Driving the Plenty Highway
The Plenty Highway from Boulia, Queensland to Stuart Highway, Northern Territory.
Last time the Rock Dr and I drove the Plenty Highway was 30 years ago and to call it a highway was a bit of a stretch. Back then the ‘highway’ was either a dirt road with so many corrugations I thought the road had been named after them because there were certainly plenty of them. When you weren’t on the dirt the only way you knew which direction to go was to follow the grass that had been driven over by the person before. Signs were few and at one point the grass track split two ways. The Rock Dr and I tossed a coin to work out which one to take.
I should mention that our original foray on ‘The Plenty’ was in a 2WD commodore ute. Back then you had to call into the Harts Range police station and give your name. They in turn called it through to the Boulia police station and gave them our eta. I remember the wry smile the Boulia policeman delivered as he said dryly, ‘you made it! We were taking bets.’ Ahhh to be young with neurons that weren’t yet connected….
Today the highway is really starting to look like one. Like many of the original outback tracks and roads it is slowly being sealed. To date 450kms out of 800 is bitumen. While it made the trip safer and faster we did lament that a bit of the excitement was missing. Nothing fosters marital harmony more than throwing an axel or shredding a tyre or two on an outback road. It’s just not the same.
Our first night on the Plenty was spent camping around 20kms the Alice side of the station ‘Tobermorey’. We found a fence line at 90degrees to the road, followed it into the bush and found a spot to set up. Remember if you chose to do this, you are on someone’s property so be respectful and leave it how you found it. We were well hidden. Only two living things knew we were there. Some cattle which nonchalantly meandered through our camp. We thought this was quite charming until the thought occurred to us that there might be a bull amongst them. We were then less charmed and more scared!
The other living things were THE FLIES! We’d somehow managed to dissociate these flying mosh pits of menace from our memories but they hadn’t forgotten us. Like a small country being annexed by China, the Chinese (aka flies) descended upon us in a cloud of winged malice. I reluctantly won the ‘first to swallow a fly’ award. We’re both in contention for the ‘first to get a fly up the nose’ award.
Once the sun settled into bed so did our buzzing friends. We then got out our new toy…..starlink. I have to say when I purchased this toy my hands were shaking as the thought of giving even a cent to the ‘ketamine fuelled, cackling narcissist’ that is Elon Musk made me want to puke. Credit to Bob Geldoff for that apt description. Clearly he’s not a fan either.
Artful descriptions aside, I hate to say it but starlink works better than the nbn. So it was that with a warming fire crackling, wine in hand (because I’m a posh bogan), and with a ceiling of stars overhead we watched the State of Origin at our bush camp in the middle of Australia.
The next day we travelled further west. Enroute we passed a rather large termite nest. This thing is massive and to think it is made from mud and the poo and saliva of one of the smallest creatures on earth is quite something. It speaks to the power of working together to achieve what alone is unachievable. Perhaps us humans should take note.
We thought we would bushcamp again that night but with roadworks galore, unfriendly fence lines running parallel to the road and signs which read ‘keep out’ it was all just a bit too hard. But we needn’t have worried. We drove through to Gemtrees where we were greeted with a friendly backpacker staff member, a large camping area all to ourselves and a bonus hot shower. We were happy.
If this story has stirred your adventuring spirit, I’d love you to visit my art gallery page and explore the drawings these travels have inspired. www.catherinegordonart.com
*We travelled the plenty highway in June 2025.
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