The Great Central Road is a mostly unsealed Australian highway that runs from

Laverton, Western Australia Laverton, originally known as British Flag, is a town in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, and the centre of administration for the Shire of Laverton. The town of Laverton is located at the western edge of the Great Victoria Desert, ...

Yulara Yulara is a town in the southern region of the Northern Territory, Australia. It is an unincorporated enclave within the MacDonnell Region. At the , Yulara had a permanent population of 1,099, in an area of . It is by road from the World Heri ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. It passes through a number of small communities on the way. It forms part of the Outback Way which goes all the way to

Winton, Queensland Winton is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Winton in Central West Queensland, Australia. It is northwest of Longreach. The main industries of the area are sheep and cattle raising. The town was named in 1876 by postmaster Rober ...

History

The Great Central Road has its origins in the early 1930s when Warburton was established as a missionary settlement, and supplies were delivered from Laverton via a rough bush track. By the mid 1950s, the track from Laverton had become graded dirt. In 1958 during survey for the

Gunbarrel Highway The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It consists of about of washaways, heavy Corrugated road, corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway c ...

as part of the

Woomera rocket range The RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately north-west of Adelaide. The WRC is operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a S ...

project, Len Beadell visited Warburton and built a new road from Giles via the Rawlinson Range to Warburton. At Jackie Junction north of Warburton, the Gunbarrel Highway branched from this road towards

Carnegie Station Carnegie station may refer to: * Carnegie Station, Western Australia, Australia; a pastoral lease * Carnegie railway station, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia * Carnegie station (Pittsburgh Regional Transit), Carnegie, Pennsylvania, USA See also ...

further west. Beadell returned to Giles via a different bush track which passed east through the Blackstone Range towards Docker River. In January 1978 funds were provided to Warburton council by the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government or the Western Australian Governmen ...

to construct a more direct road from Warburton to Docker River which bypassed part of the twenty-year-old Gunbarrel Highway. The Great Central Road and original Gunbarrel Highway are coincident for near Giles.

Present conditions

Though still recommended only for

four-wheel drive A four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, is a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case pr ...

vehicles, the road is now graded to a standard suitable for two wheel drive vehicles and caravans. It is on the most direct route from

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

to Ayers Rock with approximately 10,000 vehicles travelling the route annually. When heading from the Northern Territory to Laverton there is an amnesty bin for Quarantine WA outside of Laverton. All passenger vehicles are to stop and dispose of all quarantine risk material that is stated on the sign, including all fresh fruit, vegetables, honey, seed, potatoes, onions and other such plants. This area has a mobile inspector from time to time and there is risk of fines if travellers are stopped and offending material is found. There are fuel supplies at the following locations along the route. The distances below are relative to Laverton. * Cosmo Newbery – , * Tjukayirla Roadhouse – , * Warburton – , * Warakurna Roadhouse – , * Docker River – and * Yulara – . It is recommended that communications equipment be carried while driving on this road. The route also passes directly into Aboriginal reserves and it is a legal requirement for travellers to hold a valid transit permit at the time of travel, even when staying on the Great Central Road. Two permits are required and they are available from the Department of Planning, Lands & Heritage in Western Australia and the

Central Land Council The Central Land Council (CLC) is a land council that represents the Aboriginal peoples of the southern half of the Northern Territory of Australia (NT), predominantly with regard to land issues. it is one of four land councils in the Northern ...

in the Northern Territory. The permits are free.

Upgrades

The

Northern Australia Roads Program Northern Australia Roads Program is a suite of projects designed to deliver upgrades to high priority roads in northern Australia. In 2016 the Australian Government announced 19 projects to be funded under this program, and in 2020 another was add ...

announced in 2016 included the following project for the Great Central Road (Tjukaruru Road).

Sealing and upgrades

The project to seal and upgrade an unsealed section of the road is expected to be complete in late 2022 at a total cost of $10 million. In 2024, the road was closed for some months due to flooding.

Gallery

File:Gcr2xxx2er3.jpg, Sign near

Giles Weather Station Giles Weather Station (also referred to as Giles Meteorological Station or Giles) is located in Western Australia near the Northern Territory border, about west-south-west of Alice Springs and west of Uluru. It is the only staffed weather sta ...

File:Great Central Road near Tjukayirla.jpg, The Great Central Road is of suitable standard for 2WD vehicles File:TjukaruruRoadAtKataTjuta1998.jpg, Tjukaruru Road (NT section of Great Central Road) just west of The Olgas

Attractions

The two most notable attractions on this road are The Olgas and

Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...

(Ayers Rock), both within the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory. On the Western Australian side of the border, other attractions include Tjukayirla Roadhouse, whose name derives from the Tjukayirla rockholes, which are located at the southwest end of the campground. Wildlife can be seen around the roadhouse, including

dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...

es,

emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

camels A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide ...

and many species of birds. Empress Springs, or Reti, is a significant cultural site for Ngalia people, and is situated on land subject to a native title claim. The site is depicted in a

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

Police Station, created by Deeva and Kado Muir in 2018. The springs are inside a cave, located around north along the David Carnegie Road, the junction of which is along the Great Central Road west of the roadhouse. Access is via a chain ladder. Nearby attractions include the marker erected by surveyors Harry L. Paine and Hugh C. Barclay in 1931 on their expedition to the Warburton Ranges, known as the Paine & Barclay Survey Marker. The closest rockhole to the marker is the Winduldarra Rockhole. Additional attractions include Lasseter's Cave, the Petermann Ranges,

, the

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colou ...

bluff of Giles Breakaway, Lake Throssell, Lake Yeo Nature Reserve, and Peegull Waterhole and Caves.

Junctions

References

External links

Great Central Road on ExplorOzGreat Central Road (Tourism Western Australia)
{{Road infrastructure in Western Australia Australian outback tracks Goldfields–Esperance Roads in the Northern Territory Roads in Western Australia Great Victoria Desert Gravel roads