Highway One: Across the Nullarbor

By Catherine Lawson November 7, 2013
Reading Time: 2 Minutes Print this page
On their Big Lap of Australia, Catherine and David head along the sweeping plains of the Nullarbor.

Catherine Lawson and David Bristow, along with baby Maya, are doing a lap of Highway One, the road that circles Australia. 

THE BEAUTY OF SO many famous Australian landmarks can be captured in a single sunset shot, but the allure of the Nullarbor’s vast, treeless plains is not so easily pinned down.

This sweeping stretch of roadhouses, ruins and rest areas spans two states, stretching for 1194km between Ceduna in South Australia and Norseman across the Western Australia border.

Across the Nullarbor Plain, Highway One traverses the world’s largest, flattest, limestone plateau, skirting crumbling cliffs on the edge of the Great Australian Bight and cutting a path through a national park that protects the largest semi-arid karst (cave) landscape in the world.

Nullarbor National Park’s 2.8 million hectares of low-lying saltbush and bluebush is home to Australia’s largest population of southern hairy-nosed wombats and a trio of very accessible open caves at Murrawijinie Caves, located 10km west of Nullarbor Roadhouse.

The furthest and easiest to explore of Murrawijinie’s three caves contains indigenous ochre hand stencils, located just inside the cave’s wide entrance and clearly illuminated in the beam of a good torch.

To reach Murrawijinie Caves, follow the signposted dirt track that begins just west of Nullarbor Roadhouse and leads for 10.4km to the first of three caves.

RELATED ARTICLES
…More Highway One articles
Vast area of the Nullarbor Plain protected
Wallpaper download: Nullarbor coast
Australia’s 18 top camping spots
Camping: the classic Aussie past-time
Top 5 great Aussie road trips
Australian Geographic’s top 100 icons of all time
Top 10 Australian outback experiences
Wilderness by bike: the Munda Biddi Trail
Predict the weather without a forecast
Rottnest Island’s best beaches
Touring the Kimberley from the aerial highway
Australia’s 8 greatest surf spots
6 great Australian train trips
Best winter escapes in Australia
Travel photography tips
10 best kayak day trips in Australia
18 of the best day walks in Australia
Massive new Indigenous Protected Area declared
Gallery: The top five greatest Aussie roadtrips
Indian Pacific celebrates 40 years