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Recently, I returned after a mammoth road trip with our caravan through four states and one territory (sorry, I didn’t cover the whole of Australia). We set off through New South Wales, crossed into Queensland, then the Northern Territory, followed by South Australia and Victoria, and finally back home to New South Wales. Our adventure was almost exclusively on ‘sealed roads’, the subject of these reflections.

When we live a settled existence in our own local community, as opposed to being nomadic or migratory, we become subconsciously very familiar with our surroundings. We barely need to think about how to drive to work, visit family or arrive at church. We could probably get to most places we visit regularly with our eyes closed!

Driving eleven thousand kilometres in six weeks through unfamiliar landscapes gave me the opportunity to reflect on the ground beneath my tyres. Let me paint you a five-word picture.

Queensland

My observations focused on central and western Queensland. Because of the vast distances and the flat landscape, the roads were naturally as straight as Roman roads. But their bitumen felt tired, cracked and threadbare in places.

The impact on our drive was to make our 14-year-old car rattle incessantly. I don’t recall any significant potholes, but the roads seemed tired. I don’t recall any roadworks being in progress, so I suspect they will continue to age ungracefully.

Northern Territory

The population here being significantly smaller than in western Queensland, the fewer roads were slightly more well-travelled. Like beehives scattered across the territory, the mining industry generated oversized trucks and mining machinery around these honeypots.

The roads seem to be much younger than Queensland’s, with a good number of active roadworks systematically upgrading huge stretches, making them wider, or relandscaping junctions. Their open roads with 130kph speed limit demand that their surfaces can handle speed!

South Australia

Our travels were through even more sparsely populated landscapes than the Northern Territory; Womera, for example, being a town of 150 people. But the South Australians did a great job of furnishing their roads for those who pass by.

However, the main road south of Port Augusta towards Adelaide sported a massive roadwork operation. The locals seemed a little out of their depth in management and signage. They should take a class from the Northern Territorians, who manage roadworks so professionally.

Victoria

My love of driving was severely tested in Victoria! I don’t recall a single example of current roadworks on our transit from west to east on their main highways.

The volume of traffic was as if all of Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia had come to visit, notably, the ‘b-double’ trucks, a bogie pulling one or two trailers. However, the roads were not built for these numbers and their tonnage.

The result was that all the roads, with the exception of the Hume Highway, were rollercoasters, wavelengths approximating the length of the trucks. Once the ground had been compressed a little by one truck, the next simply added another thump, and before long, backseat passengers in cars needed to wear crash helmets to protect their heads. Towing my caravan, I had to drop to 60 kph in 100 zones to be sure to keep our van attached! Oh, and then the potholes!

Also, if you are on a side road needing to cross a main road, you have to take it so slow, on account of the furrows created by the trucks’ double wheels that have gouged four ravens, unless you can get enough speed to fly over the top of them without hitting anyone.

New South Wales

Gliding over the border back into New South Wales was a delight! The Hume, now hundreds of miles of concrete, was firmly up to the task of the speed limit. The foundations never gave an inch to the trucks, but seemed to say, “Bring it on, you can’t depress me!”

However, as I approached the Goulburn–Sydney leg, I was nervous, as this section had been a nightmare for years. But this time, I was met by mile after mile of pristine new blacktop, with only a short section in the middle left trying to make us seasick. I was impressed; my nightmare had become a dream.

We only see what we expect to see

If we don’t venture into the unknown, we unconsciously expect the rest of the world to be just like home. Familiarity draws the curtains against the possibility of difference. My journey ‘opened my eyes’.

I think this is true for far more than just roads; the landscape of our faith is coloured by our own experience with the comforting familiarity of our pastors’ words. Can our familiarity blind us? In the news media, are we sure that we can distinguish reality from propaganda? I am not sure I can, though I like to think I can. After all, the nature of propaganda is to appear as truth when only the perpetrators know that they have perverted it.

I believe that my adventure through five states and territories has given me the privilege to see, with ‘fresh eyes’, what locals can’t. It’s not that the locals don’t want to see; they naturally want to think the best about their own. It takes an outsider to shine the light and reveal what is in ‘plain sight’.

It takes supreme courage to question our assumptions; it takes tenacious will. We can’t all go on road trips, but we can all dare to discover new perspectives. When a difficult conversation arises, we can press in, rather than close it down with our ‘agree to differ’ platitudes.

We can intentionally enlarge our perspective by spontaneous acts of kindness towards complete strangers.

And how about giving the so-called ‘alternative media’ a go instead of the so-called trustworthy ‘legacy media’ who want you to believe that the alternative media are all ignorant conspiracy theorists, seeking clickbait?

The best and worst roads

I rate the Northern Territory (excluding, sadly, from my survey, Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory) as the winner. Congratulations! Their support for the traveller and their vision for the future is inspiring.

The worst roads, by far, in my subjective survey were Victorian. They displayed decades of underinvestment and a present incapacity to admit they have a problem. They need a radical reassessment of their network.

They should force all heavy trucks back onto the railways while they dig up and rebuild their whole road network, but this will take decades. In the meantime, they should discourage all Australians from driving in Victoria!

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Image courtesy of Adobe.