Australias strangest road signs: 16 road signs youll only see in Australia
TIME : 2016/2/26 17:15:49
Parachilna. Nothing is wasted in the Flinders Ranges in outback South Australia - a feral mixed grill with kangaroo steak, emu fillet mignon and camel sausage, is the signature dish on the menu at the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna. They promise that no actual road kill is involved in the making.
Charlotte Plains, Cunnamulla. One sign fits all animals great and small in Cunnamulla in outback Queensland – you can't help but wonder just how beastly all those other unnamed critters really are, and how many are roaming out there in the great western plains. Judging by the road kill we saw I'd say quite a few.
Cow-eating cars Queensland Gulf. Everything's bigger in Queensland, especially the cows – they are so big that they eat cars for breakfast. I snapped this sign in the Gulf Country, but you see it all over the place in outback Queensland. I wonder how many times this actually happened before the road safety authorities decided they need to put up signs warning motorists to be careful of "car-nivorous" cattle?
Daintree cassowaries. Sometimes a picture really is worth 1000 words, or in this case, two pictures. This artfully doctored speedhump sign in the Daintree rainforest near Cape Tribulation makes it pretty clear what happens if you don't give way to cassowaries – large flightless birds about the same size as emus – in far north Queensland.
Cape Conran Coastal Park. There's all sorts of weird creatures about, if you believe this roadside warning near the entrance to Cape Conran Coastal Park in Victoria's east Gippsland. We saw plenty of kangaroos, koalas and even had a wombat wander into our camp while we were there, but the sabre-toothed winged dragon kept right out of sight.
Weightlifting kangaroos in Tasmania. Tasmania may be our smallest state but whatever they feed their wallabies and kangaroos down there on the east coast near Freycinet National Park must be packed with proteins and vitamins, because they grow so big and strong they can lift cars just with their toes.
Currawinya National Park Bilbies. Is that the Easter bunny? Actually, these cute critters are bilbies, and I love that there's enough of them scurrying around Currawinya National Park in south-west Queensland (near Hungerford, just on the northern side of the NSW border) that they need to put up signs to be on the lookout.
Christmas Island. It might look like a scary six-legged space monster, but what this sign, found on all the roads of Christmas Island, is trying to say is be careful of the crabs, especially the super-sized robber crab, which can grow up to a metre long, leg to leg (or is that claw to claw?). Definitely not something you want to run into in the dark.
Victor Harbor Granite Island penguins. Penguins definitely have the right of way on Granite Island in Victor Harbor on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula, where you'll see these cute Little Penguins (that's their official name) all over the place, especially at dusk, when they march home from their day fishing at sea.
'Consealed'. I'm not 100 one hundred per cent sure, but I think "consealed" is some sort of fancy road surface they use only on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, laid by men wearing big floppy hats and driving very big tractors. Proof that they really do do things differently up north of the border.
Coober Pedy. There's no excuse for missing the turn-off to the opal-mining town of Coober Pedy in outback South Australia with a sign like this – that's a real-life truck mounted on stilts and you can see it for miles. Which is just as well, because the actual town can be hard to find, given that most of the residents live underground in dug-out homes.
Lightning Ridge. Finding the town of Lightning Ridge - also famous for its opals - in outback NSW is not so difficult, but pinning down just how many people live and work there is an altogether more nebulous proposition - even the officials admit they have no idea.
Len Beadell marker, Sandy Blight Junction. Blink and you'll miss them: Len Beadell, legendary surveyor, road-maker and larger-than-life larrikin, not only made almost all the roads that criss-cross the desert country between Uluru and the west coast in the 1950s and '60s, he also made the signs that point the way, mostly out of scraps of tin and whatever else was handy at the time.
Tin Horse Highway. No missing this sign pointing the way to the racecourse near the wheatfields town of Kulin in south-western WA. It's just one of many equally inventive roadside signs and sculptures - all featuring horses and all made of tin - along a 20km stretch of road known as the Tin Horse Highway. Each year, in the lead up to the October race meeting, the local farmers try to outdo each other by erecting new bigger, better and wackier tin horses (often in the dead of night). At last count there were more than 70.
Slow down: Mereenie. Gotta love a road sign that doesn't just tell you to slow down, but explains how - all you have to do is take the your foot off the go-fast pedal. It's a valuable lesson on the dusty Mereenie Loop Road, the red dirt back way between Uluru and Alice Springs.
Mereenie, Northern Territory: A couple of hundred metres later it's safe to put the foot back on the accelerator. 'Nuff said.
Last year my partner and I spent 42 weeks driving a rather epic 40,000 kilometres on a lap of mainland Australia that took us to some of the most remote spots in the country. We saw some amazing things on our travels, and went to some pretty out there places, but some of my favourite sights were right beside the road. You never know what you'll see on country roads, especially if you believe the road signs. Above are 16 of my favourites – some are official and some have been artistically altered by a previous roadtripper, but all of them could only ever be found here in Australia.
