Log Ninety Nine – Tuna, Sharks and Straight Roads

17 July 2024

We have finally crossed the Nullarbor Plain where phone and internet connection is doubtful and where every fuel stop is a must. The Nullarbor is about 1100 km wide (684 miles) and no connection to the outside world is my excuse for not publishing this earlier.

In our travels we have learned about a courageous job in the tuna industry. The modern method for catching tuna is to use huge nets to enclose a school of the fish and to then tow that school back to holding pens where the fish are fattened for the Japanese market.

Now sharks like to jump up and into these nets or alternatively chew holes in the nets through which they enter to eat the tuna. To address this problem the tuna boats have divers on board who dive into the freezing water to then gently coax the sharks back out through the holes they created. It seems as the sharks swim in circles within the nets they become sluggish and docile, well that’s what the job ads say. Amazing but not a job for me.

The Nullarbor Plain is a place of wide open and empty spaces. One of the longest sections of straight road in the world crosses the Nullarbor. This is a place where you acknowledge all other drivers with a subtle wave and where a 2 way radio is almost mandatory. The road train drivers appreciate a word from you when the road is clear so they can pass.

Here the road can be a runway for aircraft especially the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Wide loads are common and when you hear a radio call with the words ‘we have an eight coming up’ that means a wide load 8 metres wide (24 feet) is coming your way and you need to get out of its way. We pulled over as far as we safely could and yet there still didn’t seem to be enough room for the two of us.

We stopped for a coffee and to refuel and to our surprise there in the coffee shop was a piece of Skylab. For those who weren’t around at the time Skylab was a NASA space station that fell out of its orbit back in 1979. I recall at the time the local council tried to charge NASA with a fine for littering. The coffee shop had all sorts of Skylab bits on display.

The Nullarbor is bounded by the Great Australian Bight which is where Australia separated from Gondwana about 50 million years ago. This separation created amazing clifftop camp sites from where you can watch whales, loose your drone or sit back and enjoy a wine as you contemplate the vastness of the Southern Ocean.

We are now in gold mining country. This is a place of very big holes in the ground and highly paid jobs in mining. More in the next log.