Chapter 26: Golfing across the Nullarbor
It is my nearly 10-year-old A’s quest on this trip to complete the Nullarbor Links Golf Course. Just to recap: established in 2009, the Nullarbor Links is the World’s Longest Golf Course. Its 18 holes stretch 1,365 km from Kalgoorlie to Ceduna. It costs about $70, you can do it either direction, and they even let you hire clubs for an additional $30 fee.
According to a booklet a kindly roadhouse owner gave us along the way, a group of dedicated Eyre Highway business operators set up the Nullarbor Links Golf Course to encourage more people to explore the area. It certainly gives you something to do along the way.
To start, you can register and pick up score cards and clubs at either Kalgoorlie Visitors Centre, Norseman Visitor Centre or Ceduna Visitor Information, depending on the way you’re travelling. The first two holes are either at Kalgoorlie Golf Club or Ceduna Golf Club. After that, the rest are near participating roadhouses.
All the holes are signposted off the Eyre Highway and have a green-roofed picnic table to mark the tee-off point. Each hole is named and has an interpretative sign telling you about the area. It’s a Par 78 course and this seems extraordinarily optimistic when you’re out in strong headwinds struggling to even see the hole over 500 m away. But the record is Par 70 (held by a professional golfer) so some people can do it.
Once you’ve completed the hole, you pop into the nearby roadhouse/clubhouse/truckstop and they give you a stamp on a specially designed card. At the end, you get a certificate of completion.
It turns out nothing motivates a nearly 10-year-old like collecting stamps on a card and a certificate.
In short, even if you don’t like golf, it’s a lovely way to break up the long journey and get some exercise.
Hole 1 & 2: Kalgoorlie Golf Club (CY O’Connor and Golden Mile)
The first two holes are at the Kalgoorlie Golf Club, a place of great contrast between the red dirt and green grass. The C Y O’Connor hole is named for the man who designed the Goldfields Water Pipeline that still pumps water from near Perth all the way to Kalgoorlie. The Golden Mile is the name for the collection of gold mining claims that started the Kalgoorlie Gold Rush in the first place. See my previous post for more on that.
It’s quite busy the day we arrive so after some negotiations with the Club management, we jump on the course at Hole 10 and 11. It’s surprisingly lush for such a dry area and several kangaroos languish around the hole.
They quickly scatter when they realise A’s ball could kill them at any moment.
Hole 3: Kambalda Golf Club (Silver Lake)
The Kambalda Golf Club is what the Kalgoorlie Golf Club would be if they didn’t water the grass for 20 years.
Here we learn that nearby Lake Lefroy is where Australians go to break land-sailing records. It’s certainly very hot, dry and windy because this hole is as dry as Kalgoorlie is lush.
It takes more time than we’d like because A really sucks at golf.
Hole 4: Widgiemooltha (Golden Eagle)
This hole takes its name from the Golden Eagle nugget discovered in 1931 by 17-year-old Jim Larcombe. It weighed 35 kg and looked like an eagle in flight. It sparked a mini-gold rush in the area and netted the Larcombes £5,000 at the start of the Great Depression.
It’s a Par 3. For the first time, A makes it in less than 10.
Hole 5 and 6: Norseman Golf Club (Ngadju and Golden Horse)
What they say: “A quaint community with a rich history, Norseman is a place complete with the amenities of a city!” Having been there twice now, I think this just means it’s the last place you can connect to the internet for miles.
The name for hole 5 comes from it standing on Ngadju land. The sign tells us that the eucalyptus forest nearby is the world’s largest woodland forest.
The Golden Horse hole is named after a horse: Hardy Norseman. Its owner tied it up one night and went into the pub. The next morning, he discovered the horse had dug up a gold nugget with its hooves. Yet another gold rush ensued and the area became known as Norseman, after the horse.
Note the blue sky… this will not last.
NB: there was a hole called Sheep’s Back at Fraser Ridge but this seems to be excluded from the course now and replaced with Golden Eagle.
Hole 7: Balladonia (Skylab)
The first of the roadhouse holes, Balladonia’s schtick is that parts of Skylab, the American space research laboratory, fell out of the sky around here in 1979. It had long been speculated whether the doomed space station would fall to earth. When it eventually did, US President Jimmy Carter allegedly called the Balladonia Roadhouse to personally apologise for the incident.
They’ve been dining out on the story ever since.
It’s quite hot now but the hole is thankfully short.
Hole 8: Caiguna Motel/Roadhouse (90 Mile Straight)
Caiguna means ‘spear track’ and marks the beginning of the longest stretch of straight road in Australia. Not surprisingly, it’s 90 Miles long. While driving along it, I wonder if the second, third and fourth longest stretch of straight road in Australia is out here too.
A is gradually improving; sometimes he even hits a half decent shot.
The temperature has now dropped 10 degrees and a cool wind is blowing.
Hole 9: Cocklebiddy Motel (Eagles Nest)
Cocklebiddy is the southern edge of Australia’s sheep grazing industry. It’s also famous for being the access point for an extensive cave system that lies under the Nullarbor. It’s only been explored in recent years and included the discovery of an aquifer 90m under the Nullarbor.
The hole is long and straight so doesn’t take too long.
Hole 10: Madura Pass (Brumby’s Run)
One of the more scenic roadhouses on the Nullarbor, Madura offers views across the vast plain. At least it would do if it wasn’t so cloudy. According to the woman in the hotel, it clouded over in late November and hasn’t cleared since. It’s now mid-January. Not only that but it has rained every night. The temperature is down to the early 20s; usually its 40–45 degrees.
I thought I was just imagining that it seemed greener than when we came across in December. Although this is nice for us and the resident kangaroos, it is really really weird for her.
Madura was settled as a stud and stable in 1879 by an ex-British Army Officer. He bred and raised high quality polo horses later exported to British India, hence the name Brumby’s Run. During WWII, it became strategically important to the effort to improve the Eyre Highway. It was the only location on the Nullarbor with free-flowing bore water in sufficient quantities to support the workers.
To A’s delight, the Brumby’s Run hole requires the golfer to lob the ball through a parking area and avoid hitting vehicles ignoring the ‘no parking’ sign. Since we’re staying here overnight, we advise A to do the hole in the morning in case he incurs the wrath of an angry truck driver by whacking his ball into their windscreen. He’s disappointed but when he sees the size of the truck driver, agrees with us quickly.
The next morning, he manages to not hit any cars. Sometime he even hits the ball the first time.
Hole 11: Mundrabilla (Watering Hole)
Mundrabilla is one of the world’s largest meteorite landing sites. However, I suspect the landscape looked much the same before the meteorite landed.
Situated on the Roe Plains, it used to be a source for sandalwood exported to the Far East. It was first settled in 1879 as a sheep station but its original owners fell victim to childbirth (the woman) and an indigenous spear (the man). The roadhouse opened there in 1968.
This hole is pretty short too so it doesn’t take long.
Hole 12: Eucla Golf Club (Nullarbor Nymph)
Believe it or not, this is more than a golf club. It’s a football field and racetrack all in one. The hole is around one km off the main road along a dirt track, so it’s not as accessible as the others. But once you get there, it’s a long straight punt across a dead flat expanse to the hole.
The hole is named for the Nullarbor Nymph story that began the way all Australian tall stories do: at the pub. In 1971, some drunk guy at the Eucla pub made up a story about how there was a hot naked blonde woman living with the kangaroos out in the scorching hot bush. The story was overheard by a down-on-his-luck PR man who promised to use it to promote Eucla because he couldn’t pay his hotel bill. Someone managed to persuade a local woman to pose for photographs wrapped in kangaroo skins to back up the story.
Thanks to the PR guy, media from all around the world descended on Eucla to try and find the so-called ‘Nullarbor Nymph’. One savvy reporter tracked down the original source, proceeded to ply him with drinks and uncovered the truth. ‘Of course it’s bullshit, mate!’ he said. ‘Women would never do something so impractical!’ That’s unfortunately not what he said … just some guff about the stupidity of journalists or something.
Apparently, the woman still lives in Ceduna but now with all her clothes in place.
Hole 13: Border Village (Border Kangaroo)
Just up the road on the WA/SA border is the kitchy border kangaroo statue and the hole is right behind it. It’s only a short one. This is a relief as the Eucla one is only 12 km away and takes up quite a bit of time. If you’re heading west though, this is the first hole for 200 km.
This hole honours Don Harrington, a founding member of the committee that set up the Nullarbor Links. He operated the Border Village settlement from 1987, including overseeing the rebuilding of the entire village after a bushfire destroyed it in 2000. I assume he’s responsible for the giant kangaroo statue too. A huge supporter of the Links, he died unexpectedly in 2010.
Hole 14: Nullarbor Roadhouse (Dingo’s Den)
A high fog covers the whole area even all the way over here. It’s keeping the temperature down but there’s no point even driving to Bunda Cliffs to see the view over the Great Australian Bight as we can’t see more than 20 m in front of us. The iconic view of the Bight eludes us again.
Dingo’s Den honours the founders of the Nullarbor Roadhouse, Coral and Scobie Beattie. They were station hands in 1947 and then took over running Nullarbor Station in 1954. After this appointment, they decided to set up a shop to sell petrol, food and water to travellers on the Eyre Highway. A Roadhouse has been there ever since.
This hole is a really long (538 m) one and you’re hitting into a very strong head wind. If the wind isn’t up there’s apparently a crow that comes along and steals your ball. We don’t see the crow or any dingoes. A hits his ball into a few bushes and makes me put my hand in to retrieve it. Thankfully there’s no snakes either.
You can also hire golf clubs here to have a go at just this hole while you’re having a break.
Hole 15: Nundroo (Wombat Hole)
Nundroo is home to 2.5 million southern hairy-nosed wombats in Australia. They are even used as surrogate mothers for the highly endangered northern hairy-nosed wombats. Isn’t that interesting?
It’s a really long hole and we struggle to work out how to get to the green from the tee. A doesn’t care and gallantly hacks away at the ball.
I think the kangaroos in Kalgoorlie alerted the wombats here to A’s golfing abilities because we don’t see a single one.
Hole 16: Penong Golf Course (Windmills)
We’ve been ignoring that we’ve lost two hours of time but our first phone signal in two days updates us and we realise we’re now on SA time, not the weird Central Western Time that lives between Kalgoorlie and here. This means it’s getting late, so we call in to the Penong Caravan Park for the night.
Penong is very proud of its windmills and is home to the World’s Largest Windmill. The weird fog that has sunk on us for hundreds of kilometres has lifted and we finally get to see the famous clear skies, just as the sun sets.
The tee is just down the road from the Caravan Park. It’s a pretty short and easy one but the Caltex Roadhouse where it says to get your card stamped is now an Ampol.
Hole 17: Ceduna Golf Club (Denial Bay)
In the morning, we head off to Ceduna to complete the last two holes at Ceduna Golf Club. The Golf Club is deserted and surprisingly green for mid-January. It’s a tufty green with plants who weren’t expecting to grow at this time of year.
Hole 17, Denial Bay, is named after the first settlement in the area. Exactly what they were in denial about when they named it is not clear. Perhaps how much fresh water they could find? The hole honours one of the first settlers in the area, William McKenzie. He mastered desalination for stock water and, being a kindly chap, helped others in the same predicament.
Hole 18: Ceduna Golf Club (Oyster Beds)
Just near the carpark is Hole 18, the last hole of the course. This is also the first hole if you’re starting in Ceduna.
A does a brilliant first shot and then proceeds to hack away at the ball until he gets to the hole.
After what seems like forever, he winds it up and completes the course.
We head into the Ceduna visitors centre for him to have his card stamped and to be given a certificate of completion. It’s not the most inspiring certificate I’ve ever seen but he’s happy with it anyway.
Summary
In short: We completed the course over four days. On the two big driving days in the middle, it added at least two hours onto our drive time. This would be shorter if you’re even remotely good at golf. However, we all enjoyed the breaks and the walk it gave us. It also provided A with a great way to encapsulate the trip and a good story to write for his first day back at school.
If you like your golf and you need a challenge/reason to drive across southern Australia, this is a great way to do it!
