Friday 5 February 2016

Nullarbor Roadhouse SA

Nullarbor Roadhouse is just in the middle of nowhere.  Land there is flat as a tack!

To understand the rich history of the Nullarbor, you first need to understand how it earned its name.
Back in 1866, surveyor E. Alfred Delisser was working on the Nullarbor Plain and took note of the significant lack of trees existing in the area. He is credited with creating the name Nullarbor, which is Latin for “no trees”. Do not let this name deceive you though; barring a few baron areas, there are many different species of trees and other local fauna spread across the Plain.

Prior to 1956, the site was home to Nullarbor Station and covered 1.25 million acres (that’s x2.7 larger then Singapore!). There were paddocks of sheep, horses and cattle, along with some wild wombats and dingos. In 1956, then station manager Elwyn, or “Scobe”, as he was affectionately known, decided to sell petroleum to generate additional revenue. The petrol would be hand pumped out of the drums into gallon tanks and sold to locals and visitors passing through.

A small shop was also established in an old stone building. Its products were more traditional than what you’re likely to see in stores these days – tea, canned food, biscuits, lollies and cordial drinks made up day to day sales. Elwyn’s wife Coral would also occasionally cook up homemade scones, cakes and, occasionally, any rabbits they might have caught. Coral would later go on to write about her family life at the Nullarbor station in great detail in her book, ‘Our Life at Nullarbor’.

The roadhouse has become a popular stopover for most travellers in part due to its isolation. It is approximately 300km west of Ceduna, and 200km east of the South Australian / West Australian border. As you could imagine, due to its location, the sun is always smiling over the Nullarbor. During the summer, temperatures consistently rest in the 30’s, however the “Nullarbor Doctor” arrives nightly in the form of a cool southerly breeze, ensuring you rest easily throughout the evening.
Michael
– Nullarbor Roadhouse General Manager

Link to the above is [ here ]


Filling up at Nullarbor 


The motel, petrol, and resturant






52 comments:

  1. sounds interesting place to visit,i only saw such places only in movies and found always attractive due to their different look

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    1. Know doubt if we had stayed there longer we would have seen much more of the town.

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  2. an original place! we do not have it here! the photo with the gasoline station pleases me!

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    1. France would be more populated than there in Nullarbor by far.

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  3. Love the blue sky and cottony clouds. Interesting to see the petrol filling station.

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    1. The photo where our vehicle and caravan is, that's the fast flowing diesel one. The others under cover are for LPG (Gas), normal Diesel and Petrol of various types.

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  4. The description was interesting. Also interesting whale with no ocean in sight!

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    1. Definitely no sea right there...just a reminder there are whales in that area of the sea.

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  5. Great informative road travel report, Margaret.
    I was always under the impression that the road across the Nullarbor stayed closer to the coastline. Sure is a desolate region and no wonder with the unforgiving landscape!
    Another "Doctor" for night respite - thank God for that in the summer months, but I wonder what the "doctor" brings in the winter months as in the populated areas closer to Adelaide and Adelaide itself, those winter Antarctic winds freeze you - a not too polite Aussie expression hardly fit for a family blog, ie: "BRASS / MONKEYS / ROUND OBJECTS" - ha ha.
    I don't believe that plastic whale would last long in the Bight - those "Great Whites" ( not the Greg Normans of the golf World) would not be playing water polo with it!!!
    Cheers
    PS: Another cool day in store here!!!! Where is February?????
    I am certainly not complaining.

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    1. Thank you Colin.
      I should imagine in the dead of winter it would certainly become very cold with those southerly winds when that happened.
      Fortunately we didn't experience those winds when we came across last winter.
      Early days for February yet.

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  6. We live in such a varied country. Flat and dry isn't my favourite scenery, but there is still an austere beauty in those barren lands...

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  7. I keep thinking I'm looking at parts of Nevada.... No Las Vegas there, though!

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    1. Definitely no Las Vegas, no hills, no mountains, just nothing.
      Friends have been to Vegas and brought back photos to show me:)

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  8. Margaret so interesting palce I have seen places without trees in Turkey but your area is much more interesting

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    1. Each country and place is different, sometimes they resemble other places, and some places are just unique.

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  9. Pleasurable thank you for sharing.

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  10. The clouds you have captured are wonderful and they give great appeal to the photos .

    Kisses

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    1. Interesting clouds in the first shot..many places in winter don't have any clouds, especially further up north.

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  11. Good feeling of freedom in such places and you would see the enemy coming.
    Merle............

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    1. Yes you would see the enemy coming Merle, nowhere to hide there for sure.

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  12. Schöne Bilder von dem Land und dem einsamen Ort. Interessante die Reise.

    Gruß
    Noke






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  13. "The sun is always smiling on the Nullarbor" - now that's a gentle way to say it. :-)

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    1. Hopefully the sun will always shine in the future across the Nullarbor. Can not be so good in bad weather which we have not experienced there.

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  14. Love the smile on that whale!
    I hope the windows and doors on that motel are positioned to catch that 'Nullabor Doctor'
    The best thing about summer is the occasional southerly breeze, but city homes don't seem to be oriented properly to catch it. (We do have huge expanses of plate glass windows to 'catch the sun' though.)

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  15. Anybody for petrol?????????????? Brilliant images Margaret.

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    1. Thanks.
      Petrol is what Americans call 'gasoline'. Australians have Gas, but it's not gasoline..

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  16. Nice, thank you for this treat

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  17. Wow. That's a lot of acreage. Do they still own that much property or has it been sold off? If you mentioned this, apologies for missing it.
    Have a wonderful weekend, Margaret.

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    1. As far as I know they still own that much. 'Stations' as they are called are large in Australia.

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  18. That's an adventure such a trip.

    Greetings,
    Filip

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    1. A long enjoyable trip is was Filip and Kristel, and still more to come.

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  19. So vast - So different
    Enjoyed your photo's

    All the best Jan

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  20. I'm running behind with my blog reading...so please forgive me, Margaret.

    That whale is a bit out of his depth! :)

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    1. That's ok Lee, we do have more to do than blogging and commenting sometimes :)
      Oh yes, the poor whale would not be the best :)

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  21. That's a beautiful trip !! Always nice to see a photos of your trip !!
    Have a nice Sunday :)

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  22. you have great place from where people like me who are completely strangers to such places can know them better and learn alot ,

    No trees sounds horrible to me because i cannot take breath with ease without having lots of trees around me ,but glad that this area has some kinds of trees though nice sharing dear

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  23. It's good that you can visit to see The areas of Australia I have visited..

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