Western Australia has extensive long-distance highways with few localities along them. Privately owned general stores known as roadhouses have been established at strategic points as an important utility for petrol, food, accommodation, emergency facilities and general supplies. They are also useful reference points in any response to accidents, floods, crime and other emergencies. [1]
North-western roadhouses are found next to river crossings or close to station homesteads. In the event of flooding of the North West Coastal Highway, they are locations where vehicles including road trains can be safely encamped and accounted for when a sudden deluge may make the road impassable. [2]
On the Nullarbor or Eyre Highway, places designated as roadhouses are in some cases also vested as localities and, in some cases, known as roadhouse communities.
The following list is of roadhouses that exist in isolation, having little or no adjacent community infrastructure. It does not include roadhouses which are in country towns.
Due to the high incidence of fatalities and accidents attributed to driver fatigue, some locations have opted into a program of providing free coffee to encourage drivers to take a break or rest on long journeys - in some cases some of the roadhouses above have become involved in that programme. [11]
Toodyay, known as Newcastle between 1860 and 1910, is a town on the Avon River in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, 85 kilometres (53 mi) north-east of Perth. The first European settlement occurred in the area in 1836. After flooding in the 1850s, the townsite was moved to its current location in the 1860s. It is connected by railway and road to Perth. During the 1860s, it was home to bushranger Moondyne Joe.
Eyre Highway is a 1,664-kilometre (1,034 mi) highway linking Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. Signed as National Highways 1 and A1, it forms part of Highway 1 and the Australian National Highway network linking Perth and Adelaide. It was named after explorer Edward John Eyre, who was the first European to cross the Nullarbor by land, in 1840–1841. Eyre Highway runs from Norseman in Western Australia, past Eucla, to the state border. Continuing to the South Australian town of Ceduna, it crosses the top of the Eyre Peninsula before reaching Port Augusta.
Albany Highway links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its oldest settlement, Albany, on the state's south coast. The 405-kilometre-long (252 mi) highway travels through the southern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions, and is designated State Route 30 for most of its length. Outside of Perth the highway is predominately a sealed, single carriageway with regular overtaking lanes in some undulating areas. Albany Highway commences at The Causeway, a river crossing that connects to Perth's central business district. The highway heads south-east through Perth's metropolitan region, bypassed in part by Shepperton Road and Kenwick Link, and continues south-eastwards through to Albany. It intersects several major roads in Perth, including the Leach, Tonkin, Brookton, and South Western highways. The rural section of Albany Highway connects to important regional roads at the few towns and roadhouses along the route, including Coalfields Highway at Arthur River, Great Southern Highway at Cranbrook, and Muirs Highway at Mount Barker.
Brand Highway is a 370-kilometre (230 mi) main highway linking the northern outskirts of Perth to Geraldton in Western Australia. Together with North West Coastal Highway, it forms part of the Western Australian coastal link to the Northern Territory. The highway is a part of Australia's Highway 1, and is for the most part a single carriageway with one lane in each direction.
Great Northern Highway is an Australian highway that links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its northernmost port, Wyndham. With a length of almost 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi), it is the longest highway in Australia, with the majority included as part of the Perth Darwin National Highway. The highway is constructed as a sealed, predominantly two-lane single carriageway, but with some single-lane bridges in the Kimberley. The Great Northern Highway travels through remote areas of the state, and is the only sealed road link between the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. Economically, it provides vital access through the Wheatbelt and Mid West to the resource-rich regions of the Pilbara and Kimberley. In these areas, the key industries of mining, agriculture and pastoral stations, and tourism are all dependent on the highway.
North West Coastal Highway is a generally north-south Western Australian highway which links the coastal city of Geraldton with the town of Port Hedland. The 1,300-kilometre-long (808 mi) road, constructed as a sealed two-lane single carriageway, travels through remote and largely arid landscapes. Carnarvon is the only large settlement on the highway, and is an oasis within the harsh surrounding environment. The entire highway is allocated National Route 1, part of Australia's Highway 1, and parts of the highway are included in tourist routes Batavia Coast Tourist Way and Cossack Tourist Way. Economically, North West Coastal Highway is an important link to the Mid West, Gascoyne and Pilbara regions, supporting the agricultural, pastoral, fishing, and tourism industries, as well as mining and offshore oil and gas production.
The Helena River is a tributary of the Swan River in Western Australia. The river rises in country east of Mount Dale and flows north-west to Mundaring Weir, where it is dammed. It then flows west until it reaches the Darling Scarp.
Coorow is a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia, 264 kilometres (164 mi) north of Perth.
Balladonia is a small roadhouse community located on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. It is the first stop east of Norseman on the journey east across the Nullarbor Plain. Between Balladonia and Caiguna is a 146.6-kilometre (91.1 mi) stretch of the highway which is one of the longest straight stretches of road in the world.
Williams is a town located in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, 161 kilometres (100 mi) south-southeast of the state capital, Perth along Albany Highway and 32 kilometres (20 mi) west of Narrogin. The Williams River passes through the town. At the 2016 census, Williams had a population of 411.
Wyndham is the northernmost town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, 3,315 kilometres (2,060 mi) northeast of Perth via the Great Northern Highway. It was established in 1886 to service a new goldfield at Halls Creek, and it is now a port and service centre for the east Kimberley with a population of 941 as of the 2021 census. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 54% of the population. Wyndham comprises two areas - the original town site at Wyndham Port situated on Cambridge Gulf, and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) by road to the south, the Three Mile area with the residential and shopping area for the port, also founded in 1886. Wyndham is part of the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley.
Minilya is a location in Western Australia north of Carnarvon on the North West Coastal Highway. It is at a junction in the North West Coastal Highway, where the turn off to Exmouth is 220 kilometres (140 mi) from that location. The main highway then continues to the next junction 217 kilometres further, at Nanutarra Roadhouse.
The Overlander Roadhouse is a petrol service station in Western Australia, between Geraldton and Carnarvon on the North West Coastal Highway.
Nannup is a town in the South West region of Western Australia, approximately 280 kilometres (174 mi) south of Perth on the Blackwood River at the crossroads of Vasse Highway and Brockman Highway; the highways link Nannup to most of the lower South West's regional centres. At the 2011 census, Nannup had a population of 587.
The Great Central Road is a mostly unsealed Australian outback highway that runs 1,126 km (700 mi) from Laverton, Western Australia to Yulara, Northern Territory. It passes through a number of small communities on the way.
Forrest Highway is a 95-kilometre-long (59 mi) highway in Western Australia's Peel and South West regions, extending Perth's Kwinana Freeway from east of Mandurah down to Bunbury. Old Coast Road was the original Mandurah–Bunbury route, dating back to the 1840s. Part of that road, and the Australind Bypass around Australind and Eaton, were subsumed by Forrest Highway. The highway begins at Kwinana Freeway's southern terminus in Ravenswood, continues around the Peel Inlet to Lake Clifton, and heads south to finish at Bunbury's Eelup Roundabout. There are a number of at-grade intersections with minor roads in the shires of Murray, Waroona, and Harvey including Greenlands Road and Old Bunbury Road, both of which connect to South Western Highway near Pinjarra.
Pardoo Station is a pastoral lease, formerly a sheep station, and now a cattle station approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) east of Port Hedland and 121 kilometres (75 mi) north of Marble Bar, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Nanutarra is a locality in Western Australia adjacent to where the Ashburton river is crossed by the North West Coastal Highway. It is also close to the turn-off for State Route 136 to Paraburdoo and Tom Price. It is 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of the Onslow turn-off in the Cane River conservation park where it is on either side of the highway.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Lua affected a sparsely populated region of Western Australia during mid-March 2012. Originating in a broad low pressure area that formed northwest of Australia by 8 March, the storm was plagued by inhibiting wind shear for the duration of its formative stages. However, it gradually organised, and received the name Lua on 13 March. The cyclone meandered for the first several days of its existence, caught between weak and competing steering currents. After the cyclone drifted northwestward, a building ridge of high pressure to the north drove Lua southeastward toward the Pilbara region. Ultimately intensifying into an upper-end Category 3 severe tropical cyclone with maximum sustained 10-minute winds of 155 km/h (96 mph), Lua made landfall near the remote community of Pardoo, about 150 km (93 mi) east of Port Hedland. It steadily weakened as it progressed south over interior Western Australia, diminishing below tropical cyclone status on 18 March.
Nanutarra Station, commonly referred to as Nanutarra, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station, and previously operated as a sheep station, in Western Australia.