Graded roads and rental cars

by Kieran Murray

I intend to travel down to Wolfe Creek Crater via the Tanami Road travelling South from the intersection with the highway.

A rental company states that I can drive on a road as long as it is a graded road - do you know if the Tanami Road qualifies as a graded road?

Do I need a PLB or a satellite telephone? I am expecting to travel to and from Wolfe Creek Crater (Kununurra - Wolfe Creek Crater - Halls Creek) in a day.

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Graded Roads
by: Birgit

This is the first time I hear of a hire company restricting their vehicles to travel on "graded roads". Usually they are very specific regarding which roads you can and can't travel on.

"Graded" is not specific. Do they mean roads that do get maintained as opposed to bush tracks that nobody looks after? Or do they mean a road that has recently been graded? Do they mean travel is only allowed after a road has been graded after the wet season?

In any way, the road to Wolfe Creek is usually not too bad. Of course it is a regularly maintained road. It's a big tourist attraction after all. I would think that with that it fulfils the requirement of being a "graded" road, but I don't know for sure.

And the road can of course get rough with corrugations or wash outs with heavy use over a season or with unseasonal rains. You just never know. When leaving the bitumen ALWAYS enquire about current road conditions before you go.

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