TO DARWIN AND BACK

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 100, 19 July 1927, Page 11

TO DARWIN AND BACK

MELBOURNE MAN’S RUN A REMARKABLE JOURNEY Unusual experiences in motoring are told by a Mr. A. J. Dunkerley, who recently travelled from Melbourne to Darwin and back again. Extremes of heat .nd cold, absence of roads and speed racing made his trip a memorable one. Mr. Dunkerley left Melbourne last March in the car which had previously done only 300 miles, travelled slowly to Darwin, through Albury, Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Bourke, Charleville, Longreach, Winton. Cloncurry, Lake Nash. Newcastle Waters and the Katherine River, a distance of 3,380 miles. Then, accompanied by Mr. R. Minyon as mechanic, he dashed back as fast as possible, and beat the previous record by 20 hours and 17 minutes. He described his chief impressions of the trip as:—“Blue sky, glaring sun, Northern Territory hospitality, especially from the police there, blindness from lack of sleep, plentiful game, lack of grass, and the perishing cold on the trip from Sydney to Melbourne, when the water bags on the car froze.” “The trip we took is better than that from Adelaide, via Oodnadatta and Alice Springs,” he said, “as there is less sand. Indeed, our route is interesting and enjoyable for the ordinary motoring tourist, at least as far as Katherine River. Four cars are doing it at the moment. Most tourists leave their cars at Katherine River, and go on to Darwin by train, as the road on that stretch is practically non-ex-istent, and tli ere are 92 un bridged creeks to cross. Between Longreach and the Queensland border we had to open and close 140 stock gates. “Things are very dry in the north now and stock is dying,” Mr. Dunkerley added. ‘We had to carry water in an eight-gallon drum and several bags. Petrol was not difficult to get. as regular dumps ar established by now, chiefly at station homesteads. It is pretty dear, though, costing 7s 6d a gallon at Newcastle Waters. We were able to run 500 miles between refills by carrying- 40 gallons in the tank and 12 spai-e gallons loose. As to accidents, Air. Dunkerley said: "We had nothing vei'y serious. Only four punctures and no tyres worn out. We were delayed five hours at Warlock Downs. 300 miles from Darwin, by a broken oil pipe. We hit a washout at Dejara, Queensland, and went over the edge in a 15ft. drop, but only bent the front axle. We also hit a tree up north and bent the same axle. but were able to fix it up ourselves. Our car was a standard model, except that heavy springs were fitted.”