Water Worries on the Nullarbor at Eucla
I hadn’t fully registered that driving across the Nullarbor, the distance between towns is 1200 km. We bought plenty of food in Norseman, but did not think to top up the caravan water tank. I hadn’t realised that some places have caravan parks that do not supply water.
At Caiguna, our first night out on the Nullarbor, caravan park instructions limited water refills to 1L per person, with threat of eviction!
At Eucla, near the WA/SA border, our water tank was dry. Oops!
Our options were to drive directly to Ceduna (~500km) or to try and get some water.
I checked the internet (available now almost anywhere with Telstra and Starlink, unlike on our drive west to Broome with just Vodaphone). Most people advised carrying all the water you will need. One post from 2015 talked about buying water at Nullarbor Roadhouse for 15c per litre. Eventually, I came across a post quoting the Eucla website that water was provided for people staying at their motel and caravan park. But I hadn’t seen any taps and the water from the laundry we had used for dishwashing had not looked very clear.
I went to the office and asked. They said that all the water on site was treated and drinkable. That was some relief. But we couldn’t fill the caravan tank from the laundry sink (and didn’t want to with that water). And we had only a few litres worth of water bottles. They said I could buy 10L containers at Border Village 12 km away. Off I went. 10L casks of Mount Lofty drinking water were on sale for $18 each.
Pricey, but our water worries were over. I bought three, thinking that would get us by for two days and a night. After refilling all our water bottles, I put the rest of the first 10L cask into our kettle and filled the cask with treated Eucla water for washing vegetables, teeth, etc.
We were pleased to have our supply because conditions at Nundroo Hotel Motel caravan park where we spent our next night were unpleasant, and I wouldn’t want to trust water from there. The caravan park had a single toilet, two warmish showers, and one handbasin with a cold tap that worked but the basin did not drain. Also, many of the caravan electrical connections did not work.
As it turned out, we are now in Ceduna and we never started the third of the three 10L casks.