Adelaide to Perth road trip: Distance, drive time & best stops

Adelaide to Perth road trip: Across the Nullarbor

From Ceduna, the Eyre Highway continues across the dreaded Nullarbor. The drive from Ceduna to Norseman in Western Australia is 1,201km long, and you’re unlikely to have mobile phone reception for any of this journey. Eucla or Border Village are arguably the best bets for an overnight stop on the way.

A few short detours along the route make the Nullarbor crossing much more enjoyable, however.

At Penong, there are the strange windmills of the Penong Windmill Museum, surfer haven Cactus Beach and the curiously pink Lake MacDonnell.

Then comes Head of Bight near the Nullarbor Roadhouse. Here you can see towering cliffs to the right, and southern right whales in the ocean below.

The Western Australian side of the Nullarbor is duller. But it’s still worth walking through the sand dunes to see the old telegraph station ruins at Eucla. Then, after driving the longest straight road in Australia, there’s the mini museum about the Skylab space station at Balladonia.

Your mobile phone signal should return in Norseman, where you leave the Eyre Highway. It’s hard to avoid spending a night here. Norseman accommodation options include the motel-ish Great Western Travel Village and the fairly cheap Acclaim Gateway Tourist Park.

From here, it’s just over two hours’ drive north to gold mining city Kalgoorlie.

Click through to the next section: Kalgoorlie to Perth.