What not to do when driving through the Outback
Google Maps is about as useless as a wooden frying pan when driving in Outback Australia. Don't do what this couple did. Learn more here.
Published on: 2 May 2023
If you’re an Aussie or just adventuring by road in the great land down under, there’s a good chance you’ve been screwed over by Google Maps before. It’s notorious for being as useless as a wooden frypan or an ejection seat in a helicopter. Sure, it works fine in the city but in rural areas and Australia’s Outback, Google Maps has no problems sending you down private roads and pays no heed to a property owner’s sign warning that intruders will be shot. It also doesn’t know the difference between a sealed road or a rough, 4WD-only corrugated track that bears the title of a road.
This is where Sally and Ed Shaw got caught out. An Aussie couple living and working in Western Australia, they were road-tripping through to Sydney for the holidays when they found a shortcut on Google Maps. Given that their trip was to be around 4500 kilometres and they were on day four of a very long drive, it seemed like a good idea to take it.
“We saw on Google Maps a shortcut that saved us two hours, which was great,” Ms Shaw told Yahoo News Australia. “We turned on this really thin road that was only wide enough for one lane of traffic, but decided to go.”
She explained that it became a dirt road around 50 kilometres later but if they turned back, they would have driven around 100 kilometres for nothing, so they decided to keep going. Sally gives a run down of what happened on TikTok.
This couple got lucky
To cut a long story short (and it’s a long story), it worked out fine in the end. Even if the shortcut did end up taking longer than the original route. However, given how harsh the Australian Outback is and the potential for disaster, this could have ended differently.
Here’s what they did wrong:
- They took a shortcut in which they had no idea if the road was suited to their vehicle. In Sally’s own words, she said, “Given that so much of the region we had driven through had been literally battered by floods, this was not a smart decision.”
- They didn’t tell anyone where they were going.
- They took a dirt track that they described as going from “dirt to awful” in a stock-standard motorhome and were not driving a 4WD.
- They had no phone reception and no UHF or EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) for emergencies.
- One can assume that because they didn’t plan on driving off-road in the Outback, they were not prepared with extra fuel, water and supplies.
Although we don’t recommend following the advice in the couple’s TikTok comments which include gems such as, “Did you try speeding?”, we do recommend not doing any of the above when driving through the Outback.
So what’s the point of all this?
Don’t rely on Google Maps in Outback Australia and don’t head into it unless you are prepared to deal with the worst that the Outback can throw at you. This includes having extra provisions for emergencies and some way of contacting help, whether that be via a satellite phone or an EPIRB to signal for help. If you’re unprepared with the appropriate vehicle, gear and supplies, forget it.
And if you are planning an Outback trip soon, check out the following articles for a few extra tips:
