Australia: East to West Coast One Day at a Time Quiz

Answer: The highway climbs steeply just before Toowoomba as you climb the Great Dividing Range

Apart from Canberra (a city deliberately planned to be roughly half way between Sydney and Melbourne), Toowoomba is Australia's largest inland city. It has a population of over 100 000 people. The Garden City sits on the edge of the Great Dividing Range.

The highway rises quickly from the Lockyer Valley (109 m elevation) to Toowoomba (691 m). Once on top of the range the plateau (at this point 700 metres above sea level) continues westward as a plateau and does not return to near sea level until you reach the eastern outskirts of Perth on the west coast of the country.

Answer: The entire city sits on a mountain top surrounded by a vast plain

It would seem surprising to anyone who is not an Australian why we have to go north to go west. There is a road called the Dimantina Development Road that will get you as far west as Boulia in western Queensland. Then there is the ironically named Sandover Highway (name says it all) which is just a track 560 km long (but it travels due west) that will get you almost to Alice Springs, right in the centre of Australia but the road is only suitable for four wheel drives in the dry season and progress is slow. It is almost as quick and certainly safer to stay on the sealed highways (but double the distance).

Mt Isa is a young city founded in 1923 to mine the enormous silver-lead-zinc and copper found there in what is one of the most productive mines in the world. This is flat country, too poor for grazing. There is a low range of mountains in the distance (the Selwyn ranges) but no mountain near the town. Instead the skyline of Mt Isa is dominated by the 285 metre smokestack belonging to the mine. The city is small and has had a population of around 20 000 for decades and the town exists to support the mine. It is nevertheless Queensland's second biggest inland city.
Sportsmen like Greg Norman and Pat Rafter were born here as were Simon Black (Australian Football) and Scott Prince (Rugby League).

Answer: Yes

The Stuart Highway is over 3000km long and runs north from Port Augusta (305 km north of Adelaide), South Australia to Darwin. There are very few roads west or east. This is because of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre in the east and the Simpson Desert in the west. There is no road through this desert, though convoys of four wheel drives with sufficient supplies and safety precautions can make it - but it takes days. The lake is 9400km2 when full which is only every three years or so and even then the lake is only five feet deep. However the roads, few that there are, need to go around this vast inland sea.

We therefore have to drive 1900 km south (sometimes south east) to get to Port Augusta on South Australia's Spencer Gulf before we start heading west again.

Answer: There is not much of it - most of the town is underground

Heading South towards South Australia, sadly bypassing "nearby" Devil's Marbles, Uluru and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) but at least seeing the gorgeous Red Centre landscapes, we reach Coober Pedy which is a small hot, dry town, known world wide for its opal production (but there is no tall smokestack). Because of the intense heat (even by Australian standards), many residences are dug below the surface to escape the heat. On top of a flat landscape there is little change in the skyline.

There are no multistory buildings. Lake Eyre is 160 km away (if it is full). Tourism is just as important as the opal industry.

The desert landscape attracts filmmakers and the "Max Max" and "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert" movies were shot nearby.

Answer: Port Pirie

Port Augusta is situated at the northern end of the Spencer Gulf, Port Pirie about 90 km south east on the eastern shore and Whyalla about 70 km south west on the western shore. The three small cities are called the Iron Triangle because of their collective reliance on heavy industry. Port Augusta generates about a third of South Australia's electricity through a plant in the town using brown coal from Leigh Creek, 250 km to the north; Whyalla is famous for shipbuilding (this was shut down in 1978) and steel-making; Port Pirie has the largest lead smelter in the Southern Hemisphere, with silver lead and zinc being transported from Broken Hill, 400 km to the north-east. Each city has faced the challenges of the decline of heavy industry, forcing themselves to reinvent themselves with new industries like solar and wind farms.

Answer: We crossed the South Australian section of the Nullarbor Plain

Eucla is the most eastern Western Australia locality. We crossed over from South Australia just 12km ago. We are in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain. Its eastern end is near Ceduna. Ceduna is 480km west of Port Augusta and it ends 1200 km west at Norseman in Western Australia. Eucla is just shy of halfway along this long barren (Null Arbor - No trees) arid land. There are no creeks or watercourses. Vegetation is small and sparse. The whole plain used to be a seabed and it is easy to see why. "Crossing the Nullarbor" is an Australian rite of passage. Dismissed by our overseas visitors as "empty" or "nothing to see". The Nullarbor is a vibrant place full of diverse fauna that has adapted to its special environment and a flora unique in this world. People who have performed this journey are proud of their achievement. People with cars with bumper stickers "We crossed the Nullarbor" earn respect.

Spit and I are exhausted as we pull up after nightfall in the tiny town, but at least there is some accommodation, a place to re-fuel the car and a place to eat - not necessarily in three separate places.

Answer: Yes

There are few obstacles to go around or go over when you drive over (not through) the Nullarbor. There is no reason to put a bend in the road (save to stop drivers falling asleep at the wheel). The world's longest stretch of straight road, a 146.6 km / 91.2 mi section of the Eyre Highway (National Highway 1) is here but this is nothing compared with the parallel railway line which also boasts the world's longest straight section of railway at 478 km /298 miles.

At Norseman we can turn right and head North for Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, the Western Australia goldfields before heading west for a straight run west, 720 km to Perth. However we opt for the slightly longer way and head for the coastal route. The sea breeze off Esperance Bay cools us off as we we roll into town for a really late lunch.

Answer: Largest city in Western Australia

The first European, reputedly, to visit the Albany area was George Vancouver in 1791, a sailor of high repute of Pacific-North American fame. (There is a peninsula named after him just opposite today's main settlement). Shortly after, a whaling station was established but it was not until 1826 that a settlement was made following orders from the eastern New South Wales colony to stop the French from colonising the area.

This was the first permanent settlement in Western Australia. The area was one of the few towns of reasonable size to maintain a whaling industry.

This occurred between 1952 and 1978 whe, it was the last remaining whaling station in the Southern Hemisphere. Today Albany is the sixth largest city in WA, a pleasant coastal city with a mild climate and surrounded by beautiful countryside.

Answer: It did not become a penal settlement until 20 years post- initial settlement

A straight drive north-west takes us through the majestic Southern Forests, then the wheat belt before arriving in the capital. Today, Perth is a vibrant coastal city with over two million people in its greater metropolitan area. It is the fourth biggest city in Australia behind Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

It has a pleasant climate and a distinct laid back feel. The Swan River Colony was established on the Swan River in 1829. The settlement was divided into three parts: Fremantle on the coast and a natural harbour was to be the port; Perth about twenty kms north-east upstream on the Swan River was to be the administrative and military centre and the town of Guildford to the west where the soils were not as sandy and more suitable for growing crops.

The colony grew slowly and it was not until 1849 when the colony was proclaimed a penal colony that infrastructure and population increased. Discovery of gold in the the Kimberleys (north east WA) and the western Goldfields in the 1880s dramatically increased the fortunes and viability of Perth.

The state joined the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 (though the state voted to secede in 1933 - ultimately unsuccessfully) and the mining boom in the 20th century made the capital a very wealthy place.

Answer: No

"The longest US Interstate highway is the I-90 from Seattle to Boston. We must have driven almost that far." "No" I say, "If we had driven from Boston to Seattle and then down the I-5 to Los Angeles, we still would have travelled less than what we have done on this trip from Brisbane to Perth. Boston to Seattle via I-90 is 3024 miles (though you can shave a bit in distance by taking I-94 from Wisconsin to Montana).

It is a further 1137 miles from Seattle to Los Angeles making a total of 4161 miles compared with the 4296 miles on our trip from Brisbane to Perth. It is almost double the distance from Lisbon in West Europe to Moscow in East Europe and also almost the same as Ottawa to Mexico City AND BACK. Pretoria, capital of South Africa to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia in Northern Africa is also a lesser distance.