{"id":3094,"date":"2009-12-28T10:31:20","date_gmt":"2009-12-28T15:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=3094"},"modified":"2022-06-11T10:31:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-11T15:31:56","slug":"amazing-australian-road-distances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/amazing-australian-road-distances\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazing Australian Road Distances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Colin, a reader from South Hedland in Western Australia, sensed my dismay with the long distance displayed on a particular Texas road sign<\/a>. He offered to share some extreme examples from his homeland.(1<\/a>)<\/b><\/sup> My sign noted that El Paso, on the other side of the state, was 857 miles (1,380 kilometres) away. That’s pretty good but prepare to be amazed with some Australian road signs from Colin’s collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Carnarvon – Mullewa Road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So let’s start at the town of Carnarvon on the western coast where the Gascoyne River meets the Indian Ocean. I enjoyed this image in particular. It shows the type of road that vehicles must cover on many sections of this sparsely-populated terrain. Namely dirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Road<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Colin mentioned that the road is sealed (paved) for about 100 km after this point. However, it reverts back to dirt for the next 500 km or so. Imagine riding over 500 km of dirt at a speed of probably 90 km\/hour. The sign in the distance is a bit illegible because I had to reduce the size of the photo to fit into the blog, so here is a close-up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Distances<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The furthest distance listed is Mullewa at 663 km (412 mi). That’s still less than the Texas road sign. But let’s remember that this is largely a dirt track for several hundred kilometres. It’s nothing like the high-speed interstate highway that rips across the width of Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n