At Speed Through Australia
By Harold Dvoretsky
ANY REASONABLE driver in any reasonable car can get across Australia by road in 72-hours driving time. Most people however, prefer to take five or six leisurely days, sometimes more, and enjoy the scenic grandeur of the route.

Except for about 350-miles in the centre, the direct route of 2751 miles from Fremantle to Sydney is for the motorist a piece of cake.

Unfortunately for London-Sydney Marathon crews the way for them is not the way of the discriminating tourist. What they are heading for (and I shudder as I write this) is a journey of 3500 miles of suspension busting tracks full of corrugations and potholes and those sharp-edged stones sticking up from the earth. These are what we call in Australia: "gibber" rocks. Gibber rocks are the best tyre-shredders in the business.
Then there's the bull-dust - that fine, fine sand which as dust can put up a screen which will hang about for hours if there is no wind to blow it away. Bull-dust defies any car sealing, as any motor manufacturer who has tried to export to Australia well knows. The car that is really dustproof hasn't been invented when it comes to bull-dust as any outback motorist will tell you.

When this dust is dry it will sit down in the bottom of a corrugation which will gradually get bigger and bigger as the mighty trucks and other traffic race across it. Eventually it's a deep hole five, six or even ten feet wide. It is full of the lightest powdery and finest sand you can see anywhere.

The trouble is that from a fast moving car there doesn't appear to be a hole at all. Travelling on what looks like a clear "acre-wide" highway can be a trap for the unsuspecting motorist. Drop in those holes at speed and you've lost, at a minimum, the entire front suspension, radiator - plus a few front teeth if you are stupid enough not to be wearing a safety harness.
Occasionally, even in Australian summer in the outback (that's in December) there's that sudden thunderstorm that can drop around two, three or even four inches of rain. All good stuff for the station owner looking for summer feed for his cattle and sheep. Next day there'll be green everywhere. But absolute hell for anything on wheels - even four wheel drive vehicles. When the rains come in the dry parts of Australia, the bull-dust holes become quagmires of slippery, slushy, silky red-brown mud. The roads are slippery like ice.

As night falls across the Nullarbor (a place without trees but not an actual desert) the chill winds penetrate the car. To have the heater on and the windows up means a sleepy driver - the main enemy of any rally crew. To have the window down means a freezing one - and an uncomfortable rally driver is almost as much danger.
It is not so much the lowness of the temperature (which can be down around freezing) but the great contrast with the daytime temperature which can be up to 120 Fahrenheit in the shade.

And all through the night, through the dusty bull-dust haze come the headlights of the "heavies" and the cars heading back to the West. December is nearing the great holiday time when Australians journey home and go on holiday across the Continent. It's also the time when manufacturers want their goods delivered in a hurry for the Christmas rush so the heavies on the Nullarbor and outback are busy too.
You might be thinking the Marathon will end right there once the outback and Nullarbor roads have been traversed. You'd think after all those days, the drivers who had beat the dust, the mud, the heat and the animals would get a bit of rest. They won't. The toughest part is yet to come.

First the tearing, bonking, bashing, car-breaking South Australian Flinders Ranges. Then it is up among the breath-taking scenery and blue vastness of the Australian Alps, the Snowies. And it is here that competitors will suddenly find themselves on twisty mountainous and gravelly roads which will make any Coupes des Alpes winner feel right at home.

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Just before the final run in to Sydney comes the shortest section of the whole Marathon. It is designed, say the organisers, to "sort out any competitor who has escaped major penalties so far".

It takes a good imagination to start to picture what's in store. Let us say it's a little bit of every driver's hell in five or six long hours.

At the end of it all those who survive, those who collect the trophies and the £10,000 first prize and even those who almost made it, will have more to tell their grand-children than competitors in any motoring event - ever.
European Motoring Editor, Sydney Telegraph, and 1968 Chairman of the Guild of Motoring Writers.
Then there's the animals - the 'roos, the brumbies (they're wild horses), the wombats and even a steer or two just to name some. Some Marathon crews are going to learn why they've carried those animal guards out-front for so long.

(And I have a tip for them. If they do happen to see a big six foot high boomer kangaroo wearing a gent's suit jacket, take heed. He is the 'roo one unfortunate competitor in a Round Australia Reliability Trial thought he'd killed. He wanted a picture for the wife so dressed the 'roo up in his jacket. It had his wallet, his money and all his papers in it. As the camera snapped so did the 'roo - into life. He's been going ever since and the competitor has never seen his coat or his money.)
Madura Pass - Nullarbor Plain (main highway)
Brachina Gorge - with 'straights' of only a few yards.
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Home I A Tale Of Two Cities I How It All Began I The Entrants I The Rules I Timetable I The Route I Their Story I Photo Albums
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The Ladies I How They Finished I BMC I Ford I Holden I Other Marques I Site Map I Memorabilia I Credits/About Us I Links