Ceduna gave us a couple of slow days on the edge of the Eyre Peninsula, the kind where you don’t really plan much and somehow that becomes the plan. We wandered down to the foreshore a few times, taking in the big skies and the quiet curve of the bay. The wharf area has an easy feel to it with fishermen setting up for the day, gulls arguing over scraps, and a steady coastal hush that sits over towns this far west.
We spent a morning at the Ceduna National Trust Museum, housed in the old school building. It’s a straightforward, well-kept collection with stories from the early settlement years, local farming, and the long stretch of maritime history that shaped the region. We worked our way through at an unhurried pace, taking in the displays and getting a clearer picture of how Ceduna became the gateway to the far west.
The rest of our time was exactly what we needed. Reading, wandering, taking Zoe for walks along the foreshore, and just settling into the slow rhythm of the place. Ceduna is one of those towns where the pace drops without effort. You feel it as soon as you park up. A mix of coast, outback edges and long straight roads that seem to funnel the quiet straight into the day.
We didn’t try to squeeze everything in this time, mostly because we’ll be back. Cam has his eye on a Maralinga tour — something that’s been on the list for a while — so Ceduna will definitely be a return stop for us down the track.
Sign up for our Travel Dispatch for updates on our next run across the Eyre Peninsula and beyond.
Ceduna
A quiet coastal town on South Australia’s far west coast. Known as the western gateway to the Eyre Peninsula and a base for exploring long, remote stretches of southern Australia.
How to Get There
Ceduna sits 780 km northwest of Adelaide on the Eyre Highway. It’s fully accessible by sealed roads and is the main service centre before the run west toward the Nullarbor.
What to See, Tours and Activities
What we did:
Walked the Ceduna foreshore and wharf area.
Visited the Ceduna National Trust Museum.
Relaxed at camp and enjoyed the coastal calm.
Other highlights nearby:
Arts Ceduna (local First Nations art centre).
Pinky Point Lookout at Thevenard.
Laura Bay Conservation Park (short drive south).
Shelley Beach for long, quiet walks.
Ceduna Oyster Bar and local seafood stalls.
Foreshore jetty for fishing and sunset views.
Base point for Maralinga Tours (advance booking required).
When to Visit
Autumn and spring bring the mildest weather. Summer is warm but breezy along the coast. Winter can be cool and a great time for quieter campgrounds and crisp coastal walks.
Final Thoughts
Ceduna gave us a couple of unhurried days on the coast — a mix of small outings, quiet afternoons and space to breathe. Sometimes that’s exactly what a stop should be.
What’s Nearby
West heads toward the Nullarbor and the long run to the WA border. East leads to Streaky Bay, Smoky Bay and the rest of the Eyre Peninsula.
Don’t miss our Top Secret Travel Dispatches — where we share the stories that don’t always make the blog. Join here.
Fast Facts
Location: Ceduna, Far West SA
Distance: 780 km northwest of Adelaide
Traditional Owners: Wirangu People
Access: Sealed highways
Facilities: Shops, supermarkets, seafood, fuel, medical services, jetty, arts centre
Walking Track: Foreshore paths and Pinky Point Lookout
Dog Friendly: Yes, along the foreshore and most outdoor areas
Best Time to Visit: Autumn and spring
Things That Could Kill You (Probably Won’t)
A semi-serious guide to surviving Australia. Mostly common sense, occasionally luck.
Sea Gulls: Fiercely opinionated about hot chips.
Crosswinds: Keen to test your grip on the wharf
Oyster Cravings: Could escalate quickly and without warning.
Other updates you may like…
Maryborough is full of surprises: the birthplace of Mary Poppins, a smugglers' bond store where opium was once legal, a lively arts scene, and the Cistern Chapel, public toilets complete with a golden throne.
Updated August 2026.
You smell Tully before you see it: steam and sweet sugar from the mill. This is Australia’s wettest town by record, marked by a 7.9m Golden Gumboot, exactly the height of the rain that fell in 1950.
The response to the Outback Edition has been better than we hoped. Here’s how to get your copy.
Childers is a busy little heritage town on the Bruce Highway, known for its beautiful early-1900s main street and the deeply moving Palace Backpackers Memorial to the fifteen young travellers lost in the 2000 fire.
Updated August 2026
Most people drive through Cardwell. We stayed and found a milky-blue swimming hole in the hills, a calm upgraded foreshore, and the quiet gateway to Hinchinbrook Island. Just time your Spa Pool visit for rain.
Our second stop in St Lawrence, the quiet town between Mackay and Rockhampton: two nights at the community rec ground, Friday lasagne night, a local’s tour with a mate, and the old meatworks boilers in the bush.
Updated August 2026
We broke up the drive north with stops at coastal Cardwell, rainy Tully with its Golden Gumboot, and the atmospheric Paronella Park. Each stop offered its own charm before we pushed on towards Cairns.
It’s official: Off the Main Road is now a magazine.
The Outback Edition is now on sale, in print and digital.
North of Townsville, two faces of the wet tropics: Big Crystal Creek, a clear rainforest swimming hole, and Wallaman Falls, Australia’s tallest single-drop waterfall, plunging 269 metres into a misty gorge.
A slow guide to Townsville, North Queensland: Castle Hill views, the Strand, Queensland Museum Tropics, the RAAF Museum, and a dog-friendly wander at the Palmetum.
It's official: Off the Main Road is now a magazine. The Outback Edition launches mid-August, print and digital.
A 2010 camping trip with my dad into the outback: Mungo’s Walls of China, the Birdsville Track cut by a flooded Cooper Creek, the government punt, and Lake Eyre holding water. The trip that started everything.
The heat sent Zoe (and us) east, and Hughenden was the perfect stop: a free RV camp, Hughie the Muttaburrasaurus, town street art, and a coolibah tree blazed by explorers hunting Burke and Wills.
Most people drive through Batchelor on the way to Litchfield. Stop, and you find a miniature Czech castle built by a homesick miner, a Cold War uranium mine, and a wartime airfield with a famous visitor.
Between Mount Isa and Cloncurry sit the empty streets of Mary Kathleen, a uranium mining town built in the 1950s, sold off entirely at auction in 1983, and now a ghostly grid of slabs and silence. Perfect for camping!
A chain of World War Two airstrips lines the Stuart Highway on the run to Darwin. We stopped at Strauss and Gorrie, once the country's biggest airbase, and drove past the rest, each named for a lost pilot.
Our airboat trip with Northern Territory Airboats gave us a fast look at the Bynoe wetlands. Crocodiles on the banks, birdlife across the floodplains and a guide who knew the country well. A relaxed Top End wildlife experience.
We drove to Fogg Dam near Darwin expecting a few ducks and found hundreds of birds, three crocodiles, and two tourists we probably saved from becoming breakfast on the closed, croc-lined dam wall.
We broke the curse the only way we could, by cheating and flying. A doorless chopper, sandstone towers older than almost anything on earth, and a walk through a Lost City with no one else in sight.
Every expedition needs a curse, and ours began the moment we left Mount Isa chasing the Lost Cities. Plagues of bugs, biblical rain, a brutal road, and a mysterious rash.
Three days out to Boulia via Poddy Creek and the Middleton Hotel, the Min Min Encounter, outback sunsets and no actual Min Min sightings. Then north to a spectacular free camp at Dajarra Dam on the way to Mount Isa.
After three visits, here's what we'd actually send a friend to do in Longreach! Qantas history, outback rail and river tours, and a stockman's show. Not everything, just our favourites.
Back in Longreach for our third visit. Outback rail adventures, a sunset cruise on the Thomson River, the Longreach Races, new Akubras, and the friendliest welcome yet.
The Matilda Way is a 1,900-kilometre touring route from Bourke in New South Wales to Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria, passing through the heart of outback Queensland via Charleville, Longreach and Winton.
Blackall’s Historical Woolscour is the only surviving steam-powered woolscour in Australia, operating since 1908. Add Jackie Howe’s unbroken shearing record and a free camp on the Barcoo River, and you have one of outback Queensland’s best stops.
Tambo delivers more than it advertises — Tambo Teddies and a station side quest, chicken races that got out of hand, and the site of Qantas’s first fatal crash in 1927. A small town with a lot going on.
Four visits to Charleville and still finding new things — the Angellala Creek explosion site, the Airfield Museum, the Bureau of Meteorology weather balloon and the WWII quarry that built the airport runways.
From the Cosmos Centre and Bilby Experience to the Airfield Museum, WWII Secret Base, Outback Date Farm, and the Angellala Creek explosion site. There’s a lot going on!
Halfway between Cunnamulla and Charleville, Wyandra is a quiet railway town on the Warrego River with a sandy beach, outback burgers, a peaceful camp and sunsets good enough for a calendar cover.
Cameron is a travel writer, photographer, and freelance copywriter with more than fifteen years of experience crafting stories that connect people and place. Travelling full-time on the road in a motorhome with his partner, he documents Australia’s quieter corners through Off the Main Road, a travel journal devoted to the towns, landscapes, and characters often overlooked by the tourist trail.
His writing blends observation with lived experience, drawing on a professional background in brand storytelling. With a photographer’s instinct and a writer’s eye for detail, Cameron captures moments that reveal the character of regional Australia, from weathered towns and open landscapes to the honest texture of life on the road.


Updated August 2026.
We stopped in Babinda for cheap roadside bananas and found the beautiful Babinda Boulders, the notoriously deadly Devil's Pool, Josephine Falls, and the sad Yidinji legend of Oolana woven through it all.