Gibb River Road
Australia · Oceania
About Gibb River Road
Gibb River Road is an unpaved road across the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. It stretches 647 km from Derby to the vicinity of Kununurra and Wyndham, and on the map it looks like a short cut, while the Great Northern Highway makes a great swing to the south. But it's rougher, slower going and demands careful planning.
Gibb River Road travel guide
Understand
Gibb River was named for Andrew Gibb Maitland (1864-1951); he and Charles Crossland were the first Europeans to sight the river in 1901. Cattle were raised here in the following years, and a drove trail was worn by their hooves plodding to the port at Wyndham, but it was a long slow route. From 1950 the trail was improved into a dirt road so that livestock could be trucked; then as now it was only passable in the dry season. The road does not cross Gibb River itself, but crosses three major tributaries and many smaller creeks that routinely flood in the wet season, often for weeks on end. The road traverses haunting lonely scenery and driving it has become a thing, a bucket-list Australian adventure.
Getting there
Broome is the obvious start and end point for this trip. It has flights from Perth and Darwin, a good range of accommodation and amenities, and car rental firms with 4WD fleets and familiar with their customers venturing along Gibb River Road. From Broome to Derby is 220 km east on Great Northern Highway. That may be too soon for a first night's stop, but you must re-fill the tank here. The road starts south edge of Derby by the giant boab tree.
Go next
Eastbound you rejoin the regular road near Cockburn Junction, the last leg of the Great Northern Highway to the coast at Wyndham. Zag south on that road to Cockburn Junction to join Victoria Highway east into Kununurra and Northern Territory, or stay on the Great Northern Highway south back towards Broome. Westbound you rejoin the regular road near Derby, a spur off the Great Northern Highway towards Broome and Port Hedland.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia, travel guide fromWikivoyage (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.