THE GUNBARREL HIGHWAY
The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern
Territory, South Australia and Western Australia, and it consists of 1400km of washaways, heavy corrugations,
stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway connects Victory Downs, just north of the Northern Territory/South Australia
border to Carnegie Station in Western Australia (this is the direction the road was constructed). Some sources also incorrectly
show the highway extending west to Wiluna.
The route passes directly into Aboriginal Reserves and it is a legal requirement
for travellers to hold a valid Transit Permit at the time of travel. Three permits are required and they are available from
the Department of Indigenous Affairs. The permits are free. Some of the eastern section of the road is now named
the Tjukaruru Road for the Aboriginal people that live in this area.
The Gunbarrel Highway was the first road built as part of Australia's role in
the weapons research facility called Woomera; the atomic bomb testing site in this area later named Maralinga.
Construction began in 1955 and was finally completed on 15 November 1958 when the construction crew reached Carnegie.
The highway was surveyed and constructed under the direction of legendary bushman Len
Beadell who was responsible for numerous other roads in Australia that opened up some of the most remote desert areas
of the continent in the 1950s and 1960s. Its name comes from Beadell's Gunbarrel Road Construction Party so named
because of much of the road's appearance.
By any standard, this is a long and tough haul through very remote territory.
The track varies from stony to sandy with corrugations, ruts, washaways and sometimes mud. Its isolation require its residents
be totally self-sufficient with water, food and fuel (the longest distance between fuel outlets is 489 km, between Warburton
and Carnegie Station.)
The part of the highway approximately between Warburton and Warakurna has now
been abandoned because of the construction of a more direct route that now forms part of the Great Central Road.
