Gunbarrel Highway
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Gunbarrel Highway Northern Territory–Western Australia |
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| The highway is "as straight as a gun barrel" in some places | |
 East end
West end
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| Coordinates |
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| Type | Track |
| Length | 1,347 km (837 mi) |
| East end | Amata Road, Victory Downs Homestead |
| West end | Carnegie Homestead |
| Region | Central Australia, Gibson Desert |
| Permits | 3 required |
| Fuel supply | Wiluna (26°36′S 120°14′E / 26.600°S 120.233°E), Carnegie, Warburton (26°13′S 126°39′E / 26.217°S 126.650°E), and Warakurna Roadhouse. |
The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. 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. Some sources incorrectly show the highway extending west to Wiluna. 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.
There were three main reasons for the construction of the Gunbarrel Highway. The first was to provide access for a future meteorological station which was needed to forecast upper winds prior to the testing of atomic weapons in South Australia. The second was for instrumentation along the centre-line of fire for rockets launched from Woomera, and the third was to allow surveyors from the National Mapping Council to continue the geodesic survey of little known areas of outback Australia. A consequence of the construction was the completion of the first east-west road link across the centre of Australia.
The road was built in four stages beginning in 1955. In early November, the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party (GRCP) assembled near Coober Pedy in South Australia, half coming from Adelaide together with a bulldozer, and half with a grader from Maralinga, led by Len Beadell. The starting point was Victory Downs homestead just over the border with the Northern Territory, and 24 kilometres west of the Stuart Highway. Work began on 13 November 1955, and continued westward to Mulga Park. An interruption occurred after about 35 km when the grader's blade mounting bolts were snapped after hitting a submerged Mulga tree root. Beadell made a hurried return trip to Alice Springs for parts. The road reached Mulga Park on 2 December, where construction ceased for the year, as the bulldozer's starting pilot motor had failed. Beadell continued ahead on a ground reconnaissance, then on 7 December made an aerial survey which departed from a natural airstrip in the Mount Davies vicinity, and flew towards the Rawlinson Ranges where the future weather station was to be located. With the knowledge gained, Beadell led a ground party of four Land Rovers to the site where a stone cairn was built on 12 December. The site was named Giles after Ernest Giles (the first European to explore the area in 1874). Beadell's Land Rover suffered a broken rear axle during the return towards Mount Davies, so an axle was borrowed from one of the other vehicles which was left behind to be recovered the following year.
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Wikipedia