Crossing the Nullarbor means riding the Eyre Highway, 1,664 km (1,034 miles) from Norseman in Western Australia to Port Augusta in South Australia, signed National Highway 1 in the west and A1 in the east. It is the only sealed road linking the two states. Around 1,200 km (750 miles) of it runs from Norseman to Ceduna across the Nullarbor Plain, and it includes the 90 Mile Straight, 146.6 km (91.1 miles) without a single bend, which is the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. This guide covers fuel gaps, heat, wildlife and road trains (verified August 2026).
What you are actually riding across
The Nullarbor Plain is about 200,000 km² (77,000 square miles) of flat, almost treeless, arid country between the Great Australian Bight and the Great Victoria Desert, and it is the world's largest single exposure of limestone bedrock. At its widest it stretches about 1,100 km east to west across the state border. The name is Latin — nulla arbor, no tree — and the traditional name used by the Mirning clans and Yinyila people was Oondiri, which is said to mean the waterless. Both names tell you what to plan for.
The riding, honestly, is not about corners. It is about distance, exposure and self-sufficiency. The typical view for hours at a time is a straight road and unchanging saltbush, and the road is mostly a two-lane single carriageway with a 110 km/h limit. What makes it a genuine achievement rather than just a long day is that everything you need has to be either on the bike or at the next roadhouse, and the next roadhouse can be a long way off.
Route at a glance
| Length | 1,664 km (1,034 miles), Norseman to Port Augusta |
| Nullarbor section | Norseman to Ceduna, about 1,200 km (750 miles) |
| Route numbers | National Highway 1 in Western Australia, A1 in South Australia |
| 90 Mile Straight | 146.6 km (91.1 miles) without a bend, between Balladonia and Caiguna |
| Road type | Mostly two-lane single carriageway, 110 km/h limit outside built-up areas |
| Services in WA | Roadhouses only across 720 km (450 miles), spaced 65 to 180 km apart, plus Eucla |
| Road trains | A-double and B-triple up to 42.5 m (139 ft); quads to 49.5 m (163 ft) on part of the SA section |
| Climate | Summer days near 50 °C (122 °F); winter nights below freezing; about 184 mm rain a year at Cook |
Open the Norseman to Port Augusta route in Google Maps — Norseman, Balladonia, Eucla, Ceduna, Port Augusta, which is worth sending to your navigation while you still have coverage in Norseman.
Fuel is the whole plan
Across the 720 km Western Australian stretch, apart from Eucla near the border, the roadhouses are the only settlements. They sit at Balladonia, Caiguna, Cocklebiddy, Madura and Mundrabilla, spaced between 65 and 180 km apart. That spacing is the number that decides whether your bike is suitable. A machine with a genuine 200 km range and a rider willing to fill at every stop is fine. A machine with a 180 km range and a rider who skips one because the last stop was expensive is in trouble.
Three rules that experienced crossers repeat, and that the geography backs up. Fill at every roadhouse regardless of how much is left in the tank, because the price difference is trivial against the consequence. Assume a headwind, because the plain has nothing to break one and a sustained crosswind or headwind will move your consumption more than any hill would. And treat opening hours as real — these are small businesses in extremely remote places, and a pump that is closed at 11 pm is functionally 180 km away.
The 90 Mile Straight and the passes nobody expects
Between Balladonia and Caiguna the road runs for 146.6 km (91.1 miles) without turning. It is signposted as the 90 Mile Straight, and it is the longest straight stretch of road in Australia and one of the longest anywhere in the world. Riders describe it less as a thrill than as a psychological exercise: with no corner to anticipate, no gradient and a horizon that never changes, concentration is the thing that degrades, not the bike. Take breaks you do not think you need.
The route is not entirely flat, which surprises people. Travelling east, the highway descends through the Madura Pass just before the Madura roadhouse, dropping off the plain onto the coastal Roe Plains, then runs along the bottom of the escarpment before climbing back through the Eucla Pass just before Eucla. Those two descents and the coastal strip between them are the visual highlight of the western half.
The other thing worth knowing is what some of the wide bits are for. Because of the remoteness, certain widened sections of highway double as emergency airstrips for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. They are signposted, they have runway markings painted on the road surface, and they have turnaround bays for small aircraft. When you see the markings, you are riding on a runway, and that is a reasonable reminder of how far you are from a hospital.
Heat, cold and picking your month
The Nullarbor is classified as cold desert and cold semi-arid rather than the hot desert of central Australia, which does not mean it is mild. Summer days get scorching, with daytime temperatures close to 50 °C (122 °F); the record of 49.9 °C (121.8 °F) at Nullarbor in South Australia is the fourth hottest temperature ever recorded in Australia and the hottest ever recorded there in December. Winter nights frequently drop well below freezing, and the coldest temperature ever recorded in Western Australia, −7.2 °C (19 °F), was measured at Eyre on this coast.
Rainfall is minimal — the mean annual figure at Cook is 184.1 mm (7.25 in), with most of it falling between May and August. Summers are very dry, with rain arriving mainly as sporadic storms, though a decaying tropical system occasionally dumps heavier rain.
The practical conclusion is that summer is the wrong season. Riding a fully loaded motorcycle across 1,200 km of shadeless plain in 45 °C heat is a heat-illness problem before it is a mechanical one, and there is no shade to pull into. Autumn and spring are the sensible windows. If you must ride in the heat, ride early, carry far more water than feels necessary, and remember that the roadhouses are your only reliable water source.
Wildlife, road trains and the practical details
Animals. Kangaroos are the species most commonly hit and killed by vehicles in Australia, and dusk and dawn are the highest-risk times. Out here you can add red kangaroos, dingoes, southern hairy-nosed wombats and, on some stretches, stock and feral camels. The recommended response to a large animal is to slow in lane rather than swerve suddenly, and on a bike at 110 km/h with a loaded tail pack the swerve is what hurts you. The strategy that actually works on the Nullarbor is scheduling: ride between mid-morning and late afternoon, and do not push on into dusk to make the next roadhouse.
Road trains. A-double and B-triple combinations up to 42.5 m (139 ft) run this highway, and quads up to 49.5 m (163 ft) are permitted between Ceduna and the Colona Station turnoff at a reduced 100 km/h. Overtaking one takes a long, committed run on a two-lane road, and the bow wave and turbulence from an oncoming one will move a laden bike. Give them room and do not overtake on a whim.
Road quality is not uniform. A 2013 assessment rated about 10 per cent of the Western Australian section as one or two star out of five, generally towards the Norseman end, with 91 per cent at three or four star. South Australia rated worse: 49 per cent at one or two star, mostly between Yalata and Ceduna and across the Eyre Peninsula. In casualty crashes per kilometre of road the highway is among the lowest risk in the country, simply because so few vehicles use it, but the individual risk per kilometre travelled was assessed as high on the 95 km stretch east of Yalata towards Fowlers Bay.
Gear notes for the emptiest road in the country
There is no meaningful mobile coverage across most of this crossing, so anything that needs a live connection is decoration. Loading the route and the roadhouse positions before Norseman, and running them on a display that works with the network gone, is basic preparation here — our guide to choosing a motorcycle GPS setup explains what offline capability actually means, and a JADO S6 riding system keeps the route and the cameras on one screen so your phone stays out of 45 °C sun.
Tyres are the failure mode that ends Nullarbor trips. Heat raises pressure, a slow puncture on a plain with no landmarks is easy to miss until it is not, and the nearest tyre shop can be several hundred kilometres in either direction. Our motorcycle tire pressure guide covers what to run and why, and a TPMS sensor is one of the few pieces of kit that genuinely changes the odds on a route like this, because it tells you about a leak while you can still reach a roadhouse. Power is the third gap: with hundreds of kilometres between sockets, a bi-directional fast charger that pulls from the bike and pushes into a phone or camera keeps your only communication device alive.
FAQ
How many days does it take to cross the Nullarbor by motorcycle?
Most riders take three to four days between Norseman and Port Augusta, which works out around 400 to 550 km a day. It can be done faster, but the combination of heat, wind and monotony makes long days harder here than the flat profile suggests.
What range does your bike need?
Enough to comfortably cover 180 km with reserve, since that is the widest published spacing between roadhouses on the Western Australian stretch. Add margin for headwinds, a closed pump and the temptation to press on, and 250 km of real-world range is a much more comfortable number.
Is the 90 Mile Straight really the longest straight road in the world?
No, and the signs do not claim that. At 146.6 km it is the longest straight stretch of road in Australia and one of the longest in the world, but longer straights exist elsewhere.
When is the best time of year to cross?
Autumn and spring. Summer days approach 50 °C with no shade anywhere, and winter nights on the plain drop below freezing. The shoulder seasons give you manageable temperatures at both ends of the day.
Is there mobile phone coverage on the Nullarbor?
Only in patches around the roadhouses and towns, and not reliably. Plan on being out of contact for hours at a time, tell someone your intended stops, and carry offline maps rather than assuming you can look something up.
