Gunbarrel Highway

For the Midnight Oil song, see Diesel and Dust.

Gunbarrel Highway

Northern Territory
–Western Australia
The highway is "as straight as a gun barrel" in some places
Map
Gunbarrel Highway is located in Australia
West end
West end
East end
East end
Coordinates
General information
TypeTrack
Length1,347 km (837 mi)[1]
Major junctions
West endCarnegie Road
Carnegie Homestead, Western Australia
 
East endMulga Park Road
Victory Downs Homestead, Northern Territory
Location(s)
RegionGoldfields-Esperance (WA), Far North (SA)[2] Central Australia (NT)[3]
Restrictions
Permits4 required
Fuel supplyCarnegie Homestead 25°47′45″S 122°58′31″E / 25.795831°S 122.975319°E / -25.795831; 122.975319
Warburton (26°07′55″S 126°34′08″E / 26.131861°S 126.569026°E / -26.131861; 126.569026
Warakurna Roadhouse 25°02′34″S 128°18′12″E / 25.042906°S 128.303417°E / -25.042906; 128.303417
----
A sign marking the boundary of Victory Downs, the beginning of the original Gunbarrel Highway. This section is now known as Mulga Park Road.
A sign at Wiluna, Western Australia.

The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.[4] It consists of about 1,350 km (840 mi) of washaways, heavy corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway connects Victory Downs in the Northern Territory to Carnegie Station in Western Australia.[5] Some sources incorrectly show the highway extending west to Wiluna.[6]

The road was built as part of Australia's role in the weapons research establishment called Woomera which included Emu Field and Maralinga, both atomic bomb testing sites. The name comes from Len Beadell's Gunbarrel Road Construction Party, so named as his intention was to build roads as straight as a gunbarrel.[7] The highway was protested by the Australian group Midnight Oil in their song of the same name as the highway.

  1. ^ "Gunbarrel Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Location SA Map viewer with regional layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  3. ^ "investNT - Northern Territory Interactive Map". Archived from the original on 5 June 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  4. ^ Hema, Maps (2005). Australia’s Great Desert Tracks NW Sheet (Map). Eight Mile Plains Queensland: Hema Maps. ISBN 978-1-86500-159-3.
  5. ^ Shephard, Mark (1998). A Lifetime in the Bush:The biography of Len Beadell. Adelaide: Corkwood Press. ISBN 1-876247-05-3.
  6. ^ "Author to speak at Hd. Valley". Trove.nla.gov.au. Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986)(55). 24 April 1974. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  7. ^ "Author to speak at Hd. Valley". Trove.nla.gov.au. Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986)(55). 24 April 1974. Retrieved 16 April 2021.