Red Centre to the Pilbara

This tour captures the very essence of the Western Deserts and their astonishing diversity.

From the rugged ranges of remote Karlamilyi (Rudall River) National Park and the ironstone red ranges of the lesser-known East Pilbara to the botanical wonderlands of the Gibson Desert bio region.

This was the last wilderness in Australia, it was only in the 1960s that any vehicle tracks were made into the area. Back then, Terry Long, the Woomera Native Patrol officer said, “No one had been out there. The desert, as far as the Department [WA Dept of Supply] was concerned... was an unknown, as it was to the whole of Western Australia . The Warburton Ranges [were] as far as anybody got. People in those days knew absolutely nothing about Aborigines.”

This tour has a relaxed pace, and the four-wheel driving is not extreme, but the locations are extremely remote and beautiful. The tour departs Alice Springs and heads through the Western Macs to Haasts Bluff and Papunya, on through Kintore to Australia's most remote Aboriginal Community, visits Rudall River National Park, Marble Bar and the East Pilbara and returns on Beadell tracks across the Gary and Gunbarrel Highways.