Thursday 11 September (WA / SA)
Cocklebiddy to Border Village

Directions for the day:
Continue driving east from Cocklebiddy. At Madura we will drive up onto the Hampton Tablelands, then down onto the Roe Plains. We leave the Roe Plains at Eucla Pass, and 12km on we cross the border into SA We cross into the next time zone at the border. Fruit Fly quarantine inspection station at Eucla - no fruit, veges, or honey to cross the border.
At Border Village we enter SA. From here, we are travelling through the Nullarbor National Park.

Mundrabilla                           Eucla / Border Village
Elevation 20m                          Elevation 93m
Climate in September             Climate in September
Max 22°C                                Max 21°C
Min 8°C                                   Min 9°C
Some history
Madura was first settled in 1876 when horses for the Indian Army were bred here. It has a population of 15.

The Nullarbor National Park (Latin for ‘treeless’, although it isn't) is 250 000 square km. The Plain's substratum of limestone has been eroded to form one of the largest underwater cave systems in the world. The Park is desert, with patches of mallee scrub and some ground cover of bluebush and saltbush. Several nocturnal animals have their habitat in the Park, including a large population of southern hairy­nosed wombats.

Eucla was first recorded when the Marine Board surveyed a port in 1867. It is an attempt to Anglicise the Aboriginal name for the bluff which phonetically would be written Yerclia, a corruption of the Aboriginal word yer (bright) and caloya (fire). This was the name given by the Aborigines because the planet Venus rises bright and clear over the high sand dunes where the fresh water is located.
Things to see

• The Hampton Tablelands at Madura
• The cross marker on the escarpment, 5km south of Eucla, dedicated to Eyre Highway travellers. It is illuminated at night. At the cross marker at the top of the Pass, if we look westward, we can get a breathtaking view of the ancient seabed that we've been travelling on. Also Bureau of Meteorology Station 1km east of Eucla, open to public 9:30-1:30 daily.
• Midway down Eucla Pass (about 200m) is Eucla National Park, and a track runs off to the south to the sand-covered ruins of the old Telegraph Station and former town site (4km south). The Station operated between 1877 and 1927 and is situated on the Roe Plains below the Hampton Tablelands. The Old Eucla Telegraph & Repeater Station was a vital link between WA-SA, at one time being the busiest communication centre outside of capital cities. Eucla Telegraph Station (ruin) is made up of a single-storey limestone ruin of the 1898 Western Australian Telegraph Master's residence and remnants of several associated stone buildings.

The limestone building was built in 1898 to replace the original 1877 timber telegraph station, at a time when gold finds in the State had resulted in greatly increased telegraphic traffic, requiring more staff and larger station buildings. It was an isolated government outpost in a very remote district, which served the needs of both the government and the scattered local population.

• A lookout on top of the escarpment offers superb views over Eucla and the coast.
• Derelict jetty at Eucla, once used by sail and steam ships to bring stores from Albany and Esperance, and to export wool and sandalwood from Eucla.
• Nullarbor National Park - sheer-faced cliffs dropping to the Great Australian Bight. Once we cross the WA/SA border, the road closely follows the coast, with many scenic lookouts virtually all the way through the National Park until the road heads away from the coastline just west of Nullarbor itself