Port Augusta to Coober Pedy drive: Distance, time & road trip attractions
Road trip attractions on the Port Augusta to Coober Pedy drive include Woomera and Lake Hart. The distance is 540km, making for a Port Augusta to Coober Pedy driving time of 5h40m.
If on a road trip through central Australia from Adelaide to Alice Springs, or Adelaide to Darwin, the Port Augusta to Coober Pedy leg is the one where you start to feel the enormity of the Australian outback.
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This is the first, and arguably emptiest stretch of the Stuart Highway. The Port Augusta to Coober Pedy drive is, for the most part, an exercise in unrelenting desert starkness.
It’s not an especially arduous drive. The Stuart Highway is sealed and kept in good condition. It’s not as if you’re fighting along a corrugated outback track in a 4WD, here.
Port Augusta to Coober Pedy distance and driving time
The distance from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy along the Stuart Highway is 540km. That makes for a Port Augusta to Coober Pedy driving time of around five hours and 34 minutes.
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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.
Port Augusta to Coober Pedy: Woomera and Lake Hart
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.
The other worthwhile stop on the Port Augusta to Coober Pedy drive is Lake Hart. There are several salt lakes in the South Australian outback, but Lake Hart is the easiest to access. Basically, you can pull off the highway, park up, cross the train tracks and find yourself next to a huge, dazzling salt pan.
Coober Pedy accommodation options include the Mud Hut Motel, which offers free parking, or the underground rooms at the Desert Cave Hotel,
Port Augusta accommodation picks
Port Augusta accommodation tends towards the functional. Few people stay here more than one night. Booking site Wotif lists options for from $89, if you’d like to check what’s available.
However, these Port Augusta accommodation choices are particularly worth looking at:
- For heritage and character: Pampas Motel.
- For green credentials: Crossroads Ecomotel.
- For overall quality: Majestic Oasis Apartments.
- For cheap rates and a pool: Discovery Parks – Port Augusta.
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