P1000415-resized
Originally uploaded by Bort1974.

In 2005, Mrs Bort and I went on a holiday to Central Australia, namely Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Kings Canyon. One of the cool parts about the trip, and a real novelty for us, was the fact that there were no speed limits once past the city limits. Yes, once you are out of town you can just open the taps and let it rip. The photo attached shows me doing roughly 150km/h - the fastest I’ve ever driven, since I’ve never been to a track day or anything. It got a bit daunting at that speed, as I was not used to it. The roads we were on were minor, secondary roads, only a couple of steps from being dirt basically. They were pretty twisty, which was surprising in what you would expect to be a dead flat expanse of nothingness turned out to be quite undulating.

Another thing to look out for was roaming livestock, camels and wildlife. A lot of the roads out there are unfenced, so there’s a fair chance that cows and the like may be wandering about in the middle of the road - not something you’d like to see when you’re barrelling around a blind corner at 200km/h. Basically you really have to pick the time and place to put the foot down. The main north-south road, the Stuart Highway, is a little better in that regard. We found that we settled at around 120-130 km/h after the novelty of speeding legally wore off.

Which brings me to some sad news. As of the start of this year, speed limits were introduced in the Northern Territory of 110 or 130 km/h on the open road. This is quite a shame, and I think it will hurt tourism somewhat. One of the attractions of visiting the Top End was the chance to drive fast without getting thrown in jail. My home state, Victoria, in contrast, starts handing out the fines once you break the posted limit by three kilometres per hour. Never mind that Australian design rules specify that a speedometer only has to be accurate to +/-10%. And before you ask, no, I’ve never had a ticket…

But I digress. A lot of international car manufacturers used the Northern Territory to test cars in a hot, high speed environment with little population. The speed limits have seen the end of that. Well, speed limits and the time zone difference - some are now testing in South Africa, where the time is closer to Europe’s.

While the speed limits issue is not a deal breaker for people considering a trip to the NT - it is an awesomely beautiful bit of the country - I’m glad I got in before the limits did. Another thing I’d like to do is see Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef again before global warming bleaches the thing into oblivion… but that is another post.