I was a passenger in a car doing 10 over on the Stuart hwy, we got pulled over and let go without booking But the coppa lights behind us were scary because i had a bowl of weed in my lap
I have lived in the NT for fifty years.......the speed limit on all roads in the NT is a maximum of 130kilometre per hour on the Stuart, Victoria and Barkly Highways unless otherwise posted. It used to be unlimited, it is no longer
💯 the no speed limit zones didn't last long, a few accidents happened when it was legal. Bro got lucky filling his tyres up at the Alice Springs truck stop, 9 times outta 10 there ain't even an air house there. As a Local Alice bloke, I can say this rough at times.
I'm german and have driven over 200kmh on the Autobahn many times. But man, this road is really scary. Only one lane, and oncoming traffic - who possibly is also doing 200+... so you meet at 400 kmh, holy smokes. And if a animal jumps on the road you are toast.
i've been on that road a few times and even hitting a dead animal on the road at high speed will fuk you up. we passed an accident scene once where a station wagon hit a water buffalo. that animal was in pieces so they must have slammed it pretty fast. wasnt much left of the car for that matter. the cops were coming over the hill so we didnt stop. some years ago they tried doing a canonball run/gumball rally race. there was a good turn out but a couple of japanese dentists in their super car, lamborghini countach i think, took out a pit crew on the side of the road. people forget that you need more time and space to stop, they got complacent at high speed and must have thought it was like pulling up at their local garage or something. so thanks to them we're not allowed to have organised races down there. pretty sure the 2 guys died as well. ok it was 1994, i thought it was earlier, and it was 2 japs that died along with 2 race officials but it was a ferrari not a lamborghini. they failed to take a bend less than 30mins into the race. i've done that, the bend bit not the racing. there you go, all that info you didnt realise you needed.
Same for me. I live close to a popular 4WD, camping, etc beach. Most of the 4WD drivers let down the pressure in their tyres to help traction on the loose sand bits. When they come off the beach at the northern end, they head straight to the BP station in Anna Bay and pump up their tyres. No charge. Some of them buy fuel.
the issue isn't that he was driving barefoot but that he was walking on the concert that was in direct line of sight of the sun barefoot his feet would have probably been burning
@@kingphenx No, Ryan framed it as driving altogether barefoot was the issue. But I did nonetheless whince when he walked around barefoot on sundrenched NT concrete. Maybe they make em different there!
I managed to hit an airborne wedgetail eagle on the Victoria Hwy NT while riding my motorcycle at 130kph. Just a glancing blow with the helmet, but it still nearly took my head off. No damage done to me. The eagle picked himself up and flew off so I guess it was ok too.
I used to work in the NT in 1990's and there were only speed limits through towns which there wasn't many of. I would sit the Ford Falcon on 200kph and leave it there for hours but you really needed to know how to drive at 200 kph because things can go very wrong very quickly. You are sharing a single lane with kangaroos, emus, water buffalo, cattle, wild camels, interstate P platers doing 90 kph, and 130 tonne triple fuel tankers sitting on 120 kph. Overtaking requires a clear space of at least 2km because the closing speed with the oncoming vehicles is up to 400kph. Most common accident in the NT is a single car rollover (usually caused by inexperienced drivers losing it trying to avoid a roo or something else.).
I was up there around the same time, in a ho hum Mitsubishi magna, 150/160kph was about as far as was wiling to push that poor old bastard. Cops tended to take a pretty dim view of exceeding the speed limit in town. so long as you drove to the conditions and not behave like a fool there were not too many issues. the open speed limits at the time were great but i guess it was a different time. i just wish the south australian government would adopt the 130km speed limit north of pimba
Back in the 70s during the vague NSW 'prima facie' speed limit on country roads, my co-worker decided to see how fast the company car (a Ford Telstar) would go. Those who know the Mitchell Highway east of Nyngan will know it is dead straight, surrounded by open fields with trees along each side of the road corridor. She got it going up to nearly full speed when two kangaroos crossed the road - one crossed right in front of the vehicle, the other just behind. Missed both, but we decided to slow down - either roo was big enough to slice right through the car.
Yeah… the Mitchell Highway is pretty straight from Nevertire heading west. And there isn’t a lot of scenery either, so you really need to keep your wits about you so you don’t fall asleep.
They run the World Solar Challenge on this road each year - from Darwin to Adelaide. One class of cars can go as fast as they like, the other class is limited to 80kph. They have lead and trail cars at long distances (plenty of room to pass) from the solar car to warn oncoming and following traffic of a slow car ahead. Australia won that class this year.
Every Aussie is born a rev head. Germany and similar countries have unrestricted freeways. Search the race where the Asian Dr or Dentist was racing on this road in a Ferrari F40 and lost control and killed the people at the check post.
Who goes inside to pay? Everyone in Australia. Most servo's you can't pay at the pump, or if you can it's just with a fleet card or something that are unique to certain businesses. Of course most of our servos are also 24/7. And the Air is almost always free here.
Both BP & Ampol have their own app, and if the servo is capable, you can use the app to pay for your petrol and not need to go inside to pay. Not all servos have been upgraded to be able to do it though. We have a large BP in my regional town in western NSW, that between 11pm and 5am, there is an external window where you go to pay (if not using the app) to keep the staff safe. During those hours, you can’t go inside the shop at all.
To give an idea how long that highway is , if I leave Adelaide in the south of the country in less hot autumn weather, it takes on average 3 1/2 days to get to Darwin. The reasons; driving at dawn and dusk in the Outback is when all the kangaroos are on or near the highway. Nothing spoils a journey like sticking one of those through your car's front grill. Second reason; the Outback is unfenced. At night cattle, donkeys, kangaroos and camels wander to open plains. So nobody in their right mind drives the highway at night. Except roadtrains. They plow through anything. So I would time my journey to spend the first night in Coober Pedy, the second night in Alice Springs. And the third night in Katherine. Return journey would be the same, but with a noon start South from Darwin.
Thanks for that info. I’m hoping to do that trip soon. Done most of the circumferential highway but haven’t done the middle yet. Looking forward to it.
@@nolasmith7687have fun and stay safe. I haven’t done the Stuart, but used to drive across the Hay Plains when i was younger. The weirdest phenomenon is the mirages. You think “oh i see a car up ahead i’ll have to be careful passing them” and then you drive for another 5-10 min and start wondering where tf the car is… another 5-10 min later you actually finally pass them. Hay Plains is supposed to be the flattest and most boring road in Australia though (not sure how true that is), but i’m sure the Stuart isn’t much better. Hopefully you at least have a few trees or something to look at as you drive to keep you interested. Ooh and make sure you take plenty of water with you too.
It's an international "end of speed limit zone" sign. There was a "Cannonball Run" type event on that road about 40 years ago. It was an invitation for rich dudes with more money than driving skills to go wild. A Ferrari F40 or F50 got out of control and hammered into a control point at high speed killing a few people. That was the end of that event. The territory government put a 130kmh (I think) speed limit onto the road soon after. Low speed limits on open roads where there's very little or no traffic tend to cause boredom and frustration. People put on cruise control, go to sleep and have crashes. They are told that 110kmh is safe and they drive at that speed even when it's not safe. Taking responsibility to drive to the conditions is much safer. Having a brief period where the speed restriction is withdrawn just attracts the crazies. If you just remove speed restrictions on this type of road, some people may get a bit crazy in the short term, but they tend to settle down in the longer term and drive at speeds they are comfortable with. I lived in Germany for much of the 1960s. I passed my driving test in 1966 and was used to drive at 200kmh or a bit over on autobahns. It was normal. I'm now 75 and have a car that's speed limited at 260kmh. I'm very tempted to take a drive up the Stuart Hwy. 😁 But I would drive safely.
As someone who once fell asleep driving on the Stuart Hwy, making it unlimited again would probably be a good idea. Dead straight and slow-feeling is a bad combo.
There’s nothing out there so if you crash, there’s no help coming along any time soon. The likelihood of a head-on collision is extremely remote. A crash would occur because the driver is at risk of tunnel vision and that causes you to fall asleep.
The Northern Territory (NT) actually resurrected the Unlimited zones after restricting them back in 2006. I travelled from Alice Springs to Darwin (1,500 km / 930 mi) in 2004 in my Holden Monaro (exported to the U.S. as the Pontiac GTO), a V8 with 6-speed manual, in one day. I basically drove it at 210 km/h (130 mph) for 100 kms, then needed to pull in at the next servo (petrol/gas station) to refuel. There are practically no towns along this highway, just a "roadhouse" every 100 kms (60 miles) - and I had to pull in to each of them. I had a 75 litre (20 US gallon) tank, and it would empty that quick. Fuel out there was over $2 a litre (nearly $8 a gallon) since it was so remote, and needed to be trucked in. Yep: $150 a tank, for 14 tanks... Here's the thing: there is practically zero traffic, and as long as it is daylight, you don't have to worry about cattle or kangaroos - unlike dusk, night and dawn! Do NOT travel in the Outback between dusk and dawn unless you can survive an impact with an utterly imbecilic 60 kg (130 lb) animal: in other words, you're a prime mover with a bullbar. And yes, the roads are pretty much straight (the occasional mild curve), and the bushes (hardly any trees out there) are a long distance form the roadside. If you do see other traffic, or you do see the bushes getting close, you slow down. I remember seeing a car ahead of me travelling in the same direction, so I started to slow. I was doing 180 km/h (110 mph) when I overtook him doing 150 km/h (95 mph) - and he was a police car. I accelerated right back up again, to my cruising 220 kph. At the next roadhouse where we were both refuelling, he admired my two-year-old car, and described how, at speed, he saw the car "squat" down and the rear tyres flare outwards. He then asked about my driving credentials, and I told him I'd done the Holden Advanced Driving course (Level 2). He knew of it, and he didn't give me a ticket. I'm not saying he would have - but the OP was right: you have to drive to the conditions, and you can be done for "unsafe driving" if they deem it. At one stage I thought I'd push it to the car's max. I reached 264 km/h (164 mph), but I had to downshift to 5th to do it. Both 5th and 6th are overdrives in my car: 6th is 1:2 ratio, and ran out of "oomph" at around 240 km/h. According to my trip computer, I was drinking 99.9 litres per 100 kms (basically, pegged!) which is 2.4 MPG - but probably less. I couldn't keep up that pace, since I'd run out of petrol before the next roadhouse! That highway is (of course) paved all the way - but not all roads there are. If you want to travel in the Outback, you should make sure you carry spare tyres, a jerry can or two of fuel, definitely water for both you and the radiator, and some food. If you're on that highway, you could expect someone to come past every hour or so, but some of the side roads you may be the only car that day. One final comment: after driving at those speeds for hour after hour, every time you slow to "normal" speeds you HEAVILY underestimate your actual speed. You think you're doing 40 km/h (25 mph) but you're still doing 90 (55). You try to come to a complete stop, but. You. Just. Don't. Stop. You need to know that's going to happen, and slow to a crawl - and you're still doing 30! Believe your dashboard, not your instincts.
I havent seen anywhere in Australia where you had to pay for air for tyres , when I was in the UK, most places there you had to pay for the air.. And the speed limit on the Stuart Highway is 130 km/h (81 mph) now ...
There are no police patrolling the majority of this remote highway and until the end of 2006 there was no speed limit outside towns and other built-up areas on the Northern Territory part.[6] The unrestricted limit has now been generally set at 130 kilometres per hour (80 mph).
That sign with a black circle and cross does not represent that there is no limit. It just means that the previous limit is removed and the state or territory limit applies.
Huge accident a few years ago on the main NT road in race cars, after that they lowered it to 130kmh. They tried to charge for air a few years ago but it failed badly. The air is FREE!
I took the Mazda 3 from Alice Springs and got up to 160kms and the car started to float so i had to bring to down to 100kms i had the missus in with me too. They have changed it now. I will say its a really good road well made.
When I got my license in 1986 the road was unlimited all the way to the South Australian border, from Darwin, except for towns when you had to slow down to 60 or 80 Klmph. How ever most people would sit on 120 to 130 Klmph and would get passed by the Postal Truck doing 140 to 160. The Unlimited speed limit was removed after I left the Territory. A family friend hit a Water Buffalo in his Porsche 911 at 240 just out side of Darwin, he survived as when he hit it, his speed was so great that when the water buffalo had fallen down enough to hit the car, it hit behind the cabin area. This pushed him forward onto the steering column. The roads are also a hell of a lot better now than when I was driving it as unlimited.
The fastest I've ever traveled in a car was in my old Volvo V40, got that thing up to 200 km/h and it had more to give but some d*mb*ss turned out in front of me so I had to let off! 😅
I got upto 250kmh in my FG falcon xr6 next day cops knocked on my door with a $3400 fine and a summons to go to court. Lost my licence for a year. Apparently I drove past a hidden speed camera unlucky me
I spent 12 years working all over the territory, I used to drive from Pine Creek to Borroloola, I used to sit on 220 KLM per hour in a Commodore S and the drive was done in under 6 hours with an average speed of 160 KLM per hour, I did this regularly.
The fastest I’ve driven is 160kph in my ‘74 Celica TA22. Felt like it had a bit more to go but by then my nerves were a bit shot & my palms were sweaty gripping the steering wheel, so I backed off. Sitting so low to the ground I felt everything. 😂
Hi Ryan, from Sydney, Australia. In the pre metric Kilometres per hour days prior to 1974, in all states there were the de-restriction zone signs. Prior to Australia adopting the international/European type road signs, our Aussie version in NSW of a re-restriction zone sign was a huge rectangular pale grey sign with a big white circle and the black diagonal bar going from 2 o'clock down to 8 o'clock on the bottom left, like the little international ones. Our signs stated that you were entering a derestricted speed zone area, whereby you could select whatever speed you felt was safe. Think of the cars back then 50 years ago, non power assisted drum brakes & no power steering in most. I owned an old colonial house in the country 130 miles from Sydney and would head off on a Friday afternoon to go and work on it. I had 50 miles of posted speed limits, then "whacko", foot to the floor for the remaining 80 miles which were gone in a flash at near 100 mph. Back then I owned a 1965 4.2litre bronze head high output Jaguar mk10 well over 300 horsepower, and above 85 mph, the race car like drone from the exhaust pipes was fantastic. I still own an almost identical 1967 model, with the high output engine, in the same colors, however sadly we are limited to 110kph, 70 mph maximum, that extra 30 mph was fun while it lasted, but has been gone now for 50 years this year .
For pot-holes, you need rain, lots of it. Tht part of the world, has very low rainfall. For instance lots of adelaide, has no gutters. As I under stand it. Alice springs has boat races in the sand flinstones style, e,g, pick up the boat and run, no bottom on the boat. The salt flats at the lake down there are a venue for sail boats with wheels. It doesn't get water every year.
The thing is, doing over 130km/h on that highway really is taking your life in your hands. There's nothing quite as exciting as going 150km/h, cresting a rise, and finding the road just ahead is full of brumbies (wild horses) or camels, or water buffalo. When I lived in Alice Springs back in the early '80s, there was a motorcyclist who ran into a brumby on the Stuart Highway, disemboweling it. Parts of the bike were found 2km up the road from the point of impact. Police estimated at the moment of impact, he was doing in excess of 300km/h. The worst part of it was, he didn't die. He was in hospital for 9 months, and had many surgeries, but was basically just a vegetable for the rest of his life.
Gidday Ryan, I visited the NT in 1987. The Stuart Highway then was the red winding track on the left of the now bitumen highway at 9:23 on your video. The new bitumen highway in 1987 was almost completed but not quite opened to traffic. The dirt highway back then weaved its way back and forth in a snake like pattern crossing the new bitumen highway countless times. Then, there was no speed limit, no fast cars like the cars of today and no idiots trying to break land speed records!
It is the sections of the Stuart Hwy in the Northern Territory that have no speed limit, on significant stretch of the distance up to Darwin, but really only north of Alice Springs and from memory not beyond Tennant Creek, and not south of Alice Springs. Many yearscagobit went from unlimted to a maximum, from memory 130 kph for several years. Sadly the number of seriois accidents went up considerably, as did fatal crashes, mostly single vehicle accidents (?), that were agreed mainly due to long (increased) travel times at reduced speeds. Drivers were fatigued and/or nodding of by plain boredom. On analysis it was decided to reopen unlimited speed on sections that had severest 'accident' levels. On restoring the unlimited speeds, the accident rate dropped lower, but still not ideally low. Part of thecproblem, some vehicles are just not setup well to go the extreme, flatout maximum speed, by design, tyre state, inflation of tyres, temperatures keep in mind in some hot conditions even thecasphalt can become soft and sticky affecting tyre grip. High temperatures can alsoboverheat tyres at very high speeds. Cheap tyres that some people fit are also not rated for maximum possible speeds, tyre blowout can result with dire consequences . On a holiday in central Australia, in Toyota 4WD vehicles, one of our group decided he would like to findout how fast his tray back utility Landcruiser could go. Over a 12km stretch he pushed the vehicle to over 150 kph. Now realistically sych vehickes are NOT designed with such speeds in mind, especially rugged "Off Road" tyres are not designed for high speeds. All tyres in their sidewall marking include a maximum speed rating. Those offroad tyres could well be rated under 130kph. Well several days later cruising between 80 and 100kph on a dirt surface highway, that Landcruiser had a front wheel tyre blowout. Almost resulting in a rollover crash, that the driver was lucky to avoid. Now while sharp rocks on that road may have caused the blowout, more became evident later on. Several days later at Birdsville the driver went to the service and tyre shop in town to get his wheel fixed, so tyre replaced. On stripping down the blown tyre, it was evident that tyre and tube had been molten together. As a safety check they checked his other three wheels. Two more tyre and tubes had molten fused sections. That possibly due to the high speed run, that causes tyres to get extremely hot, and these 4WD offroad tread tyres were hughly unsuitable for such speeds. Could have had failure at high speed and been fatal for the driver. Further is the wildlife you may encounter. Astralia inland areas such as this highway may result in kangaroos, Emus, cattle, camels and other animals being on the road. While especially dusk, dawn are worst, night driving danger makes any high speeds foolhardy to attempt. Big trucks mainly but cars, 4WD, pickup/utility vehicles too virtually daily leave dead animals at roadside and cars undrivable wrecks. The dead animals attract Wedge Tail Eagles, bigger than US Bald Eagles, and smaller hawks tto, feasting on the carrion at roadside. Sadly the Eagles often only take off just as a vehicle gets very close, and get struck by the vehicle. In extreme cases the Eagle may crash through thecwindscreen, and sharp claws and sharp beak can do considerable damage. As can a kangaroo crashing into the interior via the windscreen, the potential kicks can be very fatal. Damage to the vehicle can be extreme too, to point of insurance writeoff damage. Large animals cattle, camels, water buffalo in far north areas do extreme damage to smaller vehicles, that huge transport trucks with big strong "Bull" or "Roo" bars, as we call them here, may have little damage. Have seen cattle remains hit by trucks, that left half the animal on one side, other half on opposite road side, even seen a water buffalo, head ripped off carcass beginning to blot in the hot sun. Other animals do varied damage, even Emu can result in serious damage. As far as high speed, you are sharing the road with oncoming traffic, that can include more than little cars, but big tour bus and heavy haulage trucks, even the well known long "RoadTrain" trucks with three to five trailers, NO fun at speed to hit the bow wave of air of such big trucks. Cars at speed could get lift off the ground and fly, DEADLY event. At high speed a relatively minor seeming dip can also lauch a car airborn, total loss of control resulting, often into a multi rollover crash, many times not survived. While no speed limit may be enforced, there are many reasons to not go overboard in top speeds, else you may be headed for a fast funeral in the blink of an eye. On one car hot test trip, we were heading to Darwin for a weekend of rest. The car company test driver trying to get us to Darwin early, a 300 plus km trip from Katherine, south of Darwin, was pushing at near 200kph. On going up a long gentle rise on the highway, as we crested the hill top, several hundred feet away were four water buffalo all but one on the driving lanes, one just off the bitumen on gravel road verge. The driver hit panic brakes, locked all four wheels, leaving lots of smoke. He came to a stop with less than 50 ft from nearest buffalo. The rest of the trip at under 160kph, 100 mph, to accompanied,clump-clump sound as the tyre flat spots hit the road. All 4 tyres had to be replaced in Darwin, judged by tyre dealer as unsafe to drive on at any speed after the emergency braking, said we were lucky to arrive safely on those flat spotted tyres. YES UNLIMITED, only to a moron, you keep to safe driving if you want to live long, never go to absolute maximum, and take note of conditions and be sure that your vehicle is truely suited for and capable, and both you and vehicle are ready to go hardvand dangerous.
Growing up in the bush(country). I have been over 200km/h a few times. On 100km/h roads. Lost a lot of friends in youth doing the same thing. Happy to have gotten older and stick to those limits these days. Drive safe everyone.
Yes the air is free. We put fuel in our cars using the "bowser" (aussie word) and go inside to pay. We say which pump we were at and pay the amount. But air costs nothing.
Yeah. He’s wrong From the NT website Outside built-up areas, the default speed limit is 110km/h - unless a speed limit sign states otherwise. Other speed limits apply in some areas. For example, some sections of the following highways has a maximum speed of 130km/h as indicated: Barkly Highway Stuart Highway Victoria Highway Arnhem Highway.
It make sense to me that on a road like that you can choose the speed that keeps your attention engaged. Droning along at 110kmh on cruise control is just going to make you zone out.
When I was in Montana, about 1998, the speed was unlimited for some roads. It may be different now. I goggled this and found: "So in 1995, President Bill Clinton repealed the national speeding law, and states were again allowed to set their own limits. So Montana went back to its old ways: no actual speed limit. Instead, the law said drivers had to drive at speeds that were "reasonable and prudent."
That’s how it used to be in NSW in my youth. It was called a “Prima Facie” speed limit, where you had to be able to prove that you were driving safely if travelling at a speed in excess of that limit. I think it was 50mph or 80km/h. Can’t remember now. This could be difficult to prove after a prang because if you pranged, most likely you weren’t driving safely (i.e. with due regard to the conditions, whether they were weather conditions, road conditions, traffic conditions, driver condition or driver distraction or all of the above). A defence could have been driving fast enough to keep alert or awake, particularly driving during daytime on relatively safe but boring, mostly straight country roads with no traffic. That’s the danger with speed limits too low for the conditions.
I remember a mate who lived in the top end somewhere telling me a story that they used to time how far they could get by driving as far and fast as they could for the duration of the 12" version of Blue Monday by New Order and tallying it the distances in the pub later once all their cars were safely tucked in their garages. The winner probably had drinks bought for him all night. Sounds like fun.
I drove down the Stuart Highway in about 1980 and after turning a bend at 100km/hr had to wait for a herd of water buffalo to finish running across. There was a story of a two ton buffalo derailing a 78 ton train on a narrow gauge track at Pine Creek.
The speed limit was in the Northern Territory only, not the South Australian part of the highway. I believe the NT has since imposed a 130km/h limit again.
Back “in the day” in Australia (talking about NSW here in the early 70’s), the speed limits were not so ruthlessly enforced. You could sometimes get let off for speeding if you showed that you were driving safely and to the conditions. Just my experience.
I once got a ticket for doing 121 in a 110 zone. I wrote a letter, admitting it & asking for leniency because 1 my cruise control had just stopped working &, 2 I was trying to distract my nephews who were fighting *across* my daughter in the back seat, leaning forward to say “Look at the shapes in the clouds” & my foot followed. They let me off. I think they appreciated the laugh.
G'day. I did that stretch about 2013 heading South. Maxed out at 180 kph as the Duel Cab was speed limited. Some sections have speed limits as there are some small hills and terain to negotiate.
There was no absolute speed limit in the Northern Territory before 1 January 2007 but maximum speed limits are now posted throughout the Stuart Highway. Previously, drivers were simply required to drive at a safe speed to suit the conditions. Thus, the Northern Territory section of the Stuart Highway had no speed limits at all.[26] The Northern Territory traffic laws were updated from 1 January 2007 to be similar to the rest of Australia. This included placing a speed limit on all roads (130 km/h or 81 mph on major highways such as the Stuart Highway) and significantly increasing penalties for speeding
Ryan, sorry I'm going to burst the bubble. The roads in the NT used to have unlimited speed designation, however, that has now been removed. The highest limit now is 130 klm/hr or 80 mph. I remember driving in those times and being an ex Ambulance Office from the NT I've seen the results of drivers mistakes... not pretty.
Speed limits There was no absolute speed limit in the Northern Territory before 1 January 2007 but maximum speed limits are now posted throughout the Stuart Highway. Previously, drivers were simply required to drive at a safe speed to suit the conditions. Thus, the Northern Territory section of the Stuart Highway had no speed limits at all.[26] The Northern Territory traffic laws were updated from 1 January 2007 to be similar to the rest of Australia. This included placing a speed limit on all roads (130 km/h or 81 mph on major highways such as the Stuart Highway) and significantly increasing penalties for speeding.[27][28] The South Australian section is signposted as 110 km/h (68 mph) outside built-up regions, between Port Augusta and the Northern Territory border. In October 2013 the NT Government announced a trial period of reverting to an open speed limit on the 200 km (120 mi) stretch between Alice Springs and Barrow Creek, beginning 1 February 2014.[29][30] In September 2015, following the conclusion of the trial, a 276 km (171 mi) stretch of the highway had its speed limits derestricted.[31] However, speed limits were restored to this stretch in November 2016; the highest is 130 km/h (81 mph).[32] In March 2021, the road was closed due to a serious accident 500 km north of Adelaide at Wirraminna where the road collapsed due to burning diesel fuel that melted the road's plastic culverts. Plastic culverts had been used in place of concrete as they were seen as the best material for this particular location as the flood plain of the river is acidic and can destroy concrete culverts. The road was closed while repair works took place. The asphalt also had to be given time to cure and the section of road underwent testing with a road train. With this now complete, both lanes are reopened with speed restrictions in place. Traffic signage is now in place and road users are asked to take extra care while travelling through this section of road.[33]
From Google... The Outback claims about 40 lives every year, but not for the reasons most people think. Many believe the high mortality rate is due to the many animals that inhabit these arid plains -poisonous snakes, spiders, saltwater crocodiles. However, statistics tell us that most deaths come from human error. It is imperative visitors of the Outback learn these essential tips before venturing out into the unfamiliar territory. No. 1 Drive Slowly Although most of the roads in the Outback are not heavily travelled, it is important to keep to a reasonable speed. Many deaths occur because motorists drive too fast on the unpatrolled open roads. They often will hit a rut, or swerve to avoid wildlife crossing the road, and lose control of their vehicle.
They used to be a race ' The Cannonball Run' - I think it was 3 days from Darwin to Adelaide, the fastest speed clocked was about 285 kph, a Japanese guy in a Ferrari , unfortunately the following day he missed a bend doing about 220 ..... there is a memorial stone telling the story, about 95 ks south of Alice,
We have 24hours free air in our service stations throughout Australia, not only that we've also got tap near the air just in case someone might have a radiator problem....
The fastest roads in the world are in Germany. It's called the autobahn. It's mostly 4 lanes wide. On some parts you can go as fast as you want. Very well kept roads. In Australia the road mentioned is not well kept and can be full of potholes in certain areas, that make it very dangerous. Both are fun to drive and race on, to be fair. Greetings from Lizzy from Australia 🦘. Really enjoy your podcasts.
I’m Australian, I’ve driven on the autobahn, I sat on 140 in the slow lane with the trucks . Came across a collision between a white lambo and a back something ( going so fast couldn’t tell ) not much left of either car . Plus it made us miss the bus for the tour we were booked on .
The "open roads" (even when they had no speed limit) didn't mean that you could go as fast as you like, as that video implied. It just meant that there was no speed at which you would *automatically* be deemed to have broken the law. A police officer could still deem that you are driving at an unsafe speed for the conditions.
Mate, they even get charged for catching rain water in their tanks. I thought my mate was joking until she showed me the fine she got for having more than her allotment
The unrestricted speed limit in the NT has had an on again off again history. Prior to 2007, there was no speed limit in the NT. Speed limits were introduced to bring the NT into line with the rest of Australia. Unrestricted speed limits were reintroduced on a trial basis in 2016 but lasted less than a year after a change of government. Strangely the death toll was lower during the trial period than for the same period after the re-introduction of limits. The default limit now is 110 kph unless otherwise signposted. A number of major roads are now signposted at 130 kph. I used to drive this road Between Katherine and Darwin, probably on average about once a month for the five years I lived in the NT. Believe me, 130 kph is fast enough. Little Agile wallabies being not quite as agile as they needed to be, feral donkeys and a couple of buffalo kept your mind on the job. Car rental companies had "Dusk till Dawn" policies where any accidents occurring during that period were the financial responsibility of the renter.
They used to have a race they called the "Cannonball Run'' until there was a bad accident where a car got out of control and killed a couple of officials on the side of the road. Think it was a Ferrari with a Japanese crews on board. 130 is now the limit, but I did drive on it when it was unrestricted. Was doing around 120 in my Honda Jazz when a Falcon GT flew by and almost blew me off the road. I had the last laugh though, he had stopped at a servo for more fuel, I asked him what speed he was doing and said 200kmh, I said to him, see ya, I don't need fuel at the moment.... he laughed and we went on our way. Didn't see him again, guess he may have stopped for some lunch. I had trottled back to 100. Next stop for me was Three Ways Roadhouse which is where the Stuart Highway meets the Barkley and I was on my way to Mt Isa.
My dad was a rev head when I was a Kid. I remember him having panic attacks, having to speed home to Melbourn in his hotted up Pontiac, doing 110 mph on the Back Roads from Echuca back to Melbourne. It was a 1967 model, so it only had lap seat belts, we didn't wear them anyway, and my mum used to complain about him going "a little" to fast, he'd just say "shut up" and we're going home. NOW! Scary times. It was more common back then. We also had high death tolls on the roads before they put up strict speeding restriction, the death toll got so high, it was just getting ridiculous... The good old days, ha?
90% of servos are pay after you fill up - recently a couple of "automated" servos have been popping up. Also, all air pumps at any service station is free 100% of the time.
The two governments in the NT, Labour and The Liberals, argued about this road for so long. One would make it unlimited, the other would make it a 130kph limit. It's been 130kph for the last 5 years or more. I don't think its likely to change back to unlimited unfortunately.
I remember back in 1989 low flying around 200 kmh coming up to the back of a car that was travelling real quick. When I eventually caught up close enough I realised that it was a cop car. No point backing off coz he would have known that I was nearly flying so I pulled out and passed him. As I looked over at him while going passed he just looked back at me, gave a wink, a smile and a thumbs up. Back when cops were real people too
The default speed limit on the open road in the Northern territory is 110K/hr. The sign of a round black circle with a black diagonal line means the default speed limit (110K/hr). There are some roads, portions of the Sturt Hwy included, that have a maximum speed of 130K/hr. Anything faster is breaking the law.
I can't read all the comments - AND - I'm not going to - but you may want to check the date of the video. The speed limit drama of the NT has been going on for ages. Wheels magazine did a great article on this - a LONG time ago - and how the vast majority of incidents/accidents occurred within the greater boundary and outskirts of Darwin - not on the open sections of the Stuart Hwy. I think the speed limit is now 130 km/h on certain areas. Even that speed - which is standard on American and European hwys - can put you to sleep on long straight stretches. Additionally - the hwys for QLD, NSW and Victoria were designed a long time ago, to have the 130 km/h speed limit, when completed. Unfortunately, due to the time to complete them and other things, this didn't occur. Also the tragedy of the sole Cannonball Run, probably helped to put the nail in the coffin of the no restricted speed limits. Politicians are very much responsible. Sanity doesn't prevail, unfortunately.
Back in the late 80s, I drove 130 - 150 but decided to slow down as I could actually see my fuel gauge move. I think I sat on about 100 for a couple of hours. Even in the late 80s, fuel wasn't cheap out there in comparison to Sydney.
I thought they limited it again? I drove it, or the road towards Katherine.. From Darwin.. in a new Government issued Ford Falcon.. I did 200kmph, for about 5 seconds.. Its hard to take a photo of your dash at 200kmh! its basically a dead straight road, built up on a huge mound of railway rocks.. above the red desert.. I had a wild fire in the distance too, it was amazing..
Wow! I've lived here all my life and never knew that the Stuart has no speed limit. P.S. that was terrifying to watch! The condition of the road and even with the very low possibility of hitting wildlife, there's still no way I'd do that.
You do realise that the autobahn in Germany doesn't go through the Aussie outback. Practically all outback roads are just 2 lanes as is the case in much of the US when you get off the Interstates. There is nothing remotely odd or unusual about this. In fact, it's totally normal.
You can drive as fast as you want in the bush, a gum tree will win in the end.
Or a highway patrol, whichever comes first 😅
I was a passenger in a car doing 10 over on the Stuart hwy, we got pulled over and let go without booking
But the coppa lights behind us were scary because i had a bowl of weed in my lap
HAHAHA @@jkennedy299
More like a roo
No gum trees where the open speed limit was in NT
I have lived in the NT for fifty years.......the speed limit on all roads in the NT is a maximum of 130kilometre per hour on the Stuart, Victoria and Barkly Highways unless otherwise posted. It used to be unlimited, it is no longer
Correct
Remember the Cannon Ball run, around 1994? 4 people were killed because of the Japanese Dentists run off the road in their Ferrari F40.
💯 the no speed limit zones didn't last long, a few accidents happened when it was legal. Bro got lucky filling his tyres up at the Alice Springs truck stop, 9 times outta 10 there ain't even an air house there. As a Local Alice bloke, I can say this rough at times.
Yeah, this vid was 2016, the no speed limit didn't last very long.
There are still sections with unlimited
I'm german and have driven over 200kmh on the Autobahn many times. But man, this road is really scary. Only one lane, and oncoming traffic - who possibly is also doing 200+... so you meet at 400 kmh, holy smokes. And if a animal jumps on the road you are toast.
i've been on that road a few times and even hitting a dead animal on the road at high speed will fuk you up. we passed an accident scene once where a station wagon hit a water buffalo. that animal was in pieces so they must have slammed it pretty fast. wasnt much left of the car for that matter. the cops were coming over the hill so we didnt stop. some years ago they tried doing a canonball run/gumball rally race. there was a good turn out but a couple of japanese dentists in their super car, lamborghini countach i think, took out a pit crew on the side of the road. people forget that you need more time and space to stop, they got complacent at high speed and must have thought it was like pulling up at their local garage or something. so thanks to them we're not allowed to have organised races down there. pretty sure the 2 guys died as well.
ok it was 1994, i thought it was earlier, and it was 2 japs that died along with 2 race officials but it was a ferrari not a lamborghini. they failed to take a bend less than 30mins into the race. i've done that, the bend bit not the racing.
there you go, all that info you didnt realise you needed.
Burnt toast 😅
At 400 kmh you don't feel a thing.
Holy shit! You wouldn't want to hit a kangaroo at 200km p/h
Also air to fill your tyres at the servo in Australia is free.
Time to test the effectiveness of those five post bullbars
Thinking the same thing 'houseo'. He'd be history.
Yer I was going to say its not pot holes you have to worry about.
Or a camel or steer. You'd be history.
I've never paid for putting air in my tyres here in Australia. And I've driven in 5 of the states.
Same for me. I live close to a popular 4WD, camping, etc beach. Most of the 4WD drivers let down the pressure in their tyres to help traction on the loose sand bits. When they come off the beach at the northern end, they head straight to the BP station in Anna Bay and pump up their tyres. No charge. Some of them buy fuel.
@@roadie3124 Yep. Must be an American thing. Till today I'd never heard of it being charged.
Only in the US would you pay for air. Do you have to pay to use the squeegie to?
@@arjovenzia NFI... I'm an Aussie.
Didn't know that was a thing . The audacity to charge for air. I don't think it could happen here. I hope it couldn't happen here
I nearly always drive barefoot. Even in winter, the shoes don't go on until I get to the destination! 🤣
The only way to drive.....never wear shoes flying or driving..
100% barefoot always. Thongs go on the floor under your seat so you can slip em on when you pull up to use a public shitta
the issue isn't that he was driving barefoot but that he was walking on the concert that was in direct line of sight of the sun barefoot his feet would have probably been burning
@@kingphenx No, Ryan framed it as driving altogether barefoot was the issue. But I did nonetheless whince when he walked around barefoot on sundrenched NT concrete. Maybe they make em different there!
Watch out for the emus, kangaroos, stray cattle, and camels in the outback. Heaven knows we dodged a lot of cadavers on outback roads.
And goats
I managed to hit an airborne wedgetail eagle on the Victoria Hwy NT while riding my motorcycle at 130kph. Just a glancing blow with the helmet, but it still nearly took my head off. No damage done to me. The eagle picked himself up and flew off so I guess it was ok too.
That guy is a Kiwi
Listen to his accent
I think they dropped the free-for-all lack of speed limit , making it 130kph.
Yep, they have, although I think it's actually 140kmph
They did it’s max 130kph now and I was getting confused because it was dropped in 2016 the same year it was posted
@@tassiedevil3it’s 130
It has changed from unrestricted to 130kph several times, depending on which political party is in government (only in the NT).
Yeh, it looks like the NT government have restricted the speed limit to 130 Kph now
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Highway
I used to work in the NT in 1990's and there were only speed limits through towns which there wasn't many of. I would sit the Ford Falcon on 200kph and leave it there for hours but you really needed to know how to drive at 200 kph because things can go very wrong very quickly. You are sharing a single lane with kangaroos, emus, water buffalo, cattle, wild camels, interstate P platers doing 90 kph, and 130 tonne triple fuel tankers sitting on 120 kph. Overtaking requires a clear space of at least 2km because the closing speed with the oncoming vehicles is up to 400kph. Most common accident in the NT is a single car rollover (usually caused by inexperienced drivers losing it trying to avoid a roo or something else.).
and if we ever get ☢ power you will have to avoid tankers full of 💩 tons of ☢ waste. 💥
@musicalneptunian we already do up to Roxby Downs 😂
Round Nimbin some roads are like that too.
I was up there around the same time, in a ho hum Mitsubishi magna, 150/160kph was about as far as was wiling to push that poor old bastard. Cops tended to take a pretty dim view of exceeding the speed limit in town. so long as you drove to the conditions and not behave like a fool there were not too many issues. the open speed limits at the time were great but i guess it was a different time. i just wish the south australian government would adopt the 130km speed limit north of pimba
Ryan, look up Lake Eyre, the home of the land speed record.
A rev head is a motorsports enthusiast, globally.
I feel like Ryan already looked at the Lake Eyre and the land speed record. But I can't quite remember!
Back in the 70s during the vague NSW 'prima facie' speed limit on country roads, my co-worker decided to see how fast the company car (a Ford Telstar) would go. Those who know the Mitchell Highway east of Nyngan will know it is dead straight, surrounded by open fields with trees along each side of the road corridor.
She got it going up to nearly full speed when two kangaroos crossed the road - one crossed right in front of the vehicle, the other just behind. Missed both, but we decided to slow down - either roo was big enough to slice right through the car.
Yeah… the Mitchell Highway is pretty straight from Nevertire heading west. And there isn’t a lot of scenery either, so you really need to keep your wits about you so you don’t fall asleep.
To put it in perspective, highway speed limits are mostly 110km/h, so he went more than double the speed limit of nearly anywhere else.
They run the World Solar Challenge on this road each year - from Darwin to Adelaide. One class of cars can go as fast as they like, the other class is limited to 80kph. They have lead and trail cars at long distances (plenty of room to pass) from the solar car to warn oncoming and following traffic of a slow car ahead. Australia won that class this year.
Yes you can pump up your tyres with free air here at all servos.
Every Aussie is born a rev head.
Germany and similar countries have unrestricted freeways.
Search the race where the Asian Dr or Dentist was racing on this road in a Ferrari F40 and lost control and killed the people at the check post.
@@T.S.T2014no that's not true, I'm not a rev head.
@@Anonamiss782I'm not either.
I am at heart, but I control myself.
Basically everyone goes in to pay, not all service stations even allow you to pay at the pump.
And you pay AFTER you fuel up, no need to prepay.
Except at Costco, where you prepay at the pump, there are no people there to serve you. But the fuel is a lot cheaper than normal service stations.
I pay via the app, no need to go in.
Who goes inside to pay? Everyone in Australia. Most servo's you can't pay at the pump, or if you can it's just with a fleet card or something that are unique to certain businesses. Of course most of our servos are also 24/7. And the Air is almost always free here.
Both BP & Ampol have their own app, and if the servo is capable, you can use the app to pay for your petrol and not need to go inside to pay. Not all servos have been upgraded to be able to do it though. We have a large BP in my regional town in western NSW, that between 11pm and 5am, there is an external window where you go to pay (if not using the app) to keep the staff safe. During those hours, you can’t go inside the shop at all.
Use an app, I rarely go in now
Cash....use it or loose it
@@MrTaylor1964 I will still go inside if the servo isn’t set up for the app, or if I want to get some munchies for a long drive.
To give an idea how long that highway is , if I leave Adelaide in the south of the country in less hot autumn weather, it takes on average 3 1/2 days to get to Darwin. The reasons; driving at dawn and dusk in the Outback is when all the kangaroos are on or near the highway. Nothing spoils a journey like sticking one of those through your car's front grill. Second reason; the Outback is unfenced. At night cattle, donkeys, kangaroos and camels wander to open plains. So nobody in their right mind drives the highway at night. Except roadtrains. They plow through anything. So I would time my journey to spend the first night in Coober Pedy, the second night in Alice Springs. And the third night in Katherine. Return journey would be the same, but with a noon start South from Darwin.
Thanks for that info. I’m hoping to do that trip soon. Done most of the circumferential highway but haven’t done the middle yet. Looking forward to it.
@@nolasmith7687drive carefully & live to enjoy it. A lot!
@@nolasmith7687have fun and stay safe. I haven’t done the Stuart, but used to drive across the Hay Plains when i was younger. The weirdest phenomenon is the mirages. You think “oh i see a car up ahead i’ll have to be careful passing them” and then you drive for another 5-10 min and start wondering where tf the car is… another 5-10 min later you actually finally pass them.
Hay Plains is supposed to be the flattest and most boring road in Australia though (not sure how true that is), but i’m sure the Stuart isn’t much better. Hopefully you at least have a few trees or something to look at as you drive to keep you interested.
Ooh and make sure you take plenty of water with you too.
@@nolasmith7687 Stop at Daly Waters in the NT - great pub there
It's an international "end of speed limit zone" sign.
There was a "Cannonball Run" type event on that road about 40 years ago. It was an invitation for rich dudes with more money than driving skills to go wild. A Ferrari F40 or F50 got out of control and hammered into a control point at high speed killing a few people. That was the end of that event. The territory government put a 130kmh (I think) speed limit onto the road soon after.
Low speed limits on open roads where there's very little or no traffic tend to cause boredom and frustration. People put on cruise control, go to sleep and have crashes. They are told that 110kmh is safe and they drive at that speed even when it's not safe. Taking responsibility to drive to the conditions is much safer.
Having a brief period where the speed restriction is withdrawn just attracts the crazies. If you just remove speed restrictions on this type of road, some people may get a bit crazy in the short term, but they tend to settle down in the longer term and drive at speeds they are comfortable with.
I lived in Germany for much of the 1960s. I passed my driving test in 1966 and was used to drive at 200kmh or a bit over on autobahns. It was normal. I'm now 75 and have a car that's speed limited at 260kmh. I'm very tempted to take a drive up the Stuart Hwy. 😁 But I would drive safely.
As someone who once fell asleep driving on the Stuart Hwy, making it unlimited again would probably be a good idea. Dead straight and slow-feeling is a bad combo.
Apparently roads are starting to be built with curves deliberately, to help with concentration. Dunno where, though.
There’s nothing out there so if you crash, there’s no help coming along any time soon. The likelihood of a head-on collision is extremely remote. A crash would occur because the driver is at risk of tunnel vision and that causes you to fall asleep.
Usually biggest danger is a slow moving vehicle like a Tractor.
@@candycanessongs On parts of the Stuart closer to the Top End but not so much south of Tennant’s Creek where this open speed limit is allowed.
There is speed limit, Max speed in SA is 110 km/h and in the NT it is now 130 km/h, That sign just means the maximum speed limit allowed.
I thought you were only allowed to do the state limit because we have those signs in NSW too
@@tanyiabailey4792It means the max state speed limit all over Australia, That video is old, There is no unlimited speed limit here now
I saw a commodore after it hit a camel near uluru. Going that fast and even hitting a wallaby would mean you’re dead
The Northern Territory (NT) actually resurrected the Unlimited zones after restricting them back in 2006. I travelled from Alice Springs to Darwin (1,500 km / 930 mi) in 2004 in my Holden Monaro (exported to the U.S. as the Pontiac GTO), a V8 with 6-speed manual, in one day.
I basically drove it at 210 km/h (130 mph) for 100 kms, then needed to pull in at the next servo (petrol/gas station) to refuel. There are practically no towns along this highway, just a "roadhouse" every 100 kms (60 miles) - and I had to pull in to each of them. I had a 75 litre (20 US gallon) tank, and it would empty that quick. Fuel out there was over $2 a litre (nearly $8 a gallon) since it was so remote, and needed to be trucked in. Yep: $150 a tank, for 14 tanks...
Here's the thing: there is practically zero traffic, and as long as it is daylight, you don't have to worry about cattle or kangaroos - unlike dusk, night and dawn! Do NOT travel in the Outback between dusk and dawn unless you can survive an impact with an utterly imbecilic 60 kg (130 lb) animal: in other words, you're a prime mover with a bullbar.
And yes, the roads are pretty much straight (the occasional mild curve), and the bushes (hardly any trees out there) are a long distance form the roadside. If you do see other traffic, or you do see the bushes getting close, you slow down. I remember seeing a car ahead of me travelling in the same direction, so I started to slow. I was doing 180 km/h (110 mph) when I overtook him doing 150 km/h (95 mph) - and he was a police car. I accelerated right back up again, to my cruising 220 kph. At the next roadhouse where we were both refuelling, he admired my two-year-old car, and described how, at speed, he saw the car "squat" down and the rear tyres flare outwards. He then asked about my driving credentials, and I told him I'd done the Holden Advanced Driving course (Level 2). He knew of it, and he didn't give me a ticket. I'm not saying he would have - but the OP was right: you have to drive to the conditions, and you can be done for "unsafe driving" if they deem it.
At one stage I thought I'd push it to the car's max. I reached 264 km/h (164 mph), but I had to downshift to 5th to do it. Both 5th and 6th are overdrives in my car: 6th is 1:2 ratio, and ran out of "oomph" at around 240 km/h. According to my trip computer, I was drinking 99.9 litres per 100 kms (basically, pegged!) which is 2.4 MPG - but probably less. I couldn't keep up that pace, since I'd run out of petrol before the next roadhouse!
That highway is (of course) paved all the way - but not all roads there are. If you want to travel in the Outback, you should make sure you carry spare tyres, a jerry can or two of fuel, definitely water for both you and the radiator, and some food. If you're on that highway, you could expect someone to come past every hour or so, but some of the side roads you may be the only car that day.
One final comment: after driving at those speeds for hour after hour, every time you slow to "normal" speeds you HEAVILY underestimate your actual speed. You think you're doing 40 km/h (25 mph) but you're still doing 90 (55). You try to come to a complete stop, but. You. Just. Don't. Stop. You need to know that's going to happen, and slow to a crawl - and you're still doing 30! Believe your dashboard, not your instincts.
I remember when part of the highway wasn’t paved, back in the early sixties
Air is free and the hose system is normally set off away from the fuel pumps. The old term for fuel hoses used to be bowser.
Before Mario complained.. then they changed it to pump..
so long gay bowser
I havent seen anywhere in Australia where you had to pay for air for tyres , when I was in the UK, most places there you had to pay for the air..
And the speed limit on the Stuart Highway is 130 km/h (81 mph) now ...
Driving those outback highways are a bit of an art form. You have to learn how to contend with road trains, wildlife and narrow roads
There are no police patrolling the majority of this remote highway and until the end of 2006 there was no speed limit outside towns and other built-up areas on the Northern Territory part.[6] The unrestricted limit has now been generally set at 130 kilometres per hour (80 mph).
That sign with a black circle and cross does not represent that there is no limit. It just means that the previous limit is removed and the state or territory limit applies.
Yes! This.
Huge accident a few years ago on the main NT road in race cars, after that they lowered it to 130kmh. They tried to charge for air a few years ago but it failed badly. The air is FREE!
I took the Mazda 3 from Alice Springs and got up to 160kms and the car started to float so i had to bring to down to 100kms i had the missus in with me too. They have changed it now. I will say its a really good road well made.
When I got my license in 1986 the road was unlimited all the way to the South Australian border, from Darwin, except for towns when you had to slow down to 60 or 80 Klmph. How ever most people would sit on 120 to 130 Klmph and would get passed by the Postal Truck doing 140 to 160. The Unlimited speed limit was removed after I left the Territory.
A family friend hit a Water Buffalo in his Porsche 911 at 240 just out side of Darwin, he survived as when he hit it, his speed was so great that when the water buffalo had fallen down enough to hit the car, it hit behind the cabin area. This pushed him forward onto the steering column.
The roads are also a hell of a lot better now than when I was driving it as unlimited.
The fastest I've ever traveled in a car was in my old Volvo V40, got that thing up to 200 km/h and it had more to give but some d*mb*ss turned out in front of me so I had to let off! 😅
I got upto 250kmh in my FG falcon xr6 next day cops knocked on my door with a $3400 fine and a summons to go to court. Lost my licence for a year. Apparently I drove past a hidden speed camera unlucky me
This guys sounds kiwi as bru
Could be S.A. they sound like Kiwis. Or could just be a ditch swimmer!
I reckon he might be a crow eater. They sound like kiwis but a bit softer. He says"peopuwl instead of people or pipple (kiwi).
definitely kiwi
Looked up his page and he is a Kiwi.
@@sharaharper2253 Ditch swimmer!
To Brush-Up on accents Ryan...this guy is a Kiwi. 🥝
As soon as he said "distination" I recognised him as a Kiwi.
I spent 12 years working all over the territory, I used to drive from Pine Creek to Borroloola, I used to sit on 220 KLM per hour in a Commodore S and the drive was done in under 6 hours with an average speed of 160 KLM per hour, I did this regularly.
The fastest I’ve driven is 160kph in my ‘74 Celica TA22. Felt like it had a bit more to go but by then my nerves were a bit shot & my palms were sweaty gripping the steering wheel, so I backed off. Sitting so low to the ground I felt everything. 😂
Many many years ago when I was young and stupid I drove this road at over 200 miles per hour in a friends Jensen Intercepter ..
hmmm it wasn't a dark green one by chance? cus I did the same thing in my '74 TA22 and at that speed I watched the fuel guage drop in real time.
You are correct. It takes exactly 2 cery long days to get from darwin to Adelaide
Hi Ryan, from Sydney, Australia. In the pre metric Kilometres per hour days prior to 1974, in all states there were the de-restriction zone signs. Prior to Australia adopting the international/European type road signs, our Aussie version in NSW of a re-restriction zone sign was a huge rectangular pale grey sign with a big white circle and the black diagonal bar going from 2 o'clock down to 8 o'clock on the bottom left, like the little international ones. Our signs stated that you were entering a derestricted speed zone area, whereby you could select whatever speed you felt was safe. Think of the cars back then 50 years ago, non power assisted drum brakes & no power steering in most.
I owned an old colonial house in the country 130 miles from Sydney and would head off on a Friday afternoon to go and work on it. I had 50 miles of posted speed limits, then "whacko", foot to the floor for the remaining 80 miles which were gone in a flash at near 100 mph. Back then I owned a 1965 4.2litre bronze head high output Jaguar mk10 well over 300 horsepower, and above 85 mph, the race car like drone from the exhaust pipes was fantastic. I still own an almost identical 1967 model, with the high output engine, in the same colors, however sadly we are limited to 110kph, 70 mph maximum, that extra 30 mph was fun while it lasted, but has been gone now for 50 years this year .
For pot-holes, you need rain, lots of it. Tht part of the world, has very low rainfall. For instance lots of adelaide, has no gutters. As I under stand it. Alice springs has boat races in the sand flinstones style, e,g, pick up the boat and run, no bottom on the boat. The salt flats at the lake down there are a venue for sail boats with wheels. It doesn't get water every year.
Of course he's driving a commodore 😂
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!
@@judithstrachan9399 oi oi oi lol
General motors Chevrolet 😅@@judithstrachan9399
The thing is, doing over 130km/h on that highway really is taking your life in your hands. There's nothing quite as exciting as going 150km/h, cresting a rise, and finding the road just ahead is full of brumbies (wild horses) or camels, or water buffalo.
When I lived in Alice Springs back in the early '80s, there was a motorcyclist who ran into a brumby on the Stuart Highway, disemboweling it. Parts of the bike were found 2km up the road from the point of impact. Police estimated at the moment of impact, he was doing in excess of 300km/h. The worst part of it was, he didn't die. He was in hospital for 9 months, and had many surgeries, but was basically just a vegetable for the rest of his life.
Gidday Ryan,
I visited the NT in 1987. The Stuart Highway then was the red winding track on the left of the now bitumen highway at 9:23 on your video. The new bitumen highway in 1987 was almost completed but not quite opened to traffic. The dirt highway back then weaved its way back and forth in a snake like pattern crossing the new bitumen highway countless times. Then, there was no speed limit, no fast cars like the cars of today and no idiots trying to break land speed records!
It is the sections of the Stuart Hwy in the Northern Territory that have no speed limit, on significant stretch of the distance up to Darwin, but really only north of Alice Springs and from memory not beyond Tennant Creek, and not south of Alice Springs.
Many yearscagobit went from unlimted to a maximum, from memory 130 kph for several years. Sadly the number of seriois accidents went up considerably, as did fatal crashes, mostly single vehicle accidents (?), that were agreed mainly due to long (increased) travel times at reduced speeds. Drivers were fatigued and/or nodding of by plain boredom. On analysis it was decided to reopen unlimited speed on sections that had severest 'accident' levels.
On restoring the unlimited speeds, the accident rate dropped lower, but still not ideally low. Part of thecproblem, some vehicles are just not setup well to go the extreme, flatout maximum speed, by design, tyre state, inflation of tyres, temperatures keep in mind in some hot conditions even thecasphalt can become soft and sticky affecting tyre grip. High temperatures can alsoboverheat tyres at very high speeds. Cheap tyres that some people fit are also not rated for maximum possible speeds, tyre blowout can result with dire consequences .
On a holiday in central Australia, in Toyota 4WD vehicles, one of our group decided he would like to findout how fast his tray back utility Landcruiser could go. Over a 12km stretch he pushed the vehicle to over 150 kph. Now realistically sych vehickes are NOT designed with such speeds in mind, especially rugged "Off Road" tyres are not designed for high speeds. All tyres in their sidewall marking include a maximum speed rating. Those offroad tyres could well be rated under 130kph. Well several days later cruising between 80 and 100kph on a dirt surface highway, that Landcruiser had a front wheel tyre blowout. Almost resulting in a rollover crash, that the driver was lucky to avoid. Now while sharp rocks on that road may have caused the blowout, more became evident later on. Several days later at Birdsville the driver went to the service and tyre shop in town to get his wheel fixed, so tyre replaced. On stripping down the blown tyre, it was evident that tyre and tube had been molten together. As a safety check they checked his other three wheels. Two more tyre and tubes had molten fused sections. That possibly due to the high speed run, that causes tyres to get extremely hot, and these 4WD offroad tread tyres were hughly unsuitable for such speeds. Could have had failure at high speed and been fatal for the driver.
Further is the wildlife you may encounter. Astralia inland areas such as this highway may result in kangaroos, Emus, cattle, camels and other animals being on the road. While especially dusk, dawn are worst, night driving danger makes any high speeds foolhardy to attempt. Big trucks mainly but cars, 4WD, pickup/utility vehicles too virtually daily leave dead animals at roadside and cars undrivable wrecks.
The dead animals attract Wedge Tail Eagles, bigger than US Bald Eagles, and smaller hawks tto, feasting on the carrion at roadside. Sadly the Eagles often only take off just as a vehicle gets very close, and get struck by the vehicle. In extreme cases the Eagle may crash through thecwindscreen, and sharp claws and sharp beak can do considerable damage. As can a kangaroo crashing into the interior via the windscreen, the potential kicks can be very fatal. Damage to the vehicle can be extreme too, to point of insurance writeoff damage. Large animals cattle, camels, water buffalo in far north areas do extreme damage to smaller vehicles, that huge transport trucks with big strong "Bull" or "Roo" bars, as we call them here, may have little damage. Have seen cattle remains hit by trucks, that left half the animal on one side, other half on opposite road side, even seen a water buffalo, head ripped off carcass beginning to blot in the hot sun. Other animals do varied damage, even Emu can result in serious damage.
As far as high speed, you are sharing the road with oncoming traffic, that can include more than little cars, but big tour bus and heavy haulage trucks, even the well known long "RoadTrain" trucks with three to five trailers, NO fun at speed to hit the bow wave of air of such big trucks. Cars at speed could get lift off the ground and fly, DEADLY event. At high speed a relatively minor seeming dip can also lauch a car airborn, total loss of control resulting, often into a multi rollover crash, many times not survived.
While no speed limit may be enforced, there are many reasons to not go overboard in top speeds, else you may be headed for a fast funeral in the blink of an eye.
On one car hot test trip, we were heading to Darwin for a weekend of rest. The car company test driver trying to get us to Darwin early, a 300 plus km trip from Katherine, south of Darwin, was pushing at near 200kph. On going up a long gentle rise on the highway, as we crested the hill top, several hundred feet away were four water buffalo all but one on the driving lanes, one just off the bitumen on gravel road verge. The driver hit panic brakes, locked all four wheels, leaving lots of smoke. He came to a stop with less than 50 ft from nearest buffalo. The rest of the trip at under 160kph, 100 mph, to accompanied,clump-clump sound as the tyre flat spots hit the road. All 4 tyres had to be replaced in Darwin, judged by tyre dealer as unsafe to drive on at any speed after the emergency braking, said we were lucky to arrive safely on those flat spotted tyres.
YES UNLIMITED, only to a moron, you keep to safe driving if you want to live long, never go to absolute maximum, and take note of conditions and be sure that your vehicle is truely suited for and capable, and both you and vehicle are ready to go hardvand dangerous.
Growing up in the bush(country). I have been over 200km/h a few times. On 100km/h roads. Lost a lot of friends in youth doing the same thing. Happy to have gotten older and stick to those limits these days. Drive safe everyone.
Yes the air is free. We put fuel in our cars using the "bowser" (aussie word) and go inside to pay. We say which pump we were at and pay the amount. But air costs nothing.
Yeah. He’s wrong
From the NT website
Outside built-up areas, the default speed limit is 110km/h - unless a speed limit sign states otherwise.
Other speed limits apply in some areas.
For example, some sections of the following highways has a maximum speed of 130km/h as indicated:
Barkly Highway
Stuart Highway
Victoria Highway
Arnhem Highway.
It make sense to me that on a road like that you can choose the speed that keeps your attention engaged.
Droning along at 110kmh on cruise control is just going to make you zone out.
Air not being free is such a foreign and rude idea. Glad I live in 🇦🇺 😂
Zero speed limit would be a big car park 🤣🤣.
When I was in Montana, about 1998, the speed was unlimited for some roads. It may be different now. I goggled this and found: "So in 1995, President Bill Clinton repealed the national speeding law, and states were again allowed to set their own limits. So Montana went back to its old ways: no actual speed limit. Instead, the law said drivers had to drive at speeds that were "reasonable and prudent."
That’s how it used to be in NSW in my youth. It was called a “Prima Facie” speed limit, where you had to be able to prove that you were driving safely if travelling at a speed in excess of that limit. I think it was 50mph or 80km/h. Can’t remember now. This could be difficult to prove after a prang because if you pranged, most likely you weren’t driving safely (i.e. with due regard to the conditions, whether they were weather conditions, road conditions, traffic conditions, driver condition or driver distraction or all of the above). A defence could have been driving fast enough to keep alert or awake, particularly driving during daytime on relatively safe but boring, mostly straight country roads with no traffic. That’s the danger with speed limits too low for the conditions.
I remember a mate who lived in the top end somewhere telling me a story that they used to time how far they could get by driving as far and fast as they could for the duration of the 12" version of Blue Monday by New Order and tallying it the distances in the pub later once all their cars were safely tucked in their garages. The winner probably had drinks bought for him all night. Sounds like fun.
bugger that, recording while driving with one hand on the wheel at 235kmh is wild
I’d call it insanely irresponsible.
Absolute maniac
The air is free
I drove down the Stuart Highway in about 1980 and after turning a bend at 100km/hr had to wait for a herd of water buffalo to finish running across.
There was a story of a two ton buffalo derailing a 78 ton train on a narrow gauge track at Pine Creek.
with the heat haze its not that easy to judge how far away oncoming traffic actually is
The speed limit was in the Northern Territory only, not the South Australian part of the highway. I believe the NT has since imposed a 130km/h limit again.
Back “in the day” in Australia (talking about NSW here in the early 70’s), the speed limits were not so ruthlessly enforced. You could sometimes get let off for speeding if you showed that you were driving safely and to the conditions. Just my experience.
I once got a ticket for doing 121 in a 110 zone.
I wrote a letter, admitting it & asking for leniency because
1 my cruise control had just stopped working &,
2 I was trying to distract my nephews who were fighting *across* my daughter in the back seat, leaning forward to say “Look at the shapes in the clouds” & my foot followed.
They let me off. I think they appreciated the laugh.
G'day. I did that stretch about 2013 heading South. Maxed out at 180 kph as the Duel Cab was speed limited. Some sections have speed limits as there are some small hills and terain to negotiate.
There was no absolute speed limit in the Northern Territory before 1 January 2007 but maximum speed limits are now posted throughout the Stuart Highway. Previously, drivers were simply required to drive at a safe speed to suit the conditions. Thus, the Northern Territory section of the Stuart Highway had no speed limits at all.[26] The Northern Territory traffic laws were updated from 1 January 2007 to be similar to the rest of Australia. This included placing a speed limit on all roads (130 km/h or 81 mph on major highways such as the Stuart Highway) and significantly increasing penalties for speeding
Also, just FYI, this guy is from NZ not Australia. He may be an Australian citizen, but def not born here. :)
The Stuart hwy is a very decent road surface. It surprised me how well its maintained
The NT government has too maintain it because its used by road trains
Potholes?? What about kangaroos?
What about Potoroos?
Out there .....cattle and camels, I have missed more than enough of both on the Stuart Highway where this was taken nearly ten years ago..
Ryan, sorry I'm going to burst the bubble. The roads in the NT used to have unlimited speed designation, however, that has now been removed. The highest limit now is 130 klm/hr or 80 mph. I remember driving in those times and being an ex Ambulance Office from the NT I've seen the results of drivers mistakes... not pretty.
I did 200 on that road, back in the day. As I recall, the car got a bit 'floaty'. Dialled it back to 180. More than enough.
Speed limits
There was no absolute speed limit in the Northern Territory before 1 January 2007 but maximum speed limits are now posted throughout the Stuart Highway. Previously, drivers were simply required to drive at a safe speed to suit the conditions. Thus, the Northern Territory section of the Stuart Highway had no speed limits at all.[26] The Northern Territory traffic laws were updated from 1 January 2007 to be similar to the rest of Australia. This included placing a speed limit on all roads (130 km/h or 81 mph on major highways such as the Stuart Highway) and significantly increasing penalties for speeding.[27][28]
The South Australian section is signposted as 110 km/h (68 mph) outside built-up regions, between Port Augusta and the Northern Territory border.
In October 2013 the NT Government announced a trial period of reverting to an open speed limit on the 200 km (120 mi) stretch between Alice Springs and Barrow Creek, beginning 1 February 2014.[29][30] In September 2015, following the conclusion of the trial, a 276 km (171 mi) stretch of the highway had its speed limits derestricted.[31] However, speed limits were restored to this stretch in November 2016; the highest is 130 km/h (81 mph).[32]
In March 2021, the road was closed due to a serious accident 500 km north of Adelaide at Wirraminna where the road collapsed due to burning diesel fuel that melted the road's plastic culverts. Plastic culverts had been used in place of concrete as they were seen as the best material for this particular location as the flood plain of the river is acidic and can destroy concrete culverts.
The road was closed while repair works took place. The asphalt also had to be given time to cure and the section of road underwent testing with a road train. With this now complete, both lanes are reopened with speed restrictions in place. Traffic signage is now in place and road users are asked to take extra care while travelling through this section of road.[33]
From Google...
The Outback claims about 40 lives every year, but not for the reasons most people think. Many believe the high mortality rate is due to the many animals that inhabit these arid plains -poisonous snakes, spiders, saltwater crocodiles. However, statistics tell us that most deaths come from human error. It is imperative visitors of the Outback learn these essential tips before venturing out into the unfamiliar territory.
No. 1 Drive Slowly
Although most of the roads in the Outback are not heavily travelled, it is important to keep to a reasonable speed. Many
deaths occur because motorists drive too fast on the unpatrolled open roads. They often will hit a rut, or swerve to avoid wildlife crossing the road, and lose control of their vehicle.
They used to be a race ' The Cannonball Run' - I think it was 3 days from Darwin to Adelaide, the fastest speed clocked was about 285 kph, a Japanese guy in a Ferrari , unfortunately the following day he missed a bend doing about 220 ..... there is a memorial stone telling the story, about 95 ks south of Alice,
once you get above a certain speed the fuel economy drops through the floor.
We have 24hours free air in our service stations throughout Australia, not only that we've also got tap near the air just in case someone might have a radiator problem....
When going to Darwin fromTownsville Qld. It tahe 2.5 days max speed on the Syurt Highway for meis 140 Km Hr.
You have to remember that if you crash it can take 4Hrs or more to get help
The fastest roads in the world are in Germany. It's called the autobahn. It's mostly 4 lanes wide.
On some parts you can go as fast as you want.
Very well kept roads.
In Australia the road mentioned is not well kept and can be full of potholes in certain areas, that make it very dangerous.
Both are fun to drive and race on, to be fair.
Greetings from Lizzy from Australia 🦘.
Really enjoy your podcasts.
I’m Australian, I’ve driven on the autobahn, I sat on 140 in the slow lane with the trucks . Came across a collision between a white lambo and a back something ( going so fast couldn’t tell ) not much left of either car . Plus it made us miss the bus for the tour we were booked on .
Germany has a lot of people paying tax and is less than half the area of NSW too. Do the math.
Who goes inside to pay you asked, Aussies. We go inside to pay, pick up snacks for the road & also just be a little more polite as well 😊
The "open roads" (even when they had no speed limit) didn't mean that you could go as fast as you like, as that video implied. It just meant that there was no speed at which you would *automatically* be deemed to have broken the law. A police officer could still deem that you are driving at an unsafe speed for the conditions.
Yes it's free to put air in your car tyres. I'm actually surprised you have to pay for it, it's "air" 😂😂
Mate, they even get charged for catching rain water in their tanks. I thought my mate was joking until she showed me the fine she got for having more than her allotment
@@lynndally9160
😲😳🤯 That's crazy! Rain in a tank is falling on the house owners roof!
@@lynndally9160 whaaaat, omg thats just craziness. And greed.
G'day mate, I rode a motorcycle up to darwin in 1986 and most of the highway was unlimited. today apart from 200 km is 130km.
it takes 7 days to travel the full length of the highway, and that's going at 130km/h
The unrestricted speed limit in the NT has had an on again off again history. Prior to 2007, there was no speed limit in the NT. Speed limits were introduced to bring the NT into line with the rest of Australia. Unrestricted speed limits were reintroduced on a trial basis in 2016 but lasted less than a year after a change of government. Strangely the death toll was lower during the trial period than for the same period after the re-introduction of limits. The default limit now is 110 kph unless otherwise signposted. A number of major roads are now signposted at 130 kph. I used to drive this road Between Katherine and Darwin, probably on average about once a month for the five years I lived in the NT. Believe me, 130 kph is fast enough. Little Agile wallabies being not quite as agile as they needed to be, feral donkeys and a couple of buffalo kept your mind on the job. Car rental companies had "Dusk till Dawn" policies where any accidents occurring during that period were the financial responsibility of the renter.
They used to have a race they called the "Cannonball Run'' until there was a bad accident where a car got out of control and killed a couple of officials on the side of the road. Think it was a Ferrari with a Japanese crews on board. 130 is now the limit, but I did drive on it when it was unrestricted. Was doing around 120 in my Honda Jazz when a Falcon GT flew by and almost blew me off the road. I had the last laugh though, he had stopped at a servo for more fuel, I asked him what speed he was doing and said 200kmh, I said to him, see ya, I don't need fuel at the moment.... he laughed and we went on our way. Didn't see him again, guess he may have stopped for some lunch. I had trottled back to 100. Next stop for me was Three Ways Roadhouse which is where the Stuart Highway meets the Barkley and I was on my way to Mt Isa.
Air and water always free or they don't have it. If someone tried changing me for air I'd blow air in their face 😂
My dad was a rev head when I was a Kid. I remember him having panic attacks, having to speed home to Melbourn in his hotted up Pontiac, doing 110 mph on the Back Roads from Echuca back to Melbourne. It was a 1967 model, so it only had lap seat belts, we didn't wear them anyway, and my mum used to complain about him going "a little" to fast, he'd just say "shut up" and we're going home. NOW! Scary times. It was more common back then. We also had high death tolls on the roads before they put up strict speeding restriction, the death toll got so high, it was just getting ridiculous... The good old days, ha?
90% of servos are pay after you fill up - recently a couple of "automated" servos have been popping up. Also, all air pumps at any service station is free 100% of the time.
Look out for the Alpha Roos, Roadtrains and local Wildlife, (including humans) and check recent rains and floods! 😳 Radelaide! 😎
The two governments in the NT, Labour and The Liberals, argued about this road for so long.
One would make it unlimited, the other would make it a 130kph limit.
It's been 130kph for the last 5 years or more.
I don't think its likely to change back to unlimited unfortunately.
Kangaroos ...............
@@andrewcumming6319 I think the correct term for the people running the government is "galahs".
In Australia most Servos will make you go inside to pay.
There aren't a lot of fuel stops up that way, so if you're going flat out, you'll run out of fuel fast. Natural speed limit.
Good point.
I remember back in 1989 low flying around 200 kmh coming up to the back of a car that was travelling real quick. When I eventually caught up close enough I realised that it was a cop car. No point backing off coz he would have known that I was nearly flying so I pulled out and passed him. As I looked over at him while going passed he just looked back at me, gave a wink, a smile and a thumbs up. Back when cops were real people too
In all Aussie cities our push bike lanes have built in free tyre pumps at random spots.
Hmm, how much damage does a 6 foot kangaroo do at 200 Kmp?
That German sigh looks like a banjo.
The default speed limit on the open road in the Northern territory is 110K/hr. The sign of a round black circle with a black diagonal line means the default speed limit (110K/hr). There are some roads, portions of the Sturt Hwy included, that have a maximum speed of 130K/hr. Anything faster is breaking the law.
I can't read all the comments - AND - I'm not going to - but you may want to check the date of the video.
The speed limit drama of the NT has been going on for ages.
Wheels magazine did a great article on this - a LONG time ago - and how the vast majority of incidents/accidents occurred within the greater boundary and outskirts of Darwin - not on the open sections of the Stuart Hwy.
I think the speed limit is now 130 km/h on certain areas. Even that speed - which is standard on American and European hwys - can put you to sleep on long straight stretches. Additionally - the hwys for QLD, NSW and Victoria were designed a long time ago, to have the 130 km/h speed limit, when completed. Unfortunately, due to the time to complete them and other things, this didn't occur. Also the tragedy of the sole Cannonball Run, probably helped to put the nail in the coffin of the no restricted speed limits. Politicians are very much responsible.
Sanity doesn't prevail, unfortunately.
In Australia, I have never seen a servo that charges for air. It is free. Very few servos have card payment at the bowser.
We’re Australian, of course the air is free.
Back in the late 80s, I drove 130 - 150 but decided to slow down as I could actually see my fuel gauge move. I think I sat on about 100 for a couple of hours. Even in the late 80s, fuel wasn't cheap out there in comparison to Sydney.
I thought they limited it again?
I drove it, or the road towards Katherine.. From Darwin.. in a new Government issued Ford Falcon.. I did 200kmph, for about 5 seconds.. Its hard to take a photo of your dash at 200kmh!
its basically a dead straight road, built up on a huge mound of railway rocks.. above the red desert.. I had a wild fire in the distance too, it was amazing..
We got it all in Australia 🦘 Summernats Bathurst great Ocean road air water is free at servos
Wow! I've lived here all my life and never knew that the Stuart has no speed limit.
P.S. that was terrifying to watch! The condition of the road and even with the very low possibility of hitting wildlife, there's still no way I'd do that.
You do realise that the autobahn in Germany doesn't go through the Aussie outback. Practically all outback roads are just 2 lanes as is the case in much of the US when you get off the Interstates. There is nothing remotely odd or unusual about this. In fact, it's totally normal.
Even though he said he was not doing anything illegal, that drone shot above the highway was 100% Illegal in Australia
I drive down one of those in my Nissan X-trail. When I was going 130 kmh the road was so bumpy that I didn’t dare go faster. Nothing like an autobahn.