Great Central Road

The Great Central Road - Western Australia

The Great Central Road takes you from Uluru in the Northern Territory across to Leonora and Kalgoorlie in the Western Australian Goldfields. It is the shortest route from Perth to Central Australia with a distance of around 1250 kilometers.

You'll need good maps to make the best of this trip visit the Desert Tracks section of our on-line map shop

Click here for Maps and Guides of this region

The road conditions are 'comfortable' and the trip has been undertaken by conventional vehicles although a four wheel drive is almost a must these days. Allow 2 to 3 or more days for your journey and allow for around 300 kilometers for the longest stretch without fuel supplies.

The route will take you through some spectacular desert countryside that has plenty of historical past, not least of which is the legend and mystique of Lasseter's Reef.

In 1930 Lasseter set out with an expedition to find gold. He claimed that he did so, in the vicinity of Lake Christoper, unfortunately Lasseter perished on the return trip and the legendary reef was never charted and has never, to this day, been re found.

Later in the 50's Len Beadell, of the Anne Beadell Highway fame, was responsible for surveying and constructing many new roads in the region.

But the history of the region started long before any of this, around the early 1870's in fact, when Earnest Giles and William Gosse made multiple attempts to cross the desert from east to west. It was they who named Ayres Rock, now Uluru and The spectacular Olgas, now renamed Kata Tjuta.

It was on one of these trips in 1874 when on of Ernest Giles' companions, Alf Gibson, died. Hence the Gibson Desert was named.

There will be more information on this region added soon.

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