Great Central Road - Conditions?

Wow! Thanks Michelle. Cheers.John.

Hi Dunc; good to see you're still kicking around too...

I'm sure you already know this but for the benefit of others I'll expand a bit. Generally speaking the WA section (900 kays'ish) of the GCR is mainly in moderate to good condition, with poor sections being reasonably short.

But the NT section (200 kay'ish), by reputation, can be horrendous. And so it was for us in Aug 2015. We had arrived in Yulara after a Simpson crossing and went to the local workshop to borrow a trolley jack to do a wheel change. We noted that their large yard was absolutely chockers with damaged vehicles. On inquiry one of the mechanics told us that most were recent arrivals having been trucked out of the NT section due to damage by corrugation.

Anyway, we decided to press on (we had a permit to go down from Docker to Surveyor General's Corner and then west via the communities road back to the GCR). However, we only made it 5 kays on to the GCR before we gave up. We had never experienced a dirt road as bad as this was. We heard later that the Docker IPA had shortly after been declared and that grading had been delayed to prepare for this event. Not sure if its true but possibly plausible. In any case we returned to the west via the Eyre instead, even tho this option was so much longer.

A cautionary tale...

Cheers.

Got to love the corrugations. Oddly enough I've never done that section having turned off at the Sandy Blight Junction Road heading east and coming home from the Simpson used the SSBJ Rd again. Keep saying that I must drive that section so that I can also enjoy the free massage to my bum and the rest of me, and there is nothing like watching bits fall off your vehicle.

John, we've done the GCR about five times since 2014, and certainly on the first couple the section east from Docker River was serious bone-shaking Pindan sand corros - up there with the Rainbow Valley road. On the last few, that bit has been a lot better, and now as a teaser there is a national highway grade sealed section.

Historically the worst on the WA side have been the first part east of Warburton (stony) and the Warakurna-border bit which gets progressively worse as you near NT.

[Still our preferred route to Qld ...]