Talk In Circles - Gunbarrel Highway

The Gunbarrel Highway, which runs through Western Australia and some of South Australia, was surveyed by Australian Department of Defence employee and outback legend Len Beadell along with the Woomera Rocket Range. The Gunbarrel, whose name, I've been told, has something to do with being as straight as a gunbarrel, was built through regions very much unknown to Australia's lighter-skinned inhabitants. One wouldn't want to create something like the Woomera Rocket Range in the middle of Sydney, I imagine, and one ought to have a means of transporting the necessary materials through that difficult terrain: hence the Gunbarrel Highway.

There's no rocket range anywhere near the gunbarrel highway. The nearest is 1000kms away in South Australia.

Kevin Hannah