Perth to Alice Springs road trip guide: Driving distance & best stops

Perth to Alice Springs road trip: Turning north

Now, it’s finally time to turn north.

The distance from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy along the Stuart Highway is 540km. That makes for a driving time of around five hours and 34 minutes.

In that time, unless you take a detour off the highway, the only places vaguely resembling a settlement are the Stuart Highway roadhouses at Pimba and Glendambo. They are your only options if you need to buy fuel, or something to eat.

There are, however, a couple of worthwhile diversions on the route. First up is Woomera, a short drive from Pimba. This military town was once top secret and hidden from the world. The visitor centre here tells of how it became Australia’s weapons-testing hub, although there’s understandably more emphasis on it now being a centre for space research.

Woomera is a wonderfully weird place. There are some great photo opportunities with the collection of missiles standing in a park in the middle of town.

Click through to the next section: Lake Hart and Coober Pedy.