Moodini Bluff to Eucla

3rd October 2014

Much shorter drive today and guess what, it rained.  Rainfall on the plain is about 250mm per annum so this was unusual.

Rain clouds on the Nullarbor [Mundrabilla roadhouse]

As we left the rest area very early we were the first ones into the caravan park at Eucla and could pick the prime position on the top of the scarp with views down to the southern ocean 5 kms away.

View over the cliff to the sea at Eucla

For the majority of the Nullarbor plain, the limestone plateau ends abruptly at the sea with sheer cliffs about 80 metres high.  Between Caiguna and Eucla however, sand has blown in over thousands of years and created a plain between the cliffs and the sea.  This is the Roe Plain and varies in width from 1 to 40 km.  The Eyre Highway travels on the Nullarbor plain for most of it's length, but drops onto the Roe plain between Madura and Eucla.  The little settlement of  Eucla sits on top of the cliffs so we were able to place our caravan near the edge of the scarp with a great view catching the cooling sea breezes.  We arrived here about 10.00am but it was already 28 degrees.

Eucla wasn't always in this position.  When it was an important and remote link in the telegraph line between Adelaide and Perth, the telegraph station and the settlement were built on the sand plain about 500 metres back from the sea shore.  This was in 1877.

Jetty at Eucla

A jetty was constructed with a tram line so ships could supply the town and wool bales could be shipped out.  A plague of rabbits arrived in the area in the 1890's eating all of the sparse vegetation.  This meant the dunes became unstable and mobile and gradually blew over the settlement, entirely covering some buildings and leaving others with just the tops of the walls exposed.

Old telegraph station at Eucla buried in sand

As we didn't want to unhitch the van we walked down the scarp and along the dirt road to the old settlement and then through the dunes to the sea.  It was hot and dusty and the flies were terrible.  Glad we had the 'nerd nets'to wear.