The Nullarbor Hwy is so straight, flat and clear that one night I dipped my high beam so as not to blind a truck coming the other way but it took twenty minutes before we passed each other!!
I heard the railway line across it is similar. a tale I was told from an old Army guy involved with the British nuclear tests in the 50's that while waiting for a supply train to arrive at the siding they were using, they could see the trains light in the distance. then took nearly an hour before the train actually pulled up.
@@catey62 i have driven the nulabor 5 times and to be honest this is mostly bullshit. It makes a good story but because of how round the earth is you usually can only see lights coming for about 2 or 3 mins when you are driving. HOWEVER, when you are standing in the dark and a train/truck is coming with some crazy high beams, you can see the glow from them over the horizon for absolutely ages, An hour is totally believable.
Ironically most of our oldest towns and cities were named by the British, so he's probably pronouncing them correctly but it just doesn't sound right somehow!
Fun fact: you can actually encounter signs along the road saying: caution, Royal Flying Doctors airstrip, followed by airstip markings in the middle of the road.
RFDS is currently fundraising to build a new base at Mt Isa, because the old one is pretty much cactus. Please donate if you can and yes they do rescue tourists lost out whoop whoop too.
I saw this driving across the Nullarbor Highway, I thought "wow that's a massive pedestrian crossing", because I didn't see any signage. Then the next one said Royal Flying Doctor airstrip. Good thing I didn't stop to admire the "HUGE ped x-ing" hahah
In 1979, there was a huge ‘Round Australia’ car rally. In a nod to what you called ‘the big lap’ a Porsche team car had a simple instruction on the panel in front of the navigator which read “Keep the ocean on your left”.
In the 80’s I went from Melbourne to Cairns. The only way you know what state you were in was by the beer adverts. 4x for Queensland, Tooheys for NSW and VB for Victoria.
yeah like, Queensland is the aussie version of Florida. we have been trying to sell QLD to the Kiwis for years, but the state is so shameful that they dont even they want it.
It's funny, when you're driving down Dandenong Road and you miss your turnoff into Wattletree Road, but then realise if you just keep going in the same direction, eventually (after a huge trip around the Aussie mainland) you will end up at the same turnoff.
"Some roads and routes really do come to define a country, and this is Australia's." Patchwork, half-arsed, and only theoretically controlled by the federal government? Yup, sounds like home.
Fun fact, as a kid who grew up in the 70’s spending a lot of time on sheep and cattle stations in the outback trip times were not measured in miles or kilometres but in number of beers consumed. My friend Kirrilly’s family farm (which is bigger than Scotland) was a 90 km drive from the station house to the letterbox at the front gate. A journey into town for more ammunition was a big event and took most of a day, for me riding in the back of an uncovered ute on dirt tracks at insanely high speeds was made more comfortable after my old man blasted a few Roos along the way and I could make myself a kind of plush and warm bucket seat out of their (in hindsight) tick infested carcasses. I was six years old. My earliest childhood memories are absolute carnage lol. Fun times! Australia’s changed rather a lot in the following 5 decades….
@@daviddou1408 nope, because I was drinking a beer with her a few weeks ago at the pub and I asked her how long her Dads driveway was. Not really that difficult a concept to wrap your head around Dave.
Great video Simon! Just to add another interesting fact, the Nullarbor Plain is home to the 90 mile straight, the longest continuous straight stretch of road on earth. And Nullarbor broken down means “no trees” Null Arbor.
You're all wrong. It's not the 'longest continuous straight stretch of road on earth', it's the 'longest continuous *FLAT* straight stretch of road on earth'. And it's not the 'longest straight railway line on earth, 487 ks', it's the 'longest *FLAT* straight railway line on earth, 487 ks'.
It's interesting to note that the Princes Highway between Sydney and Melbourne is little more than a tourist drive. The Hume Highway inland is much shorter and faster.
If you do go down coast I highly recommend Narooma, the inlet bar is stunning with its range of colours, not to mention if you go at the right time you will see swarms of crabs all over the lower parts of town near the boardwalk. Also not sure if it's still there but a town near it called mogo has the best pies with the most random filling. Oh also tilba's cheese factory is great
The Princes Highway route is a far more interesting and picturesque drive though, if you're not in a hurry. But if time is pressing, yeah, the Hume is defo the best way.
@@nicolepowell3121 depends on the section. It's known as the Hume Freeway throughout most of Victoria until the border with NSW/the Spirit of Progress Bridge. As an example look at the signage going north bound at 1 High Street, Wodonga VIC 3690 - you should see a green/yellow sign pointing left that says M31 / B400 Melbourne, Yarrawonga and a small white sign above that says HUME FWY. Side note: the overpass behind that sign was opened in 2007. Prior to that, this is where the Hume Fwy would intersect with the Hume Hwy taking you through Albury prior to the internal bypass - known locally as "the Freeway".
Yep in Victoria it is called a "freeway", but it still has cross roads and t junction intersections with minor roads. Wishful thinking by politicians maybe or deceptive marketing. As a kid the Hume was single lane each way overtaking on the other side of the road. Now it is at least duplicated dual highway for all of the way, last bit was completed about 2005.
Bloke walks into a bar carrying a piece of Asphalt, bar tender asks " what'll it be mate?", guys replies "a pint for me and one for the road" Yes, thank you.
G'day mate, strewth, what a bloody bonza video. I reckon he Fair Dinkum nailed it. 'cept for some of the place names and attempted Oz-speak, it's not too much of a cock-up. Worth slightly more than it's own weight in cold cocky poo..... Hooroo. 🇭🇲
I have spent a great deal of my life driving on Highway one... Otherwise known as the Bruce Highway in my former neck of the woods. I used to drive trucks on some very long, lonely and yet hauntingly beautiful stretches of road. I don't live in Australia anymore but to this day I still get homesick for the wide Brown land. I still call Australia home.
I'm in the U.S., and I thought so. It's like that scene in "The Graduate" when Dustin Hoffman drives from San Francisco to Oakland on the top deck of the Oakland Bay Bridge. Uh, no. The top deck leads from Oakland to San Francisco.
I'm not sure which stock library they use, although my guess is probably Envato Elements, as I recognise a few of these clips - but there really isn't very much Australian infrastructure stock footage. I've made videos on both the road network and the major InlandRail project and I was forced to use a bunch of international stock footage to fill the videos (though at least I used some horizontal and vertical flips as required to have everything at least appear to be all in the right place). TL,DR: can't use what doesn't exist. There's just so little Australian infrastructure stock footage.
Every Foreigner I've run into cannot place my accent some of them say I sound Irish some say I sound Scottish and some say I'm a mix of the two some say I sound Aboriginal which they wouldn't be far off after all I am and some say I sound like 3 accents mixed together if you want to hear my voice go over to my channel and pick a video even when edit a video for UA-cam I can't pick out what I sound like
I drove that whole highway (apart from the Tassie bit) in a Toyota lite ace van back in 1990. It took me six months Saw some incredible things and met some incredible people. It was amazing ♥
Simon, we Australians don't have an accent. Everybody else does. Plus we drive right hand drive cars on the left. Toward the end of the video there is a shot of two vehicles on a road, and both are on the wrong side for their direction of travel. Trivial point, I know. But it's a fact. Which somebody got wrong. Otherwise mate, brilliant as usual. 🇭🇲
I noticed that in several parts of the video but assumed it was different Aussie states resisting the Federal Government and just doing things their own way.
Just for a little context. Parts of the road in 1986 were known as the "corrugated highway". It was really quite interesting driving on a dirt road for 300km that was called a national highway. I am pretty sure the tarring between Broome and Port Headland was the last part sealed in about 1988.
Yes the overnight ferry is part of the highway and I understand the cost is subsidised based on the cost to drive /eat/stay the distance if it was a road.
Northern Territories. Territories? What? The Northern Territory, it's called the Northern Territory. Also, the amount of stock footage with cars on the wrong side of the road was a bit disappointing.
Port Wakefield on the SA section is actually marked at the location of Port Augusta. Wakefield is on the way between Adelaide and Port Augusta but Port Augusta is the crossroads there
Which one is the dry town? The first Perth/Melbourne trip I thought I was going to die when I couldn’t get a G&T after 16 hours behind the wheel…… I make sure I have booze supplies now every town that starts with “port”
I've been waiting out here for him since the video was posted. Bloody numpty still hasn't shown up. Probably too busy blazing his beard, if you know what I mean.
@@lancelot0007 no worries. Just clarifying as only two mainland territories were mentioned and Jervis Bay is often forgotten or assumed to be part of either NSW or the ACT. I also think we might have the shortest highways in the world. The Bradfield Highway in Sydney is about 2.5km long and the Chandler Highway in Melbourne is 1.4km long.
Australian:"I''ll see your extra time zones and raise you a tropics, a few deserts and an appreciation of life when you're further down the food chain😆😆😆😆
@@simethorntonable I'll double down with at temperature of -40 and a grizzly or two... BTW did my NSW HSC in '83. Even climbed Ularu when it was allowed, hope to make it back to hug some aging aunt's and uncle's soon.
@@abeeson86 Good thing he stuck to major cities, would have been a disaster if he tried our Aboriginal town names, would have made for entertaining viewing. Maybe theres a show in it for Simon.
As an Aussie - the T in Mate is a soft T unless you are actually sarcastically calling a stranger "mate" in an aggressive manner. Like "Now you listen here maTe". Also if using the plural, mates, the T is hard. In all other circumstances it's a soft T. I don't know how to represent it in writing. But that was the most obvious sign you were an outsider imitating an Aussie, in just that one word.
As a Australia I am very happy with this video because when ever I leave town to go to another city I use the M1 and I had not idea that it went all the way across the county or was even called the National 1. Thanks for teaching me about my own county that I should know.
Bloody struth, I live in Straya and I had no clue we had the longest highway in the world. Thanks for the video!! BTW 12:40 in Australia we drive on the left ;)
I have flown it from Cairns to Adelaide, far nicer trip airborne. Brisbane Sydney Canberra Melbourne and on to Adelaide in one trip in a little bugsmasher
In 2018 we drove all the way from Cairns down to Sydney, over to Adelaide and all up to Darwin. As a Swiss coming from a very small country the distances and size of this country was mind boggling…but oh so great! Although the „quality“ of the roads was not always great. We were also stuck south of Carins due to flooding for 2 days - an adventure. But I love Australia! Hopefully we can come back soon.
As an Australian, an aspect of Australia that is not mentioned very much is this: modern Australia was founded as a British penal colony. Most of the convicts were either political or economic criminals, but not all. A few of the convicts were seriously unpleasant characters and the British Authorities at the time took the opportunity to get rid of them by sending them very far away. Although many generations have passed, the bloodline remains (character being genetic). Some of these extreme people live far away from other people (who they don't like) and live in the vast and largely unpopulated outback. Characters like those portrayed in the movie "Wolf Creek" do actually exist. About 30 foreign visitors to Australia go missing every year and are never heard of again. Occasionally skeletons are discovered and by chance convictions are made (but not many). Whenever I hear of young European women going backpacking in the Australian outback, I just shake my head, I would never do such a thing (and I am a rural based Australian)!
@UA-cam Account it was magical. I stayed at capital city hostels. The rest of the trip I rolled my swag off the side of the road and slept under the stars and made a fire and cup of billy tea every morning watch the sun rise... The best spot was the Kimberly going on the gib River road I broke the backend of the bike drove 200kms found the only mechanic for 600kms welded it up myself then back on the road. Outside Gladstone the engine exhaust collapsed... starved the engine of oil and destroyed the internals I got lift with the bike 30kms to the car wreckers. I organized another engine air frighted from perth. For 4 days I slept on the floor in the back shed smoko room wreckers yard (I was burning time by helping them out.) After the round trip I managed to do it all on my Chinese 400cc bike that couldn't be registered on the road so I used one of my other motorcycle number plate that was registered. @@megaprojects9649 Cheers.. So if you can find someone that had done the trip without a legally registered vehicle let us know of the legend ;). I could write a book on it.
Done 4/5 of the mainland - cheated on Broome to Perth put it on a truck and road shotgun for that leg - already done that leg there and back a few times as my GF at the time lived up there... also when I rolled up to the docks to catch the ferry to Tasmania and found out how much it cost ( late 80's and pre web days - it was some stupid price for a bike 1/5 the size of a car and cost more than flying there) I basically went "Bugger that Tasmania that's my whole budget for you in a return ferry ticket" and rode on to Sydney
Interesting quirky sidebar he didn't mention was that the Oz states were originally separate British colonies and so went their own way in many things...including the gauge of their railway tracks. I traveled from Perth to Brisbane in the '60's and had to change trains 5 times. Common gauge was finally put in in the '80's.
To make things more interesting, Western Australia wasn't going to be part of Australia and New Zealand was when they first wrote the Constitution. www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013Q00005
@@dids15 What a pity that never happened, and now WA is carrying the rest of OZ... (and before you t'other siders get all uppity, check out the GST return rates. WA gets 38% of GST collected, while the rest of the states get anywhere from 1 on 1 for NSW and Vic, up to 5.28 on 1 for NT... If it wasn't for the mining industry in northern WA, the rest of Australia would be in serious shitstreet.)
The only standard gauge track in Queensland comes up from NSW and ends at Roma St, Brisbane. And it's dual gauge for part of it. Narrow gauge is better in some situations, like where you need to get up The Great Dividing Range. It can have tighter turns even if it's lower speed.
Them roadworks he mentioned on the Bruce highway after the floods, yeah there still going. I only travel on the Bruce highway once a year and that’s around Caloundra. They’ve been working on the Caloundra off ramp for as long as I can remember.
Speaking of Australian records, where’s our video on the longest stretch of straight railway in the world (which coincidentally also resides on the Nullarbor plain) or the longest train in the world being BHP’s iron ore train in Western Australia?
I work for BHP. The longest one we put together was over 7km. Considering the derailment a couple of years ago, I can't see the company being too keen to try and break the record...
My grandfather remembered when highway 8 was dirt and impassable to even horses. God rest his soul. This is the main highway from Melbourne to Adelaide.
True Fact: In addition to being the world's foremost magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini has one other claim to fame -- he was the first man to ever fly an airplane in Australia.
Another amazing fact about Houdini in Australia is he performed one of his escape tricks in Melbourne's Yarra River. He jumped off a bridge covered in chains and while he was trying to free himself he dislodged a corpse that was half buried in the mud.
I want to drive this one day. From my home town off the Pacific Hwy and around clockwise. I've never felt the urge to go overseas, there's plenty to see here on our own continent.
Being a traffic controller in Queensland means that work will never slow down or run out as constant repairs & upgrades on the Bruce highway are being done every day. My area also has the Capricorn highway & Burnett highway so keep on truckin finally means something to me lol yeah Idk either I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents
@@razorwork1 my point was that Canberra had nothing to do with our colonial history so the fact that it was not settled by convicts is unremarkable to say the least. I'm not sure if Canberra existed before federation so it probably wasn't a holiday destination for captain Cook.
Simon you blundered there, Melbourne also wasn't settled by convicts, there was a brief penal settlement in the early 1800's which lasted for about 6 months just inside the Port Phillip Heads, but that was abandoned and they were returned to Sydney. Melbourne as a settlement didn't come into being till much later.
But Victoria, like the rest of Australia had convicts except for South Australia. It was the only one settled by free settlers and migrants. Which is why our English is better than the rest of the country.
I imagine almost all of the daily traffic figures comes from Sydney commuters. Highway one As the M1 goes straight through the city and is a major arterial route.
The Brisbane-Gold Coast stretch is mostly three and four lane and sees massive commuter traffic which is often congested. It's the only practical route between the two cities. The Bruce Highway between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast is similarly busy and congested but mostly two lanes due to current roadworks.
You should see peak hour traffic on the Warringah freeway, Bradfield highway and Harbour Bridge. Because we seem to like confusing ppl it's not exactly clear where the warringah ends and the Bradfield starts. Just that it's a morass of lane merges, exits and overpasses.
@@AvoidTheCadaver I used to drive that stretch every day for work back in the 80s. It was a congested mess back then, I can only imagine how much worse it is now.
Simon, Perth was settled by Free Settlers in 1829. The convict era of Western Australia was the period during which Western Australia was a penal colony of the British Empire. Although it received small numbers of juvenile offenders from 1842, it was not formally constituted as a penal colony until 1849. Between 1850 and 1868, 9,721 convicts were transported to Western Australia on 43 convict ship voyages. Transportation ceased in 1868, but it was many years until the colony ceased to have any convicts in its care
i think people have just bastardised it to the point of just calling it the princess. considering prince's and princess are only a misstressed syllable away. ive always known it as the PRINCE's hwy thouugh
did i can nearly hit NH1 with a hand thrown rock. And im under a busy AF air corridor. Done a chunk of it all up north and across the old nullarbor, i cant imagine the scale of engineering to make it all to begin with
If you ever drive on the Midlands hwy in Tassie, rest assured you'll be doing 40 km per hr for a big chunk of it as its been undergoing roadworks for all of my 23 years at least 😅
Excellent job on the video Mate 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Yeah Straya is a massive place so it always gets me when people online think it isn’t as big as what it actually is. Aside from road trips by car I’ve toured by bike and yes even nowadays you’ll get a sore bum. As for crossing the Nullarbor yeah my parents were fool hardy taking me as a baby from the East Coast starting in Brisbane in 1963 to a place called Wyalkatchem WA for work on a farm in a run down early 50s Vangard and returning back to Queensland over a year later after my sister was born. It was never dole growing up here and our highways outside of our major cities will always will always give you both beautiful and jaw dropping scenery.
@@Chris-hx3om Nah Dumb shit Kangaroos. They sit in the road hypnotized by your headlights, then as you move to avoid, they wait until you are about to pass them then they jump in front of you, "hahahahaha Got ya !". Dumb Shit Kangaroos.
@@ChannelReuploads9451 Yes - safer to turn your lights off as the roo will only jump into the light patch, if no lights will jump off the road. Its pretty scary but I've done it dozens of times on the Calder Highway going thru Hattah-Kulyne National Park.
When did they change the de restriction zone? I was gobsmacked, 5 years ago when after the 130 KLM per hour restrictions, it became open speed. Was great. Loved it.
Simon, there was a section of the Nullarbor Plains that was still dirt in May, 1972. That was the stretch from the Border Village back to either Penong or Ceduna. If you went through after the graders had done their pass, it was a reasonable road. However, if you went just before the graders, there was a good chance you would shake your vehicle to pieces; blow tyres and destroy a windscreen or other window. The trucks that used to cart for Kellogs, they had an interesting trick to keep the dust out of the load. They used to double tarp the load, but, they would leave the front of the trailer without a tarp, but, would have other ways of keeping the water out. By doing this, the wind flow would blow the bulldust out of the load, meaning the load would arrive in good to excellent condition at Perth. Another feature of the highway across the Nullarbor is the air strips that are built into the Highway for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). These are generally spaced about 200 km / 125 miles apart, and are worked in conjunction with the Ambulance Service that is based at Ceduna. On the Western Australian side of the Nullarbor Plains, that has Australia's longest straight stretch of road, at 143 km / 89 miles long. You travel that long in a straight line, you get to the corner, go around the corner... "Gee, can we go back and do that again?" There is also the Alternative Highway 1, which runs from Ceduna, and goes via the coast of the Eyre Peninsula, and takes you via Port Lincoln. It rejoins the main Highway at Lincoln Gap or 'The Tanks'. If you are going through there, watch out for the "Mermaids"... Since the concrete pad went in... it has been hell there!!!
Did Perth to Sydney on a Honda 400 back in 1980. It took 6 days and at the end of each day my ears rang for at least an hour after I took off my helmet. Showering in bore water is an experience I'll not forget. You get a bubble per bar of soap. Lonely as hell out there, but so glad I did it now.
Back in '79, drove from Townsville to Perth with one other driver in 3 days and 3 hours with 350 miles of corrugated dirt road across the Nullabor...long drive mate!
My German house mates thought I was insane when drove from Copenhagen Denmark to Oslo Norway with 2 breaks one coffee and second piss out that coffee. They told it couldn't be done. My reply was pig ass I use travel Syd to Melbourne which can be 10 hr
I live in Perth these days, during the late 80's early 90's my GF lived in Broome, used to do the 900Km Perth to Carnarvon in one day (11 hours including food and piss breaks) both in the car and on my motorcycle - I then, admittedly, split up the remaining 1500 km in to two far more relaxing days of an easy ~750km per day ;) a few years back I was in Cardiff, Wales, and the other people in the backpackers thought I was INSANE when I told them I was planing on driving from Liverpool to Inverness in one day "You can't do that!" "Biatches please I'm born and bred rural Western Australian, that's almost just a shopping trip drive" (and these days I've driven that in a return journey just to pick up or drop off computers from a regional site though OSH do require me to have a back up driver in case)
Imagine driving on this road, loving the sights aaaand then you get into Melbourne. Dodge the kamikaze yuppies and ubers in a rush only to be t-boned in Springvale by some nuffie who wasn't paying attention. Straya m8
@@MsLouisez More referring to the yuppies in the cbd. Springvale is certainly a working class suburb, just with notoriously bad drivers. Also Springvale was specifically picked as the Prinny runs right through it.
As a kid in the 80s we did the East to West road trip multiple times to visit family. In a non air conditioned Holden Shuttle van. Books, colouring in, closing the blinds my dad installed and lying down on the bench seats to have a nap, listening to tapes on your Walkman until the batteries went flat. And looooots of staring out the window in utter boredom. Daily highlight was staying in a different cheap ass motel each night, and getting the motel breakfast. Cold toast, cereal in tiny individual boxes, tinned fruit etc. Exotic stuff when you’re a little kid 🙂
Fun fact: AC/DC in their early days in London were asked to do a gig in Oxford (I think) as a urgent request. The promoter knew traveling such a large distance for the local bands would be out of the question but the Aussies it would be just down the road. It was nothing for AC/DC to go to Melbourne from Sydney for a weekend gig, over 800km each way.
I’m 51, also know it well. A few car magazines of the mid to late 80s did road trips around Australia (The big Lap) upon release of new cars. I remember reading the VL v8 commodore one for some reason.
Fun fact, the M31 Hume Highway (also called the Hume Freeway in Victoria and Hume Motorway just outside Sydney) which takes you from Sydney to Melbourne was duplicated in its entirety in 2014. The Holbrook Bypass finalised 40 years worth of upgrades. The Pacific Highway A1 (Also called the Pacific Motorway M1 in some parts) between Sydney and Brisbane has just finished being duplicated after over 40 years of upgrades. Canberra and Sydney wee the first two major capitals to be linked by duplicated roadway long before Melbourne and Brisbane. So prior to the mid 2010's, no other, further major capital city was linked by full duplicated motorway grade road.
2:35 - Chapter 1 - A vast land 3:55 - Chapter 2 - Early australian roads 5:45 - Chapter 3 - The national route numbering system 7:20 - Chapter 4 - National highway 1 7:55 - Chapter 5 - Western australia & the northern territories 9:05 - Chapter 6 - Queensland & new south wales 10:35 - Chapter 7 - Victoria, tasmania & new south wales 12:35 - Chapter 8 - Back at the beginning
The reason Australia still has so many dirt roads is because the local councils take Federal and State infrastructure money and spend it on themselves... ( I live on one of the oldest and most travelled dirt road in Australia. We've had money to tar it three times. Yep. Still dirt.)
What I love is when you're driving down a dirt road and then there is a section of tar then a house and then back to dirt road. Yup, must be a councillors house.
We used to head out west for camping and after a certain point it was always dirt or mud depending on the weather. Imagine our shock when we hit asphalt, didn’t last long though, straight back to dirt after the houses.
In 1969 we drove from Cairns to Perth in my almost new Chrysler Valiant for a sailing championship. We actually (4 drivers) drove the 3904 miles (back then miles) in just 4 days. Our first overnight stop was in NSW at Glen Innes, the second was in WA at Norseman. The famous Nuliabor section was 320 miles of gravel road from Ceduna (SA) to the WA border. One section of that trip was 96 miles (136 km) of straight road and fortunately that was in WA and bitumen. Since then, I have done the Nullabor 8 times. I was at a motorhome rally and skiting about that when this lady (from WA) said she had travelled it an amazing 31 times. That car, by the way travelled 94,000 miles (151,280 km) in just 4 years. Holy smoke! No, when I sold it, just like myself, it never smoked.
I’m sitting 10 meters from National Highway 1. We live alongside it. Planning to do ‘The Big Lap’ once we are no longer at risk of being trapped anywhere.
Look speaking of Australia, why does Simon look like he is wearing a woolies shirt hahaha
Flannoes
I try to shop at ALDI to avoid those types of distractions
Now that you mention it
What's the difference these days it's all 'made in chyna'
Holy shit, it does look like a Woolies shirt! Makes me want to call for a clean-up in aisle three.
Just to clarify, we don't have "Northern Territories". It is a single territory called "Northern Territory".
See you in the NT!
The lack of basic googling is so real
@@panthrax555 It's better if you write it CU in the NT
Yes it is.
He's getting confused with canada's northern territories
Look, Simon, as an Australian, let me assure you - you were never at risk of slipping into an Australian accent.
Although he was close to a South Australian accent at times.
His accent was the upper class Aussie accent until as recently as the 1990s.
Yeah, even when he tried too! 🤣
They can only be acquired by years of drinking beer and swearing
@@aheat3036 its often called called the "Colonial accent"
The Nullarbor Hwy is so straight, flat and clear that one night I dipped my high beam so as not to blind a truck coming the other way but it took twenty minutes before we passed each other!!
I heard the railway line across it is similar. a tale I was told from an old Army guy involved with the British nuclear tests in the 50's that while waiting for a supply train to arrive at the siding they were using, they could see the trains light in the distance. then took nearly an hour before the train actually pulled up.
That’s why it’s call the Null-arbor ( no trees).
@@catey62 i have driven the nulabor 5 times and to be honest this is mostly bullshit. It makes a good story but because of how round the earth is you usually can only see lights coming for about 2 or 3 mins when you are driving. HOWEVER, when you are standing in the dark and a train/truck is coming with some crazy high beams, you can see the glow from them over the horizon for absolutely ages, An hour is totally believable.
Happened to me in the NT. 20 minutes.
@@michaelcliff6574 Hay Plains is the same, I've dipped my lights too early, and then put them back up so i could see the bloody roos.
Just for our overseas friends, we do not drive on both sides of the road as depicted in this video. We drive on the correct side - the left 😊
yeah, right
We're supposed to but a lot don't.
I noticed that but just thought it was in Victoria somewhere
The right side is the wrong side
The right side is the left side
You obviously haven't been around my part of QLD on a Saturday night. They drive on whichever side they happen to be on. 🤣
For an Aussie, the only thing more entertaining than Simon's attempts at Australian place names is Simon's attempt at an Australian accent.
Ironically most of our oldest towns and cities were named by the British, so he's probably pronouncing them correctly but it just doesn't sound right somehow!
True my g
Good day mate
At least for once Tassie is the normal one hahaah
Strewth, he buggers it up! 😀
Fun fact: you can actually encounter signs along the road saying: caution, Royal Flying Doctors airstrip, followed by airstip markings in the middle of the road.
RFDS is currently fundraising to build a new base at Mt Isa, because the old one is pretty much cactus. Please donate if you can and yes they do rescue tourists lost out whoop whoop too.
This is true. My partner works for the Royal flying doctors as a nurse
I saw this driving across the Nullarbor Highway, I thought "wow that's a massive pedestrian crossing", because I didn't see any signage. Then the next one said Royal Flying Doctor airstrip. Good thing I didn't stop to admire the "HUGE ped x-ing" hahah
@@RichoG85 omg I literally thought the same when driving across the nulla
Another fun fact there are signs that ask questions about australiana and down the road it will have the answers.
Listening to this bloke say Cairns, Launceston and Hobart is hilarious.
And the Nullarbor 😂
Cans, Loni, hoebart
"Carnarvon" though, I just about died.
And Noolabore (Nullarbor plain)
Yeah, that really hurt.
In 1979, there was a huge ‘Round Australia’ car rally. In a nod to what you called ‘the big lap’ a Porsche team car had a simple instruction on the panel in front of the navigator which read “Keep the ocean on your left”.
And twenty years before that a "race" named the Redex Trials were run annually...read up on characters like "Gelignite" Jack Murray.
And they still got lost huh.
Lol
In the 80’s I went from Melbourne to Cairns.
The only way you know what state you were in was by the beer adverts.
4x for Queensland, Tooheys for NSW and VB for Victoria.
🤣
XXXX
So you missed the NSW and Qld border signs?
@@flowerpower8722 too busy missing the Roos
& All Of Them Taste Disgusting. All Beer's Taste Disgusting
And it passes by probably a hundred "big" things. Aussies will know what I mean.
Been travelling around Australia since February 2020 (Covid not withstanding) and I've passed a lot of those big things!
@@EnigmaPenguin
You must have seen my with my pants down
What you mean, the big banana is totes megaproject worthy!
@@googlefashists4986 Yeah seen ya with the Big Pineapple 🍍 hanging out ya arse. Guess ya love the rough end.
What is the point of the big banana?
4 days 10 hours of the speed run was spent in traffic on Melbourne's Monash Freeway
They must have driven around the bruce carpark just north of brisbane
Gotta love the Monash carpark
On a Monday morning, on the way to work
Three of those days between Bourke Road and Warrigul Road
@@dmangsmile it’s a winner.
Brave of you to combine Queensland and New South Wales together
yeah like, Queensland is the aussie version of Florida. we have been trying to sell QLD to the Kiwis for years, but the state is so shameful that they dont even they want it.
It's funny, when you're driving down Dandenong Road and you miss your turnoff into Wattletree Road, but then realise if you just keep going in the same direction, eventually (after a huge trip around the Aussie mainland) you will end up at the same turnoff.
Just text or call "Sorry, I missed the turn off. Be back in a while". 🤣
😂😆😂😆
😂😂😂
@@SuperRoo_22 lol yup
Just look for where the tram branches off. (Streetcar for our American readers).
"Some roads and routes really do come to define a country, and this is Australia's." Patchwork, half-arsed, and only theoretically controlled by the federal government? Yup, sounds like home.
Some parts still in development stage. Yep.
Pretty much nails it! .... Australia ... "she'll be right 🍻"
@@sonuvabitch -- What did you expect , when they put the Roo's in charge of Road Maintenance . Lol
They've been 'fixing' the Midland Highway in Tasmania for at least 10 years. They should get it finished just in time to start again.
The M1 through the Gold Coast is still 2 lanes in some places....
This channel answers the question: what would it be like if wikipedia had a beard?
I'm pretty sure Wikipedia has a beard.
@@megaprojects9649 and it uses Beard Blaze (am I right Peter, AM I RIGHT?)
Yes, it does. Vaguely accurate with a LOT of inaccuracies....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beard
I agree wikipedia does not have a beard.
Fun fact, as a kid who grew up in the 70’s spending a lot of time on sheep and cattle stations in the outback trip times were not measured in miles or kilometres but in number of beers consumed. My friend Kirrilly’s family farm (which is bigger than Scotland) was a 90 km drive from the station house to the letterbox at the front gate. A journey into town for more ammunition was a big event and took most of a day, for me riding in the back of an uncovered ute on dirt tracks at insanely high speeds was made more comfortable after my old man blasted a few Roos along the way and I could make myself a kind of plush and warm bucket seat out of their (in hindsight) tick infested carcasses. I was six years old. My earliest childhood memories are absolute carnage lol. Fun times! Australia’s changed rather a lot in the following 5 decades….
How far to Bedourie mate? About 8 beers mate.
@@daviddou1408 nope, because I was drinking a beer with her a few weeks ago at the pub and I asked her how long her Dads driveway was. Not really that difficult a concept to wrap your head around Dave.
The Silver Highway..because of the empties on the side of the road.
So crossing your mates farm was a 7 can trip?
Fun times. Mate
Great video Simon!
Just to add another interesting fact, the Nullarbor Plain is home to the 90 mile straight, the longest continuous straight stretch of road on earth.
And Nullarbor broken down means “no trees” Null Arbor.
Also the longest straight railway line on earth, 487 ks.
Actually, it's currently the 9th longest.
But I do believe it was the longest originally and is sill the longest in Aus.
You're all wrong.
It's not the 'longest continuous straight stretch of road on earth', it's the 'longest continuous *FLAT* straight stretch of road on earth'.
And it's not the 'longest straight railway line on earth, 487 ks', it's the 'longest *FLAT* straight railway line on earth, 487 ks'.
@@Chris-hx3om if I recall from driving it, isn't there a slight grade on the eastern end of it. Is that included in the official length?
@@Chris-hx3om Are you a Flat Earther or something? Why the focus on Flat.
It's interesting to note that the Princes Highway between Sydney and Melbourne is little more than a tourist drive. The Hume Highway inland is much shorter and faster.
and more dangerous
@@tonypegler3618 only because it's used more
If you do go down coast I highly recommend Narooma, the inlet bar is stunning with its range of colours, not to mention if you go at the right time you will see swarms of crabs all over the lower parts of town near the boardwalk.
Also not sure if it's still there but a town near it called mogo has the best pies with the most random filling. Oh also tilba's cheese factory is great
@@LilNewo yeah I'd like to travel down the south coast one day. Been up the coast north of Sydney many times
The Princes Highway route is a far more interesting and picturesque drive though, if you're not in a hurry. But if time is pressing, yeah, the Hume is defo the best way.
For those of you not from Australia, most people would use the Hume Freeway rather than the Princess Hwy to get from Sydney to Melbourne.
It's the Hume HIGHWAY friend, not freeway 😉
@@nicolepowell3121 depends on the section. It's known as the Hume Freeway throughout most of Victoria until the border with NSW/the Spirit of Progress Bridge. As an example look at the signage going north bound at 1 High Street, Wodonga VIC 3690 - you should see a green/yellow sign pointing left that says M31 / B400 Melbourne, Yarrawonga and a small white sign above that says HUME FWY.
Side note: the overpass behind that sign was opened in 2007. Prior to that, this is where the Hume Fwy would intersect with the Hume Hwy taking you through Albury prior to the internal bypass - known locally as "the Freeway".
Yep in Victoria it is called a "freeway", but it still has cross roads and t junction intersections with minor roads. Wishful thinking by politicians maybe or deceptive marketing. As a kid the Hume was single lane each way overtaking on the other side of the road. Now it is at least duplicated dual highway for all of the way, last bit was completed about 2005.
Bloke walks into a bar carrying a piece of Asphalt, bar tender asks " what'll it be mate?", guys replies "a pint for me and one for the road"
Yes, thank you.
The door's over there, mate.
Dad Joke, First and Final Warning!
Try that sort of crap again, Mate and you'll be drinking your beer through your ear!
G'day mate, strewth, what a bloody bonza video.
I reckon he Fair Dinkum nailed it. 'cept for some of the place names and attempted Oz-speak, it's not too much of a cock-up.
Worth slightly more than it's own weight in cold cocky poo..... Hooroo. 🇭🇲
Bugga Me! He didn't even warn people about the Drop Bears.
@@normm7764 mate, zippin' by at an average speed of 110 you don't need to worry about the drop bears..
Roos on the other hand..
There is but one Northern Territory in Australia, "The Northern Territories" is an error.
guess they confused it with canada
CU in the NT
Who cares there's nothing there but crocs
@@jasonpapai73 Good sir! You are very wrong! There are snakes, spiders, Crocs, Kangaroos, Emu’s and a wide range of diverse life
What about the dingoes they're world famous. A dungo has my Barbie
Always love it when Simon covers stuff from Australia 🇦🇺
I've covered quite a few Australian women...
As an Australian we learnt in school that we are both an island and a continent.
I have spent a great deal of my life driving on Highway one... Otherwise known as the Bruce Highway in my former neck of the woods. I used to drive trucks on some very long, lonely and yet hauntingly beautiful stretches of road. I don't live in Australia anymore but to this day I still get homesick for the wide Brown land. I still call Australia home.
Hello from Noosa. Know exactly what you mean
All of your stock footage is of cars driving on the wrong side of the road. In Australia you drive on the left
And upside-down
They drive on the right side of the road in the stock footage.
Noticed that as well
I'm in the U.S., and I thought so. It's like that scene in "The Graduate" when Dustin Hoffman drives from San Francisco to Oakland on the top deck of the Oakland Bay Bridge. Uh, no. The top deck leads from Oakland to San Francisco.
I'm not sure which stock library they use, although my guess is probably Envato Elements, as I recognise a few of these clips - but there really isn't very much Australian infrastructure stock footage. I've made videos on both the road network and the major InlandRail project and I was forced to use a bunch of international stock footage to fill the videos (though at least I used some horizontal and vertical flips as required to have everything at least appear to be all in the right place).
TL,DR: can't use what doesn't exist. There's just so little Australian infrastructure stock footage.
It's so funny that the whole world outside of australia think aussies only have either paul hogan or mad max accents
Almost every suburb in Sydney has its own accent haha
No one has ever nailed the Toorak or Point Piper accent. So disappointing
@@kieranpace3172 I have ... :-0
Not if they watched Miss Fishers Mysteries
Every Foreigner I've run into cannot place my accent some of them say I sound Irish some say I sound Scottish and some say I'm a mix of the two some say I sound Aboriginal which they wouldn't be far off after all I am and some say I sound like 3 accents mixed together if you want to hear my voice go over to my channel and pick a video even when edit a video for UA-cam I can't pick out what I sound like
I drove that whole highway (apart from the Tassie bit) in a Toyota lite ace van back in 1990. It took me six months Saw some incredible things and met some incredible people. It was amazing ♥
Simon, we Australians don't have an accent. Everybody else does. Plus we drive right hand drive cars on the left. Toward the end of the video there is a shot of two vehicles on a road, and both are on the wrong side for their direction of travel.
Trivial point, I know. But it's a fact. Which somebody got wrong. Otherwise mate, brilliant as usual. 🇭🇲
As an English person I can confirm left side is the right side!
@@mikes5637 HUH??
;)
I noticed several shots with cars driving on the wrong side (for Australia). Guess that's what happens when you grab random stock footage of highways.
@@mikes5637 and the right side is the wrong side.
I noticed that in several parts of the video but assumed it was different Aussie states resisting the Federal Government and just doing things their own way.
Nah mate, you know what the M1 is though?
The largest roundabout ever conceived.
Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Round-a-bound.
Not the worse attempt at an aussie accent I've heard, but yeah nah, don't give up your day job...
Yeah, I dont think Simon needs to worry about slipping into an Aussie accent lol
@@heffatheanimal2200 Tell him he's dreaming...
@@johnwhear9600 The ultimate "In Joke" :D
some of it was really good, but his MAITE was grating :P
Mate.
As someone who grew up by this highway and still lives within 10km of it I'm glad you included this mega project!
I live within 50 metres of a four lane section of it!
I drive on part of it most days. Between Brisbane and the Gold Coast
@@lztx you’re near me then!
Just for a little context. Parts of the road in 1986 were known as the "corrugated highway". It was really quite interesting driving on a dirt road for 300km that was called a national highway. I am pretty sure the tarring between Broome and Port Headland was the last part sealed in about 1988.
Little disappointed that you didn't talk about the Spirit of Tasmania. It is possible to complete the lap with a single road vehicle
Yes the overnight ferry is part of the highway and I understand the cost is subsidised based on the cost to drive /eat/stay the distance if it was a road.
Northern Territories. Territories?
What?
The Northern Territory, it's called the Northern Territory.
Also, the amount of stock footage with cars on the wrong side of the road was a bit disappointing.
3:38 I’d check your math there, Simon. I think you’re missing a zero.
Calm down, Captain America. Both are acceptable.
Yeah i was wondering how 800 000kms suddenly equalled 50 000 miles.
“Driving round the block” is another term used to describe the drive
Port Wakefield on the SA section is actually marked at the location of Port Augusta. Wakefield is on the way between Adelaide and Port Augusta but Port Augusta is the crossroads there
Which one is the dry town? The first Perth/Melbourne trip I thought I was going to die when I couldn’t get a G&T after 16 hours behind the wheel…… I make sure I have booze supplies now every town that starts with “port”
Fun Aussie fact: the way you said "mate" just before the title card... You just challenged 26 million people to a fight outside...
I've been waiting out here for him since the video was posted. Bloody numpty still hasn't shown up. Probably too busy blazing his beard, if you know what I mean.
Yup, it was aggressive
Poor Simon. He tried. 😉🇦🇺
I mean is the bloody drongo coming? It’s friggen cold out here.
Accurate
There are "territories" in Australia, Namely the Australian Capital territory, but only *ONE* Northern Territory.
3 mainland territories - ACT, NT & Jervis Bay Territory (managed by ACT but not part of ACT) and 7 external territories
@@lancelot0007 no worries. Just clarifying as only two mainland territories were mentioned and Jervis Bay is often forgotten or assumed to be part of either NSW or the ACT.
I also think we might have the shortest highways in the world. The Bradfield Highway in Sydney is about 2.5km long and the Chandler Highway in Melbourne is 1.4km long.
Aussie: "we're so proud our highway covers 3 time zones!"
Canadian: " double that and we'll talk..."
Australian:"I''ll see your extra time zones and raise you a tropics, a few deserts and an appreciation of life when you're further down the food chain😆😆😆😆
@@simethorntonable You clearly have never met a moose!
@@pmsavenger You apparently haven't had a curious saltwater crocodile bumping against the door of your campervan at 2:00am.
@@andymanaus1077 Maybe it just wanted to borrow the loo!
@@simethorntonable I'll double down with at temperature of -40 and a grizzly or two...
BTW did my NSW HSC in '83. Even climbed Ularu when it was allowed, hope to make it back to hug some aging aunt's and uncle's soon.
For what it's worth. Skip the "o"s in G'day mate and Simon did a good job of the Aussie accent for a pom
You are correct
Ya reckon! The only 2 names he got right were Perth and Adelaide
Simon stop being a bloody whinging Pom 😂 Launceston & Hobart 😂😂😂 yeah nah mate soz but he butchered it
@@1scone4king he did OK with Canberra too
@@abeeson86 Good thing he stuck to major cities, would have been a disaster if he tried our Aboriginal town names, would have made for entertaining viewing. Maybe theres a show in it for Simon.
As an Aussie - the T in Mate is a soft T unless you are actually sarcastically calling a stranger "mate" in an aggressive manner. Like "Now you listen here maTe".
Also if using the plural, mates, the T is hard. In all other circumstances it's a soft T. I don't know how to represent it in writing. But that was the most obvious sign you were an outsider imitating an Aussie, in just that one word.
its like saying "may" with a schwa instead of the y
I Call People Dip Shit,Ect 😂 Not Mate
Don't forget when you're talking about old mate or oi that's your mate over there because they are infact not your mate 😆
As a Australia I am very happy with this video because when ever I leave town to go to another city I use the M1 and I had not idea that it went all the way across the county or was even called the National 1.
Thanks for teaching me about my own county that I should know.
God this is so accurate. “WA is the major odd one out” that’s a constant and we all know how simple those people down in Tassie are 😜
So true
And that's why we had to invent the Barra.
I wish you had shipped that engine to americans. I know flipping it over may have been a chore, but...
Americans have been importing them as even they recognise them as being one the best designed 6 cylinder motors ever made.
Which Barra mate?
The wheel barra, the barra ya eat...
Yeah, but since we aren’t building them anymore, STOP SELLING THEM TO THE YANKS.
Oh yes the dohc thriftmaster 6
Bloody struth, I live in Straya and I had no clue we had the longest highway in the world. Thanks for the video!!
BTW
12:40 in Australia we drive on the left ;)
Stock footage at it's best
I commented on the same about 9 hours after you.
We also have the longest straight stretch of rail line on the planet by a long way!
Amazing what you learn when you get out of Wagga ay
That makes me lose credit when I see things like that. Are the other parts from Australia or just random places?
Maaaaate, I’ve done the big lap and it’s a bloody ripper mate.
For anyone else wondering:
"ripper
In Australia, a term generally describing what was or is expected to be a really good time"
I heard it was boring
@Victor Manuel Cattle grids add to your excitement.
@@nickleonard9521 yeah, 3 pictures on the Nullarbor Plane taken hours apart and look exactly the same, except for the direction of the shadows.
I have flown it from Cairns to Adelaide, far nicer trip airborne. Brisbane Sydney Canberra Melbourne and on to Adelaide in one trip in a little bugsmasher
It's Car-nar-vn, Cayrns, Lawn-ces-tn, Ho-bart, Nuh-la-bore. Mostly, the last syllable is lessened and the first one emphasised. Mel-bn for example.
In 2018 we drove all the way from Cairns down to Sydney, over to Adelaide and all up to Darwin. As a Swiss coming from a very small country the distances and size of this country was mind boggling…but oh so great! Although the „quality“ of the roads was not always great. We were also stuck south of Carins due to flooding for 2 days - an adventure. But I love Australia! Hopefully we can come back soon.
As an Australian, an aspect of Australia that is not mentioned very much is this: modern Australia was founded as a British penal colony. Most of the convicts were either political or economic criminals, but not all. A few of the convicts were seriously unpleasant characters and the British Authorities at the time took the opportunity to get rid of them by sending them very far away. Although many generations have passed, the bloodline remains (character being genetic). Some of these extreme people live far away from other people (who they don't like) and live in the vast and largely unpopulated outback. Characters like those portrayed in the movie "Wolf Creek" do actually exist. About 30 foreign visitors to Australia go missing every year and are never heard of again. Occasionally skeletons are discovered and by chance convictions are made (but not many).
Whenever I hear of young European women going backpacking in the Australian outback, I just shake my head, I would never do such a thing (and I am a rural based Australian)!
Might want to check that math at 3:37. 800,000km is a tad longer than 49,700mi. By a factor of 10.
I did it all solo on a motorcycle in 48 days.
Dude. That’s hard core. And cool. How was it?
legend
@UA-cam Account it was magical. I stayed at capital city hostels. The rest of the trip I rolled my swag off the side of the road and slept under the stars and made a fire and cup of billy tea every morning watch the sun rise... The best spot was the Kimberly going on the gib River road I broke the backend of the bike drove 200kms found the only mechanic for 600kms welded it up myself then back on the road. Outside Gladstone the engine exhaust collapsed... starved the engine of oil and destroyed the internals I got lift with the bike 30kms to the car wreckers. I organized another engine air frighted from perth. For 4 days I slept on the floor in the back shed smoko room wreckers yard (I was burning time by helping them out.) After the round trip I managed to do it all on my Chinese 400cc bike that couldn't be registered on the road so I used one of my other motorcycle number plate that was registered. @@megaprojects9649 Cheers.. So if you can find someone that had done the trip without a legally registered vehicle let us know of the legend ;). I could write a book on it.
Done 4/5 of the mainland - cheated on Broome to Perth put it on a truck and road shotgun for that leg - already done that leg there and back a few times as my GF at the time lived up there... also when I rolled up to the docks to catch the ferry to Tasmania and found out how much it cost ( late 80's and pre web days - it was some stupid price for a bike 1/5 the size of a car and cost more than flying there) I basically went "Bugger that Tasmania that's my whole budget for you in a return ferry ticket" and rode on to Sydney
Sure ya did Hannibal 😜
Interesting quirky sidebar he didn't mention was that the Oz states were originally separate British colonies and so went their own way in many things...including the gauge of their railway tracks. I traveled from Perth to Brisbane in the '60's and had to change trains 5 times. Common gauge was finally put in in the '80's.
To make things more interesting, Western Australia wasn't going to be part of Australia and New Zealand was when they first wrote the Constitution.
www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013Q00005
Standard* gauge
@@dids15 What a pity that never happened, and now WA is carrying the rest of OZ... (and before you t'other siders get all uppity, check out the GST return rates. WA gets 38% of GST collected, while the rest of the states get anywhere from 1 on 1 for NSW and Vic, up to 5.28 on 1 for NT... If it wasn't for the mining industry in northern WA, the rest of Australia would be in serious shitstreet.)
Good point, considering Australia became a federation in 1901, still took 80 years to make all the railways to a to a standard gauge.
The only standard gauge track in Queensland comes up from NSW and ends at Roma St, Brisbane. And it's dual gauge for part of it. Narrow gauge is better in some situations, like where you need to get up The Great Dividing Range. It can have tighter turns even if it's lower speed.
Them roadworks he mentioned on the Bruce highway after the floods, yeah there still going. I only travel on the Bruce highway once a year and that’s around Caloundra. They’ve been working on the Caloundra off ramp for as long as I can remember.
I did the ‘Big Lap’ on motorbike when I finished high school. Love this country!
There's a reason we can always honestly say that things are "just down the road, mate" XD
Adelaide is just up the road from Melbourne hahaha
Can you do a video on Canada’s highway 1
Speaking of Australian records, where’s our video on the longest stretch of straight railway in the world (which coincidentally also resides on the Nullarbor plain) or the longest train in the world being BHP’s iron ore train in Western Australia?
I work for BHP. The longest one we put together was over 7km.
Considering the derailment a couple of years ago, I can't see the company being too keen to try and break the record...
Sideproject: three- and four-trailer Australian “road trains”
Geographics: the outback
My grandfather remembered when highway 8 was dirt and impassable to even horses. God rest his soul.
This is the main highway from Melbourne to Adelaide.
Imagine driving all that distance only to run into a dropbear.
As long as you dont run over a bulldozer of the bush ( aka Wombat ) you'll be fine.
Or a fkn magpie 🦅
@@catey62 but do keep an eye out for the mythical cubed poop
@@Ghost-OZ or a butcher bird
@@Ghost-OZ You’d have to come to Canberra for that. Don’t think the highway comes through here.
True Fact: In addition to being the world's foremost magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini has one other claim to fame -- he was the first man to ever fly an airplane in Australia.
No shit!? I didn’t know this…
Spot on, in Diggers Rest. Less than 10 klicks from my front door.
Another amazing fact about Houdini in Australia is he performed one of his escape tricks in Melbourne's Yarra River. He jumped off a bridge covered in chains and while he was trying to free himself he dislodged a corpse that was half buried in the mud.
@@Cookieboymonster1962 The Yarra. The only river in Australia where the bottom floats on the top.
yep - one of my favourite trivia questions
Conversion is off by a factor of ten there at 3:37
Yes that didn't sound right, probably a misplaced comma in the script
Sometimes, I think they do things like that intentionally just to see if people are paying attention.
Yeah, I was listening and had to pause a moment cause geostationary is like 25k mi and they aren't crashing into the moon if it's 5k there and back
497096.954 miles for the actual number
@@patrickpreston666 well you would say "about 500,000 miles" because the 800,000km mentioned is an approximation.
I want to drive this one day. From my home town off the Pacific Hwy and around clockwise. I've never felt the urge to go overseas, there's plenty to see here on our own continent.
Being a traffic controller in Queensland means that work will never slow down or run out as constant repairs & upgrades on the Bruce highway are being done every day. My area also has the Capricorn highway & Burnett highway so keep on truckin finally means something to me lol yeah Idk either I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents
Adelaide - the only capital city in Australia not founded by convicts in Australia.... *Canberra coughs loudly
And so it should. It's the only city in Australia designed from the ground up to accommodate nerds.
@@stephenchigwidden7504 The point was Canberra was also founded by convicts, the politicians were just never convicted
...
@@razorwork1 my point was that Canberra had nothing to do with our colonial history so the fact that it was not settled by convicts is unremarkable to say the least. I'm not sure if Canberra existed before federation so it probably wasn't a holiday destination for captain Cook.
They just haven't gone to trial yet😆😆😆😆😆😆
Simon you blundered there, Melbourne also wasn't settled by convicts, there was a brief penal settlement in the early 1800's which lasted for about 6 months just inside the Port Phillip Heads, but that was abandoned and they were returned to Sydney. Melbourne as a settlement didn't come into being till much later.
But Victoria, like the rest of Australia had convicts except for South Australia. It was the only one settled by free settlers and migrants. Which is why our English is better than the rest of the country.
And don't forget Melb'n was the Capital of Australya for a brief time until the ACT was opened for business.
I imagine almost all of the daily traffic figures comes from Sydney commuters. Highway one As the M1 goes straight through the city and is a major arterial route.
The Brisbane-Gold Coast stretch is mostly three and four lane and sees massive commuter traffic which is often congested. It's the only practical route between the two cities.
The Bruce Highway between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast is similarly busy and congested but mostly two lanes due to current roadworks.
@@andymanaus1077 Yep, seen the Gateway choke up around the Airport as early as 4am
You should see peak hour traffic on the Warringah freeway, Bradfield highway and Harbour Bridge.
Because we seem to like confusing ppl it's not exactly clear where the warringah ends and the Bradfield starts. Just that it's a morass of lane merges, exits and overpasses.
@@AvoidTheCadaver I used to drive that stretch every day for work back in the 80s. It was a congested mess back then, I can only imagine how much worse it is now.
As well as linking Sydney to Wollongong and Newcastle
Simon, Perth was settled by Free Settlers in 1829. The convict era of Western Australia was the period during which Western Australia was a penal colony of the British Empire. Although it received small numbers of juvenile offenders from 1842, it was not formally constituted as a penal colony until 1849. Between 1850 and 1868, 9,721 convicts were transported to Western Australia on 43 convict ship voyages. Transportation ceased in 1868, but it was many years until the colony ceased to have any convicts in its care
fun fact 90% of people call it the "princess" highway despite clearly being written as the prince's highway.
I grew up in a town on the "Princess Hwy" and never knew it was actually called the Princes Hwy until right now. Lol
i think people have just bastardised it to the point of just calling it the princess. considering prince's and princess are only a misstressed syllable away. ive always known it as the PRINCE's hwy thouugh
I've moved states and still have never lived more than 30 minutes drive from it in my life
Most Australians live near the coast so not surprising.
did i can nearly hit NH1 with a hand thrown rock. And im under a busy AF air corridor. Done a chunk of it all up north and across the old nullarbor, i cant imagine the scale of engineering to make it all to begin with
im AUSTRALIAN good job mate. im in nsw on the nsw/vic border on the hume highway
Ooh he is talking about the M1. I thought it was weird I didn't know what he was on about with the white shield
If you ever drive on the Midlands hwy in Tassie, rest assured you'll be doing 40 km per hr for a big chunk of it as its been undergoing roadworks for all of my 23 years at least 😅
Excellent job on the video Mate 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Yeah Straya is a massive place so it always gets me when people online think it isn’t as big as what it actually is. Aside from road trips by car I’ve toured by bike and yes even nowadays you’ll get a sore bum. As for crossing the Nullarbor yeah my parents were fool hardy taking me as a baby from the East Coast starting in Brisbane in 1963 to a place called Wyalkatchem WA for work on a farm in a run down early 50s Vangard and returning back to Queensland over a year later after my sister was born. It was never dole growing up here and our highways outside of our major cities will always will always give you both beautiful and jaw dropping scenery.
Oh also lastly if you run out of ideas you could maybe show a mega project on the Sydney Harbour bridge or the opera house.
I'm fairly certain he's already covered the opera house.
There's a lot more to Australia than the coat hanger and the nun scrum
also used by Australian wild life to scare the sh*t out of people and caused a road accident.
Them be called wombats!
@@Chris-hx3om Nah Dumb shit Kangaroos. They sit in the road hypnotized by your headlights, then as you move to avoid, they wait until you are about to pass them then they jump in front of you, "hahahahaha Got ya !". Dumb Shit Kangaroos.
@@ChannelReuploads9451 Yes - safer to turn your lights off as the roo will only jump into the light patch, if no lights will jump off the road. Its pretty scary but I've done it dozens of times on the Calder Highway going thru Hattah-Kulyne National Park.
I just checked now, there are no more "no limit" highways in Australia anymore. Northern Territories used to have them, IIRC.
It's only illegal if you get caught
It's really mind boggling that they canned them, considering they noticeably reduced deaths
When did they change the de restriction zone? I was gobsmacked, 5 years ago when after the 130 KLM per hour restrictions, it became open speed. Was great. Loved it.
@@nancycurtis7315 would have been 3 yes ago now
to get federal funding they had to have speed limits plus too many poor inexperienced people not used to speed had too many fatal accidents
Simon, there was a section of the Nullarbor Plains that was still dirt in May, 1972. That was the stretch from the Border Village back to either Penong or Ceduna. If you went through after the graders had done their pass, it was a reasonable road. However, if you went just before the graders, there was a good chance you would shake your vehicle to pieces; blow tyres and destroy a windscreen or other window. The trucks that used to cart for Kellogs, they had an interesting trick to keep the dust out of the load. They used to double tarp the load, but, they would leave the front of the trailer without a tarp, but, would have other ways of keeping the water out. By doing this, the wind flow would blow the bulldust out of the load, meaning the load would arrive in good to excellent condition at Perth.
Another feature of the highway across the Nullarbor is the air strips that are built into the Highway for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). These are generally spaced about 200 km / 125 miles apart, and are worked in conjunction with the Ambulance Service that is based at Ceduna.
On the Western Australian side of the Nullarbor Plains, that has Australia's longest straight stretch of road, at 143 km / 89 miles long. You travel that long in a straight line, you get to the corner, go around the corner... "Gee, can we go back and do that again?"
There is also the Alternative Highway 1, which runs from Ceduna, and goes via the coast of the Eyre Peninsula, and takes you via Port Lincoln. It rejoins the main Highway at Lincoln Gap or 'The Tanks'. If you are going through there, watch out for the "Mermaids"... Since the concrete pad went in... it has been hell there!!!
Did Perth to Sydney on a Honda 400 back in 1980. It took 6 days and at the end of each day my ears rang for at least an hour after I took off my helmet. Showering in bore water is an experience I'll not forget. You get a bubble per bar of soap. Lonely as hell out there, but so glad I did it now.
Seeing this as an Aussie from Perth makes me happy!
Agreed mate
+1
That’s where Ozzie man is!!! This American lives Ozzie man lol
Hey Btw, where it says Port Wakefield on the South Australian part, it's actually Port Augusta.
800,000 km = 497,096 mi
@ 3:38 because 49,700 mi wont get you to the moon and back🚀🌝
Back in '79, drove from Townsville to Perth with one other driver in 3 days and 3 hours with 350 miles of corrugated dirt road across the Nullabor...long drive mate!
Simon when you come and do the Big Lap do it anti-clockwise, to avoid the headwinds when crossing the Nullarbor.
My German house mates thought I was insane when drove from Copenhagen Denmark to Oslo Norway with 2 breaks one coffee and second piss out that coffee. They told it couldn't be done. My reply was pig ass I use travel Syd to Melbourne which can be 10 hr
I live in Perth these days, during the late 80's early 90's my GF lived in Broome, used to do the 900Km Perth to Carnarvon in one day (11 hours including food and piss breaks) both in the car and on my motorcycle - I then, admittedly, split up the remaining 1500 km in to two far more relaxing days of an easy ~750km per day ;)
a few years back I was in Cardiff, Wales, and the other people in the backpackers thought I was INSANE when I told them I was planing on driving from Liverpool to Inverness in one day "You can't do that!" "Biatches please I'm born and bred rural Western Australian, that's almost just a shopping trip drive" (and these days I've driven that in a return journey just to pick up or drop off computers from a regional site though OSH do require me to have a back up driver in case)
Europeans in general have no idea of the size of counties like AU, USA and Canada. For them a 200 mile trip is epic (and three countries :D )
I've done Perth to Sydney in 40 hours (4,000km) and Adelaide to Perth in 27 (2750km). Two drivers swapping every three hours.
Imagine driving on this road, loving the sights aaaand then you get into Melbourne. Dodge the kamikaze yuppies and ubers in a rush only to be t-boned in Springvale by some nuffie who wasn't paying attention.
Straya m8
Yuppies in Springvale?
While the SE is full of yuppies..Springvale is one of the more working class burbs?
@@MsLouisez More referring to the yuppies in the cbd.
Springvale is certainly a working class suburb, just with notoriously bad drivers.
Also Springvale was specifically picked as the Prinny runs right through it.
They were looking at their mobile phone while driving, weren't they!
That's the most Australian sentence I've ever read
MsLouisez Could be talking about the real estate agents in the area..
Next video idea: Melbourne tram network, given its free in the cbd
The largest tram network in the world.
god it was a pain before they were free in the hoddle and the thug myki inspectors pulling you aside to interrogate you all the time
as an australian it’s so interesting to see where my daily commute connects to the entire country
As a kid in the 80s we did the East to West road trip multiple times to visit family. In a non air conditioned Holden Shuttle van. Books, colouring in, closing the blinds my dad installed and lying down on the bench seats to have a nap, listening to tapes on your Walkman until the batteries went flat. And looooots of staring out the window in utter boredom.
Daily highlight was staying in a different cheap ass motel each night, and getting the motel breakfast. Cold toast, cereal in tiny individual boxes, tinned fruit etc. Exotic stuff when you’re a little kid 🙂
I'm surprised ya didn't mention that the song Highway to Hell was written about a stretch of this exact highway.
Nah. It's about canning hwy . Not on the national 1
Wrong. Canning Highway isn't part of Highway 1.
Fun fact: AC/DC in their early days in London were asked to do a gig in Oxford (I think) as a urgent request. The promoter knew traveling such a large distance for the local bands would be out of the question but the Aussies it would be just down the road. It was nothing for AC/DC to go to Melbourne from Sydney for a weekend gig, over 800km each way.
@@chrishadden4834 Why do so many Kiwis immigrate to Oz?
They heard the Canning Stock Route was an annual event! 🤣
@@hestikakala3027 Ah but they travelled up the Hume Highway for that National Highway 37 .... 100 miles shorter each way!
I'm a 40 year old, well travelled Australian and I've never heard the term "the big lap".
It's either doing the lap or the circuit. Pity Simon didn't mention Grey Nomads.
I'm a 60 year old Australian, and know the expression well.
I’m 51, also know it well. A few car magazines of the mid to late 80s did road trips around Australia (The big Lap) upon release of new cars. I remember reading the VL v8 commodore one for some reason.
“A lap of the paddock”
What about the bog lap?
Oop, never mind, thats a different thing
Why am I watching this at 1am in Australia?
Cause we are backwards remember and do dumb shit, hi from the leaper state of viktoria...
3am here in NSW
Fun fact, the M31 Hume Highway (also called the Hume Freeway in Victoria and Hume Motorway just outside Sydney) which takes you from Sydney to Melbourne was duplicated in its entirety in 2014. The Holbrook Bypass finalised 40 years worth of upgrades. The Pacific Highway A1 (Also called the Pacific Motorway M1 in some parts) between Sydney and Brisbane has just finished being duplicated after over 40 years of upgrades. Canberra and Sydney wee the first two major capitals to be linked by duplicated roadway long before Melbourne and Brisbane.
So prior to the mid 2010's, no other, further major capital city was linked by full duplicated motorway grade road.
2:35 - Chapter 1 - A vast land
3:55 - Chapter 2 - Early australian roads
5:45 - Chapter 3 - The national route numbering system
7:20 - Chapter 4 - National highway 1
7:55 - Chapter 5 - Western australia & the northern territories
9:05 - Chapter 6 - Queensland & new south wales
10:35 - Chapter 7 - Victoria, tasmania & new south wales
12:35 - Chapter 8 - Back at the beginning
I’ve ridden the entire length of it on a bicycle. It’s long
Wow. How long did it take you ?
17 months
Did you have a water tanker behind you?
@@thomasburke2683 haha na but I had to hail down a few caravans for a resupply at points
A "lap" of highway 1 is also called "A Lap of the Padock"
The reason Australia still has so many dirt roads is because the local councils take Federal and State infrastructure money and spend it on themselves... ( I live on one of the oldest and most travelled dirt road in Australia. We've had money to tar it three times. Yep. Still dirt.)
What I love is when you're driving down a dirt road and then there is a section of tar then a house and then back to dirt road. Yup, must be a councillors house.
We used to head out west for camping and after a certain point it was always dirt or mud depending on the weather. Imagine our shock when we hit asphalt, didn’t last long though, straight back to dirt after the houses.
In 1969 we drove from Cairns to Perth in my almost new Chrysler Valiant for a sailing championship. We actually (4 drivers) drove the 3904 miles (back then miles) in just 4 days. Our first overnight stop was in NSW at Glen Innes, the second was in WA at Norseman. The famous Nuliabor section was 320 miles of gravel road from Ceduna (SA) to the WA border. One section of that trip was 96 miles (136 km) of straight road and fortunately that was in WA and bitumen. Since then, I have done the Nullabor 8 times. I was at a motorhome rally and skiting about that when this lady (from WA) said she had travelled it an amazing 31 times. That car, by the way travelled 94,000 miles (151,280 km) in just 4 years. Holy smoke! No, when I sold it, just like myself, it never smoked.
I’m sitting 10 meters from National Highway 1. We live alongside it. Planning to do ‘The Big Lap’ once we are no longer at risk of being trapped anywhere.