Nullarbor Plain and Bunda Cliffs

The Nullarbor is a single slab of limestone laid down on an ancient seabed, around two hundred thousand square kilometres of it, and its name comes from Latin for no trees, which is accurate over much of the plain: flat saltbush and bluebush to the horizon in every direction. Where the plain meets the Southern Ocean, it simply stops, and the Bunda Cliffs run for around two hundred kilometres as a wall of layered limestone up to ninety metres high, with signed viewing points off the highway. Beneath the surface are extensive cave systems. The highway crossing includes the ninety-mile straight, the longest dead-straight stretch of sealed road in Australia.

What you actually see

• The Bunda Cliffs - a wall of limestone dropping straight into the Southern Ocean.
• The treeless plain - flat saltbush country running to the horizon.
• The ninety-mile straight - Australia's longest straight stretch of road.
• The roadhouses - the widely spaced fuel and food stops across the crossing.

When to go

April to October for tolerable driving; summer temperatures are severe and breakdowns dangerous. Whales are visible from the cliffs at the Head of Bight from June to October. Wind on the cliff edges is constant and strong.

Honest expectations

Distances between roadhouses are long and fuel is expensive. Cliff edges are unfenced at most viewing points and undercut, so standing close is genuinely dangerous. Wildlife on the road at dawn and dusk causes many collisions. Phone coverage exists only near roadhouses.

Nearby

The Head of Bight lies at the eastern end; Eucla and the border are west.