I’ve just done Perth / Bendigo / Corryong / Bright / Mt Hotham / Omeo / Lakes Entrance / Melb / Great Ocean Rd / Adelaide / Perth. 9267 klm in a Jetta TDi. Ave 5.5l/100 best – 1 tank Ceduna – Mildura (1030), best consumption 4.8 Mildura – Bendigo. Mostly good roads, some great roads and some shite roads (esp Renmark – Mildura) and lots of memories. Ther’s something special about driving this BIG country, but the outback shouldn’t be taken for granted.
I think the next trip might be up the west coast.
I just loved this read a great test drive unlike any other that have been around I am completely jealous of you having to get to test that car of all cars, she is a real beauty.
I pretty much did this exact route, but twice as far.
Seeing its mostly boring also took the same photos as u!
Great country though!
Cheers
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