The Barkly Highway, now also promoted as part of the Overlander's Way, is a sealed road connecting the states of Qld & NT. The road connects the
Three Ways Roadhouse in the Northern Territory to the township of
Cloncurry in Queensland. The Barkly Highway forms the main transport route between Queensland and the Northern Territory, and consequently it is heavily used by road trains and tourists.
How to Use this Trek Note
- Purchase our app ExplorOz Traveller. This Australian-made GPS & Navigation app will allow you to download all the ExplorOz Treks to your GPS enabled smartphone/tablet/iPad or laptop and enable active route guidance along the route as per the Directions shown on this page. The app enables offline navigation and mapping and will show where you are as you travel along the route. The app also allows you to edit/customise the route. Viewing the Trek in the Traveller app also includes all the words, images and POIs exactly as on the website (excludes Wildflowers). For more info see the ExplorOz Traveller webpage.
TIP | To purchase our maps for offline use, you will need to purchase the EOTopo 2021 map licence. To install the maps you will need the ExplorOz Traveller app. |
Environment
Between
Cloncurry to
Mount Isa, the Barkly Highway winds through the spectacular Swelwyn Ranges. Around
Camooweal you'll see wide expanses of
Mitchell grass plains and spinifex woodland. Closer to
Tennant Creek, the Barkly Tablelands are an enormous expanse of cattle stations and scrubby grasslands. These habitats do not support a great variety of wildlife with just a brushtail possum, the antechinus, and dunnart being the few mammals known to exist in small isolated pockets.
There are many grasslands birds however, such as bronzewing, night parrots, and seasonal wetlands birds may occasionally be seen during periods of flooding. Snakes, reptiles and amphibians can adapt to the clay soils between the wet summer season to the dry winter season.
History
In 1861, William Landsborough explored the western regions of Queensland and named a wide section of scrubby grasslands to the north-east of
Tennant Creek after Sir Henry Barkly, the then Governor of Victoria.
The route of today's Barkly Highway follows a stock route that was formerly used by drovers to herd their cattle through the Tablelands. It was put to use during wartime as a defence road and bitumen surfacing works commenced in 1943. The highway was named and registered in 1947.
An upgrade of the Queensland section of the highway between
Mount Isa and
Camooweal was completed in 2008.
TrekID: 225