A short walk in the Nullarbor — Mundrabilla Old Well Bushwalk

  • Bushwalk
  • Loop — 2 km
  • 45 minutes
  • EasyNot hard, but there is no signed track.
  • 4/5An amazing view across the plain.

Crossing Australia along the Eyre Highway and its 1,700 kilometers is sometimes monotonous, and, we have to say it, boring. That’s why we tried to come up with a short walk in order to break the drive (or the bike ride) and enjoy a great view. We couldn’t find any “official” walking track in the Nullarbor so we just had to make this short loop, located at mid-distance between Perth and Adelaide.

Access

Park your car (or your pushbike!) on a car park situated between the Mundrabilla Roadhouse and the Hearder Hill Rest Area, that’s 25 km east of Mundrabilla RH and 41 km west of Eucla.

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Track

That’s the fun part: there is no track, no sign, no itinerary to follow. You just have to do some bush bashing from the carpark to the ridge of the Nullarbor plateau, climbing around 70 meters in elevation, and visit an old historic well on the way back.

From the carpark climb up to the ridge of the hill. It’s not really a hill but just the edge of the Nullarbor plateau. You can’t miss it, that’s the only kind of relief you will find for dozens of kilometers around here. Follow some animal tracks and be careful to not roll on the rocks.

Roe Plains
Roe Plains

From up there you will be able to rest a bit after this exhausting climb and enjoy the wonderful view across the Roe Plains and the southern ocean. Interestingly, the ridge you are standing on is the continuation of the Great Australian Bight, that can be seen as amazingly high and long cliffs after Eucla (in SA), where the Nullarbor Plateau drops dramatically into the ocean. Don’t miss the chance to see that on the way. The Roe Plains were previously the bottom of the ocean, which rised a few thousand years ago.

For your own safety it’s advised to not go further on the plateau if you don’t know what you’re doing: there is no road, no track, no town or homestead for dozens or hundreds of kilometers. You might feel a frill of what it was like to explore this area fifty years ago, when the highway was still unsealed, and the adventure it would be to go and explore this vast desert.

Just a bit further, a few kilometers away from where you are standing there is a lot of caves, mostly unexplored or unknown, and aboriginal or historical sites, but there is obviously no easy way to get to them.

Old well at Mundrabilla
Old well at Mundrabilla

Now you can climb back down, but this time head a bit to the left, something like 500 meters, and you will see an abandoned watering place and an old well. They were used a century ago for the cattle. Beware, don’t fall in the well, as it might be months or years before someone would come and rescue you ;-)

Now head back down to the carpark following the 4WD track along the Telstra optic fiber.

If you miss this walk (it’s not that easy to find the right carpark, we advise you to use our GPS track to locate it exactly), don’t worry you can stop on any carpark between the Madura Pass and the Eucla Pass and just climb up to the ridge and go back down, just beware of the wells ;-)