Canning Stock Route – centenary adventure travel tour - Features - Way2go

In 1906 Alfred Canning set out to survey an overland stock route from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, south to Wiluna, which is 550 kilometers north of Kalgoorlie. In 1908 he led a well construction team which constructed 51 wells along the 2000 kilometer track, which crosses over about 950 sand dunes of the Little Sandy, Great Sandy and Tanami deserts.

In 2006, the centenary of Canning's survey of the track, Norm and I set off on our Canning Stock Route adventure. We travelled with friends Laurie (who led the group) and Kate, and Hugh and Ann-Marie.

At 8am on 2 July 2006 we set off from Halls Creek and drove out to Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater. As we arrived in the car park, a chap pulled up beside us in an old bomb of a car. When he got out we were startled to see that he looked very much like the notorious backpack murderer, Ivan Milat, who influenced the story line in a recent movie called Wolf Creek.

We all climbed up to the rim of the crater. We girls stayed there while the boys descended down into the crater (the Ivan Milat look-alike was down there too). Thankfully the boys returned unscathed.

We decided to make our first day a short one, so set up camp beside a beautiful billabong on Sturt Creek just off the Tanami Track. It was such a picturesque location. The still, cool water had barely a ripple on it. Laurie set up our communal loo to take advantage of the view - best loo with a view so far.

There were many birds beside the water and in the trees, including darters, herons, lapwings, crows, magpies, finches and many others. The air echoed with the chorus of lovely birdsong as the setting sun turned the sky to glorious shades of pink and red. As evening closed in around us, we sat by our camp fire enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and listening to the night sounds as the local wildlife settled down.

The next day our journey began in earnest as we tuned our radios to Channel 40, lowered our tyre pressures and turned onto the Canning Stock Route (CSR) at Bililuna Station.

Over the next two weeks the track took us through water crossings, over sandy dune country, rocky plains, red sandstone hills, corrugations like you could not imagine, muddy boggy tracks, through and around clay pans both dry and wet, and salt lakes.

In the beginning, the track was wide and well graded but it was soon reduced to a narrow track which at times disintegrated into two narrow wheel ruts travelling through prickly, scratchy spinifex and bushes.

As a result of a good wet season earlier in the year, we were thrilled to see many beautiful wild flowers on our travels. Amongst the most prolific were the grevilleas, particularly the spectacular red holly grevilleas. Halfway down the track we passed through a section that reminded us of the Garden of Eden. The sweet honey perfume of the tea trees was almost overpowering and the red sandy soil was covered by mats of creepers that were a mass of soft pink balls. Nature creates such glorious gardens.

One of the breathtaking highlights was when we came across a lone Sturts Desert Pea in full flower, happily growing between the two wheel ruts of the track.

Several graves along the way reminded us that life could not be taken for granted in this harsh, inhospitable country, particularly in the earlier years. The grave of Michael Tobin, who was on Canning's 1906-07 expedition, is located near Well 40. Although Tobin was fatally wounded by an Aboriginal spear, he managed to shoot and kill the spear-thrower before expiring. A huge salt lake south of Well 40 has been named after Tobin.

We were very impressed by the huge termite mounds near the track which crosses Lake Tobin. Shortly after leaving Lake Tobin Norm and I set up camp in a lovely grove of Desert Oaks. As evening descended and we were enjoying our camp fire, the local dingo population treated us to a howling concert. They produced such a haunting, and yet beautiful sound, which left us with goose bumps.

Near Well 37, which is rumoured to be haunted, there are three graves of drovers: Shoesmith and Thompson as well as an aboriginal know as 'Chinaman'. They were all killed there in 1911 by Aboriginal people in the area.

Just past Well 33 is the aboriginal settlement of Kunawarritji where we were able to top up our fuel as well as buy some frozen bread and take a shower. There is nothing so wonderful as having a shower after having had to go without for so long.

While reading up about Well 32, Ann-Marie noticed a short article about that Well's reputation for destroying shock absorbers. All too soon we were to be reminded of this. After leaving Well 32 we took a side trip out to the impressive Thring Rock, which is a rocky outcrop standing out in the flat stony country of the Gibson Desert.

It was soon after leaving the well that we became aware of a disturbing clatter coming from Hugh and Ann-Marie's almost brand new LandCruiser. Sure enough, the well had lived up to its reputation. Fortunately, we carried a satellite phone with us, and were able to phone ahead to Newman and arrange to have a new set of shock absorbers delivered to us further down the track at Georgia Bore, near Well 23 where there is a fuel dump.

Upon arriving at Thring Rock, we took a climb up to the top of the rock, where we were rewarded with spectacular views of the surrounding country for miles around. We set up camp in view of the rock and enjoyed the changing colours as the sun set, and the moon rose.

On our first evening at Well 26, we enjoyed a delicious camp oven roast lamb, complete with vegetables and gravy, accompanied by a fairly respectable red wine. Our table was set with a table cloth, and the décor was completed with a very pretty floral arrangement of wild flowers in an empty beer can. Hugh had his Roy Orbison CD playing at a decent rate of decibels. The night sky was ablaze with stars augmented by an almost full moon. The camp fire took the edge off the cool evening and a great night was enjoyed by us all.

Until we reached Well 26, the weather had been very kind to us and the evenings, although cool were not unpleasant. The morning after our feast, we woke to cold, wet, windy conditions, which caused us to quickly don our beanies, gloves, jackets and warm socks. As we continued south from Well 26 we found that the damp sand dunes took on quite a different appearance. The soft, dry, orange-red sandy conditions of the earlier sand dunes changed to a sticky, muddy, dark brown-red surface. However, with our tyre pressures still down, we did not have any great trouble travelling over them.

The spinifex had taken on a brighter sandy gold colour and the shrubby bushes were more of a blue-grey colour. The colours were beautifully set off by the rusty red of the soil and rocks.

Near Well 23 we located our barrels of diesel which we had ordered to be delivered from the Capricornia Road House prior to leaving on our adventure. Once we had refuelled, we continued on to nearby Georgia Bore where we set up camp to wait for Hugh's shock absorbers to arrive with the next fuel dump due in a couple of days.

The cold, wet weather had set in with a vengeance, which dampened to some degree the fun of camping. Once the shock absorbers had been delivered, Norm and I had to leave the group and press on to get home in time for an appointment. We passed a freshly burnt out 4x4, a poignant reminder of the risk of spinifex getting caught around muffler, and causing a fire (although Norm said it was more likely caused by a ruptured petrol can carried on the roof rack).

We also passed several groups travelling north. One car with Swiss Tourists were travelling without any radio and they appeared unexpectedly at the top of a sand dune. Soon after we passed them we came across a chair in the middle of the track followed a few kilometres later by a water container and a garbage bin. They must have fallen from the roof rack of the Swiss travellers. Hope they made it okay.

As we completed our journey down the Canning, we encountered more wildlife than we had previously seen, including a bustard which tried ever so hard to disguise itself as a stick in the grass. There was a herd of camels ambling along the track and they were not at all impressed with having to give way to us. They gave us the filthiest looks as they glared at us over their shoulders.

The greatest thrill for us, however, was coming across a father (we presume) emu and his very young family trotting along the track. Poor old dad had a devil of a job convincing his brood that they would be better off following him into the bushes rather than continuing on along the track in front of us.

Our last night on the Canning was beside the beautiful Windich Springs, which reminded me of our first night out beside Sturt Creek. Although we woke to a much cooler morning, the birds sang to us as sweetly as before, and the water reflected the beautiful trees like a mirror.

During our fifteen days journey we had seen many wells in all sorts of conditions from well preserved or rebuilt functioning wells to ruins with a few rusty reminders of what was once there. By the end we were fairly 'welled' out, but it left us in awe of those early pioneers who lived such a challenging existence.

It was with great relief that we finally arrived at the 'super' dirt highway leading into Wiluna. For the first time in 15 days we were able to zoom along at 80 kpm, and not have to pull off to give way to the one or two oncoming cars. It was late afternoon when we drove into the camping ground behind the Wiluna Pub and we wasted no time in heading for the bar for a celebratory beer before setting up camp.

It was a wonderful experience and Norm and I have many fabulous memories of our travels down the Canning Stock Route.

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