Linking eight stations along the Nullarbor, the Trans Access Road is a trip back in time for those with knowledge of its history. Grant and Linda share their insights and experience tackling the track.

After travelling almost every main bitumen and dirt road that heads out of WA, the Trans Access Road (TAR), which parallels the Transcontinental Railway, was next on our bucket list. This route between Kalgoorlie and the Stuart Highway in South Australia is nearly 1,700 kilometres long and follows a railway line. It’s about here you could very well be asking, ‘What’s the big drawcard?’ Researching the route some years ago, we were more than keen to hit the tracks, so to speak. Besides having a rich railway history, we learnt it was going to be a destination with a difference…

HISTORY

The initial talks of a rail link between western and eastern Australia go back to the late 1800s before Federation. The colonies were then only linked via a single telegraph line further south by the Eyre Highway and a rough sea voyage that took almost a week. It was John Forrest who led the charge for the railway, stipulating the construction of an east/west rail link as a condition for WA to join the Commonwealth. He wasn’t alone in his thinking, with many arguing the railway was needed as a better transport system for commerce between the colonies. But it was also suggested without a rail link, it would be difficult to move military troops quickly should Australia’s southern and western shores need defending. Although the railway link was approved by the Government and WA joined the colonies at Federation, everything to do with the railway stalled. It was some years later before anything went further.

Things finally kicked off in June 1908 with a survey that covered 980 kilometres from Port Augusta to the SA/WA border. A month later in July 1908, an expedition left Kalgoorlie that was to survey just over 730 kilometres from the western end towards the SA border. Both surveys were done and dusted by the middle of September in 1911. Construction of the railway began a year later at Port Augusta, where an elaborate ceremony was held to mark the grand occasion, led by the Governor-General, Lord Denman. Similar fanfare was held five months later in Kalgoorlie by the Prime Minister of the day, Andrew Fisher.

Labour was always going to be the key for the project’s success. The Nullarbor Plain wasn’t the easiest region for men and their families to live. Shade and water were scarce, and coping with sizzling summer temperatures would have its challenges. Picks, shovels, cart horses and camels were the main source of labour, supported by two Roberts steam-driven track-laying machines imported from the USA, costing £2,500 each. Each machine was able to lay four kilometres of rail per day, so it was not a quick project by any stretch of the imagination. The process started with a loco positioned at the back of each track layer to help propel it forward. Camels carried sleepers to the railhead, where the track layer helped teams of men get sleepers onto the railbed.

After a sufficient amount had been laid in advance of the track layer, wagons were positioned on both sides of the track layer, with each holding a forty-foot rail. These were attached to the tracklayer’s jibs before being lowered onto the sleepers. Waiting doggers knocked in spikes on every fourth sleeper laid, which was just enough to hold the gauge while the train moved forward over the new length. Other doggers and platers followed behind to add the rest of the dogs and to attach the fish-plates. The loco would return to a temporary depot to reload when it ran out of sleepers and rails. Other trains carrying ballast would follow the track layer at other times that were hand-packed by gangs of navvies to stabilise the track.

At its height, nearly 3,500 men were employed on the project and lived along the line at intervals with their families. By the time the rails were joined together from east to west by Ooldea in South Australia, the project took five years in total and was completed on 17th October 1917. This was despite major setbacks due to Australia’s involvement in WWI. The project stats included 2.5 million hardwood sleepers being laid, plus 140,000 tonnes of rail for the 1,693 kilometres of track. The first passenger train set off from Port Augusta a few days after completion and arrived in Kalgoorlie nearly 43 hours later. When the rail link was completed, nearly 50 sidings between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta were established, an average of 30 kilometres apart. Many sidings were named after Australian prime ministers, although a few past premiers and vice-regal personalities made it into the mix.

Pockets of maintenance settlements were located all along the rail line to ensure the track was kept in operational condition. As nothing really grew out on the Nullarbor, two trains were set up after the rail link opened to specifically take supplies to those living in the isolated areas of the railway. Affectionately known as the Tea and Sugar Train, it supplied nearly all the provisions needed for railway folk along the line a couple of times each week. The storeman’s car could be likened to a country emporium stocking all the essentials plus a few luxuries. And a butcher’s car enabled sheep to be butchered as the train rattled along before being replaced with a refrigerated butcher’s van in 1944. During the 1950s, a children’s toy library, an infant health clinic, and a theatre car were all added to the train. Besides being a supply lifeline for those living along the track, the arrival of the Tea and Sugar train turned into a social highlight for many railway families. However, when diesel-electric replaced steam locomotives by the 1950s and timber sleepers were progressively replaced by longer-lasting concrete sleepers during the 1970s, fewer people lived along the railway. With an ever-dwindling customer base, the Tea and Sugar trains were finally withdrawn in 1996.

Other historical key points of the railway include the site of a 1942 WWII Prisoner of War camp by Nurina siding. This siding is located nearly 500 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie, where approximately 300 Italian prisoners of war were put to work on the railway to expedite the replacement of sleepers. Men were placed at six locations along the railway, while a military camp was established at Cook for headquarters staff. The men were engaged on the line for more than 1.5 years until the war ended. Most were repatriated by the middle of 1947, although some were given permission to remain in Australia.

Ooldea also played a significant part historically because of water at the nearby Ooldea Soak. Being situated a few kilometres to the siding’s north, water was extracted from the soak and used to keep the steam engines going. Records suggest a phenomenal 45,000 litres per day was pumped from the soak to the siding. When the water initially being pumped was of insufficient purity, a condensing plant was erected nearly twenty kilometres east of the Ooldea siding. Firewood was needed on a mammoth scale to fuel the condenser, so a woodline was set up nearby for collection. This had disastrous effects on the surrounding landscape and left it completely denuded. By the 1920s, a total of 50 bores and wells were sunk in the soak’s vicinity, but less than half provided good, sufficient water for the train locos, domestic chores, and other uses. By this time, the soak was stretched to its limit, and the pumping station was closed in 1926. Water was then brought in from Kingoonya to the east for those who had relied on the soak’s water supply. The railway construction was certainly a very iconic piece of Australia’s history and a mammoth task to be undertaken back then. With a solid understanding of the track’s history under our belts, we were ready to tackle it for real…

TRACK INFO

After restocking our supplies and fuel in Kalgoorlie, it was a short 10-kilometre run south along the Goldfields Highway before turning onto the Mt Monger Road. With plenty of mining happening around the place, road conditions were A-grade. Turning onto the Trans Access Road nearly 30 kilometres later, road conditions continued to be a breeze all the way through to Rawlinna. But that’s where our good run ended. Road conditions varied from Rawlinna but progressively worsened when travelling east. There were never-ending kilometres of limestone rocks that made the trip slow going when towing, especially the area around Mundrabilla towards Forrest. In fact, the Land Cruiser was lucky to do 25km per hour in between these two sidings, so it felt like we were stuck in second gear. We bumped along for what seemed endless kilometres when things started to improve after Cook. Soon those rocky sections became less frequent before finally disappearing completely. One thing to mention here is we found there can be a couple of tracks (if not more) that run parallel with the railway. So, we were periodically referring to our navigation system to help when this happened.

We found sticking to the track with the “Telstra NBN cable below” markers is the way to go. The track that sits closest to the railway is more of a maintenance track that had bits of sharp steel and old dog spikes lying around that looked far from tyre-friendly. But if time is of the essence and you’re going to travel the TAR in sections, all isn’t lost. A good map shows there are various entry and exit points to get on and off the track. From the Eyre Highway, Nullarbor Roadhouse, Cocklebiddy and Madura are spots where you can head north to the railway. And they’re good places to top up fuel tanks before reaching the TAR. We were surprised by the amount of phone coverage we had along the track as well. It was something we could easily have done without and didn’t rely upon, as we always carry a sat phone for emergencies.

ATTRACTIONS

When you live in a rural area like us that has little traffic, we found the passing trains were a bit of a novelty. These mammoth caterpillars can span well over 1.5 kilometres in length and operate 24/7. They’re pretty loud! Although we did become more attuned to their passing as time went by. Other than seeing the trains, a deathly silence filled the days and nights with all that nothingness travelling the Nullarbor Plain. It was actually quite an eerie experience. At times we wondered whether train drivers thought us crazy, seeing a lonely vehicle trackside in the middle of nowhere. Yet each train driver seemed more than happy to sound their horn and offer a passing wave as they clattered along the ribbon of steel.

We also found it paid to occasionally get off the track to explore areas a bit further away. On the western end, places like Cardunia Rocks are nearly five kilometres off the TAR by the Karonie siding. The work that’s gone into the water catchment area and dam is pretty amazing. We spent a day poking around the granite rocks and quarry before capturing the picture-perfect dam setting just before the sun dipped. Railway sidings were other good spots to take a look around, though good maps to discover their location were a plus, especially when the siding signage was a mixed bag. Out of nearly three dozen sidings we visited, some signage was good, some illegible, and completely non-existent for others. We could see just about all the old railway camps from construction or track maintenance days have been bulldozed and buried. Although we found it’s still possible to locate a few relics for those with a keen eye.

Like travelling the Eyre Highway from WA to SA, the railway also has its own longest stretch of straight rail track. This section begins just east of the Nurina siding and spans 477 kilometres to end in between Watson and Ooldea sidings. And just like its coastal counterpart further south, it’s rare to find any trees or bushes anywhere along this section. Venturing further east, the small town of Rawlinna is the start/end point for the Connie Sue Highway. The town once boasted a post office, school and a hospital that was used by train passengers and railway folk, plus surrounding remote stations. These are well and truly now long gone, but there’s a few of the old railway buildings still remaining. The site of the Nurina POW Camp lies in between Haig and Nurina, and its signpost is one of the better quality signposts still standing. Besides some well-laid-out rock paths, there’s little evidence of anything else here, and little imagination is needed. Another attraction is the historical trail at Forrest, which provides plenty of good info about the town’s history and points of interest. The trail starts at the historic airport hangar, then onto some key locations, including the original siding building and the town’s museum, before finishing in the main street.

At the WA/SA border, there’s the Deakin Obelisk erected in 1926 that commemorates this special location. It was disappointing to find the border signage another example of neglect, not dissimilar to the siding signage. Once over the border and into South Australia, the TAR now sits alongside the Nullarbor Regional Reserve to its south. Cook is around 140 kilometres east of the border and was once a small town of 300 people before shutting its doors in 1998. We stopped briefly to look at the old railway buildings, the two-storey school, plus a couple of iron police cells that had been moved to their present location alongside the railway. Cook was privatised well over a decade ago and still has a few people stationed here regularly.

Ooldea is located 150 kilometres further on from Cook when heading east. A monument celebrating 100 years of the joining of the rails in 1917 is located just prior to reaching the siding. A little further on, a small memorial is dedicated to Daisy Bates who lived in a tent a few kilometres north of the railway. Daisy arrived at this remote location in 1919 and spent the next 16 years dedicating her life to providing the local Aboriginal people with welfare assistance. Ooldea was a significant ceremonial and trade centre that had been used by numerous Indigenous groups for many years. Ceremonies were still being held during the mid-1940s and were known to attract as many as 500 people.

CAMPING

From the western end, we found the camping at Cardunia Rocks was a real trip highlight. Besides being well away from the railway line for somewhere quieter, we found the location perfect, whether you’re travelling solo or in a convoy of vehicles. There’s plenty of space to accommodate everyone, and there’s plenty of shade as well. Further east, the township of Forrest is another top spot. In fact, it’s one of the very few places along the TAR that has visitor facilities. Camping is offered next to the old Bureau of Meteorology Mess near the Forrest airport. Here you’ll find a shower, toilet, and a kitchen. For something a little more upmarket, a few original BOM houses remain on Forrest’s main street that are available for overnight stays.

At the eastern end of the TAR (referred to as the Tarcoola Road by local folk), you can also camp at the small township of Kingoonya. The town’s caravan park has good, clean facilities and is located in great proximity to the pub that dishes up some fabulous pub grub. Alternatively, there’s a free camp with toilets almost opposite the pub where you can set up for an overnight stay. Although in reality, camping along the TAR can simply be wherever you choose to pull up stumps for the night. There definitely is no shortage of places! Keep in mind there’s hundreds of kilometres of track across the Nullarbor Plain with very little vegetation, so protection from the elements will be non-existent. That also means little privacy from your travelling companions and the passing trains when nature calls!

INFORMATION BAY

Location

The Trans Australian Railway track runs between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta and is approximately 1,700 kilometres in length.

Difficulty

Medium—it’s a very remote track, and the area is extremely isolated. You’ll be lucky to see much traffic other than passing trains. Carry extra fuel, food, water and comms for the trip. It’s really important to carry a satellite phone, as you can’t rely on getting help from passing trains if you get stuck.

Fuel & Supplies

Fuel is the big-ticket item to consider for this trip when it’s around 1,700 kilometres in length. Although less likely to be an issue if you’re only travelling part of the track. Forrest is 500 kilometres from Kalgoorlie and stocks diesel for around $3.00 per litre, and unleaded is around $3.90. Kingoonya on the SA end has a 24-hour fuel pump, selling diesel for around $2.65 and unleaded for $2.55. No other facilities are available anywhere along the TAR, so you’ll need to be completely self-sufficient.

This adventure can be found in the 128th edition of Western 4W Driver at issuu.com