2 NIGHTS

Our adventure begins as we fly to Perth to be met by our Christian Tour Leader and transferred to our centrally located hotel. Relax or take some time to stretch your legs and explore this laid-back capital city before dinner. Get to know your fellow travellers over our first Group Dinner, a delightful opportunity for fellowship and fun.

Overnight: Perth

Beautiful Kings Park and Botanic Gardens are a must see, offering a great vantage point to take in the city of Perth, views of the rivers below and the Darling Ranges out to the east.

No trip to the West would be complete without time in Fremantle, the historic port city known as “Freo” to the locals. Enjoy a relaxing cruise on the Swan River admiring the waterfront scenery of Perth’s downtown skyline and the beautiful cliff faces of Black Wall Reach.

Enjoy free time to wander this historic precinct – why not visit the Round House, a prison from 1830s it is the oldest surviving building in Western Australia? Or wander up to the popular indoor Fremantle Markets where they have been selling food, local produce, clothes & handicrafts for the last 121 years. History buffs may want to explore the WA Shipwrecks Museum, considered the finest display of maritime archaeology in the southern hemisphere.

A highlight is the Batavia Gallery, where a section of the hull of Dutch merchant ship Batavia, wrecked in 1629, is displayed.

We return to Perth on our coach, driving around to take in the main sights on a short city tour, before dinner at our hotel.

Overnight: Perth

We leave Perth behind as we drive east to the picturesque Avon Valley to visit Northam, where the Avon and Mortlock Rivers meet. In 2015 Northam became the site of the first ever painted silo in Australia; we stop for Morning Tea as we admire the Silo Art, a homage to the town’s popular activity of hot-air ballooning.

We then head to nearby York, the oldest inland town in Western Australia. Considered one of the best preserved and restored nineteenth century towns in Australia, its heritage buildings include Holy Trinty Church, one of the oldest Anglican churches in Western Australia and an excellent example of Victorian Romanesque style architecture, built in 1854 from handmade bricks.

After time to buy some lunch in York we travel to Hyden, home of one of Western Australia’s most famous landmarks, Wave Rock. Located just 4 kilometres east of Hyden, geologists believe the original formation was vertical but has been sculptured and coloured by chemicals over 2,700 million years to take on its wave like character. A local guide will show us around as we marvel at the shape and size of this phenomenal rock formation before we check-in to our hotel.

Overnight: Hyden

2 NIGHTS

After breakfast this morning, we make our way from Hyden to Kalgoorlie. We visit Southern Cross, named after the stars that guided early prospectors to their gold find. Today, Southern Cross likes to see itself as having a double identity as the last town on the eastern edge of the wheatbelt and the first town on the Eastern Goldfields. Surrounded by some of the largest farms in the State, the town is also the western gateway to the Great Western Woodlands, an area of great beauty and biodiversity. This 160,000 square kilometre temperate woodland has great significance to the world’s ecology, on a par with Africa’s Serengeti and South America’s Amazon.

Not only does it support 20 percent of Australia’s plant species, it’s also the Earth’s largest and healthiest intact temperate forest. This area is spectacularly beautiful in spring, with wildflowers carpeting the Woodland and surrounding outback plains.
We travel east to the small town of Coolgardie, birthplace of the great Gold Rush of 1892; once the third largest town in Western Australia with 2 stock exchanges, 3 breweries, 7 newspapers and 26 hotels, Coolgardie is now a virtual “Ghost Town” full of grand heritage buildings.

Then it is on to Kalgoorlie, a famous gold mining town built around the richest square mile of gold bearing earth in the world. Before checking in to our hotel we stop off at the Super Pit lookout, to see one of the world’s biggest open-cut mines. At 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and 600 metres deep, it is big enough to be seen from space and astounds with its sheer size and scale.

Overnight: Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie’s glory days began in 1893 when Paddy Hannan and his fellow Irish prospectors Thomas Flanagan and Dan Shea found gold near Mt Charlotte. The towns’ wealth and importance from this time is reflected in its churches such as the St John’s and St Mary’s, both of which we will visit for short tours. St Mary’s is known as the Church of Gold, as local legend maintains that there are small gold deposits within its bricks, and both churches contain treasures for lovers of art and architecture; beautiful Ascension stained-glass window and a remarkable painting of the story of Jesus’ Presentation at the Temple as a baby at St John’s and carved wood ceilings and striking stained glass windows at St Mary’s.
Learn more about both the town’s gold mine history and modern-day mining at Hannans North Tourist Mine – stand in the shovel of a 994F loader climb onto a giant 793C haul truck, listen to Paddy Hannan tell his tale of discovery and try your hand panning for gold.

We take time out for lunch and a chance to wander and admire the town’s wonderful murals.

This afternoon you can enjoy time at leisure in Kalgoorlie or, for those interested, visit Kalgoorlie Golf Club to play the first two holes of the World’s Longest Golf Course (Optional).

Overnight: Kalgoorlie

This morning we make our way to Kambalda on the edge of Lake Lefroy; most of the year this is a gleaming white salt pan which is considered one of the best places in the world to land sail, the “yachts” reaching speeds up to 100km / hour!

From here it is on to Norseman, a town that takes its name from a horse. Legend has it that Laurie Sinclair’s horse ‘Norseman’ scraped the ground with his hoof and unearthed the first gold nugget in 1894. His find also led to the discovery of one of the richest quartz reefs ever mined in Australia. Breathtaking panoramas of Norseman’s landscapes can be enjoyed just two kilometres from town at Beacon Hill.
Sit and take in the view, follow the 900 m bushland walk trail or read about the region’s rich mining history.

We then travel to Fraser’s Range Station before returning to our accommodation for the night.

Overnight: Norseman

This morning, we begin to officially cross the Nullarbor as we drive the Eyre Highway, which begins in Norseman in Western Australia and comes to an end in Ceduna in South Australia. The highway is named after Edward John Eyre who, accompanied by an Aboriginal named Wylie, journeyed across the Nullarbor Plain in 1841.

Balladonia may be just a small roadhouse community on the Eyre Highway but in 1979 it was BIG news due to the doomed space station Skylab crashing to earth close by. The Roadhouse Museum explores this event through documents from NASA, photos, and related ephemera. They even have a life-sized replica of some of the debris sitting on top of the roof!

The museum also covers Aboriginal heritage, European exploration and settlement, the history of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, construction of the Eyre Highway, artifacts from settler’s life and information about local flora and fauna.

Back on the coach we drive the 146.6km stretch of road to Caiguna that is the longest straight piece of road in Australia. Our destination tonight is Madura and the nearby lookout offers breathtaking views of the Madura Pass and Roe Plains.

Overnight: Madura

Nullarbor means “No trees” in Latin and this flat, arid region was originally sparsely settled by members of the Mirning Aboriginal language group. In 1872 the first European settlers – Tom and John Kennedy and Bill & Annie McGill – established Mundrabilla, the first sheep station on the Nullarbor, when they brought 1500 sheep across the plain from Esperance.

Nestled right up against the South Australian border, near the Great Australian Bight, Eucla was once a bustling town exporting local wool and Sandalwood and serviced by sail & steam ships bringing stores from Albany and Esperance. Eucla was also connected via its telegraph line; the internet of its age, the telegraph was a literal lifeline in the Outback, taking mere seconds to transmit messages that had once taken months. We visit the ruins of the Old Telegraph Station, its remaining old stone walls are enshrouded in white sand dunes, the moving sand drifts the legacy of a rabbit plague that destroyed dune vegetation. We learn more of the fascinating history of this town and telegraph station at the Eucla Museum.

Enjoy golf with a giggle and the “fellowship of the fairway” as our group takes in a couple of holes on the “World’s Longest Golf Course” – these are some of the most remote golf holes in the world but never fear, we will supply the clubs and LOTS of balls.

Overnight: Eucla

Welcome to South Australia! The isolation of the Nullarbor offers unparalleled serenity and despite its aridity the Nullarbor National Park contains many diverse species of flora and fauna, including the southern hairy-nosed wombat, dingos, and many birds. The vast landscape meets the sea at Bunda Cliffs along the Great Australian Bight. At the Head of the Bight Visitor Centre we take in the views from the lookout and maybe catch a sight of some famous visitors up close. Between June and October up to 100 Southern Right Whales frequent this area of the South Australian coastline to breed and give birth to whale calves.

We head to Penong, a small wheatbelt settlement which is characterised by literally dozens of windmills which pump the local water supply from a large underground basin. Then onto our final destination for today, Ceduna, located on the shores of Murat Bay.

For the keen golfers (or happy hackers), Ceduna is also the finishing point for the “World’s Longest Golf Course” and you can tackle the last two holes first thing tomorrow morning.

Overnight: Ceduna

This morning, we will spend time in worship before we head towards Ceduna. Nestled on the far west coast of the Eyre Peninsula, Ceduna is known as the “Oyster Capital” and its protected waters, sheltered bays and numerous sand coves ensure a plentiful supply of fresh seafood.

Mid-morning we visit an Oyster Farm to learn about production and enjoy a taste of what are considered some of Australia’s finest molluscs.

After lunch we continue to Port Augusta for our overnight stay, stopping in Kimba along the way to admire the stunning Silo Art.

Overnight: Port Augusta

2 NIGHTS

Enjoy an optional morning stroll around Port Augusta’s Mural and Sculpture trail before travelling south down the Spencer Gulf to Port Pirie, South Australia’s first proclaimed provincial city.

We stop for lunch in Kadina, which along with Wallaroo and Moonta is one of the three ‘Copper Triangle’ towns, famous for their shared copper mining history. Kadina’s water tank hosts a mural depicting a young maypole girl holding copper and wheat, signifying the Cornish history of the area.

Then it’s off to Adelaide, the “City of Churches.”

Overnight: Adelaide

This morning, we will do an Adelaide City Tour, surrounded by parklands it is both a beautiful and wonderfully livable city. Our tour finishes in Glenelg where you have the option of exploring the rich heritage and bustling shops & cafes of this popular seaside suburb.

Take a dip, stroll the jetty, and grab a bite to eat before taking the tram back into Adelaide.

Alternatively our coach can take you back into the city where you can enjoy time at leisure and perhaps visit the Central Market, Botanic Gardens, Art Gallery or SA Museum. For those interested in South Australia’s early history and religious heritage the Mary McKillop Museum tells the story of this pioneering educator and social reformer who is also Australia’s first Catholic Saint.

We come together for our final Group Dinner, to share memories and celebrate crossing Australia’s Nullarbor together.

Overnight: Adelaide

It’s homeward bound today as we say goodbye to new found friends, feeling blessed by the wonderful times we shared on this spectacular Outback journey. We will take with us many memories of fun, faith, fellowship and fairways.