Outback Highway
The Outback Highway is a series of highways and unpaved gravel roads in Australia. The Outback Highway, often just called Outback Way extends over a length of 2800 kilometers from north Queensland, through the Northern Territory to southern Western Australia. The idea of this highway was to offer an alternative to the National Highway 1, which runs along the coast to the north and south.
Course
Queensland
The Outback Highway starts in Winton in north-western Queensland. In Winton the Kennedy Developmental Road crosses the Landsborough Highway. About five kilometers west of Winton branches off the Kennedy Developmental Road to the west and forms the first part of the Outback Highway.
After about 350 kilometers, the village of Boulia is reached. From Boulia the Donohue Highway forms the second part of the Outback Highway and performs over 235 kilometers to the Northern Territory border.
Northern Territory
In the Northern Territory Outback Highway is continued in the Plenty Highway. This leads from the Queensland border about 500 kilometers to the west and meets about 70 kilometers north of Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway.
The next sections of the Outback Highway form the Stuart Highway south to Erldunda and Lasseter Highway from Erldunda towards the west to Yulara.
From Yulara from the Great Central Road continues towards the west, Kata Tjuta past until after Kaltukatjara ( Docker River ) on the border of Western Australia. From Kata Tjuta from the Great Central Road is an unpaved but well-maintained road.
Western Australia
After the border the Great Central Road via Warakurna further to Warburton, the first major town in Western Australia. Until a few years ago there was on this section an alternative route, which was part of the Gunbarrel Highway, but has since been closed to the passage. From Warburton from there are more 575 km on the Great Central Road through to Laverton, about 360 kilometers north of Kalgoorlie. With the end of the Great Central Road in Laverton also ends the route of the Outback Highway.