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1. Open the Old Eyre Highway

Over the years I have completed at least 20 crossings of the Nullarbor, the first one undertaken when there was still about 450km of unsealed road from the South/Western Australia border to just west of Penong.

After many years of complaints, and an argument that there wasn't enough traffic to warrant sealing the rest of the road, the South Australian government eventually patched the hole in the black top link from the north of WA around the southern coast and along the eastern coast to northern Queensland. That was more than 30 years ago.

The amount of traffic now using the road far exceeds what I observed in 1974. Despite this there seems to be a reluctance to make more of the tourist potential for the area. Developing a sizeable stretch of the old road (which is still clearly visible in parts) as a tourist attraction in its own right would cost little and bring significant financial gain to the west of South Australia.

© 2009 Steven Secker