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Australian Geographic - The Canning Stock Route

With Aboriginals as guides, 46 year-old surveyor Alfred Canning trekked north in 1906 to establish a route that would eventually bear his name. He was endeavouring to find a way by which East Kimberley cattle could be taken to southern markets. Previous explorers Lawrence Wells and David Carnegie - who had both lost men on their expeditions in the area - advised against continuing the search for such a route. "We have demonstrated the uselessness of any persons wasting their time and money in further investigations of that desolate region," Carnegie wrote.

But at the instigation of the Secretary for Mines, Canning set out from Wiluna with seven other men, 23 camels, two ponies, 2.5 tonnes of provisions and 1440 L of water. During the ensuing 14-month survey the team trekked about 4000 km, often relying on the Aboriginal guides to help them find water.

On his return, Canning reported that a stock route could be established with fair feed and good water from 52 wells and watering points. In 1908 he sank the wells. Working in temperatures of around 50°C for weeks at a time his crew completed 51 wells, averaging one every 18 days. The deepest was Well 5, at more than 30 m; the shallowest, Well 42, was just 1.4m.

Many of the wells are now little more than depressions in the ground and some have their water tainted with the corpses of rotting animals. But according to Kevin Atkins, one of the last surviving white drovers to have taken cattle down the Canning, non-functioning wells were fairly common: “Three or four of the wells along the route were out each time.” He quietly describes the three 12–16-week drives he did back in the early 1940s from south of what is now Old Halls Creek to Wiluna, two of them with legendary drover Wally Dowling. "We'd push the cattle along."

The cattle would drag their bums on the steep dunes – they’d stagger up and we’d cover 10–12 miles [16–19 kilometres] a day.”  Most of the 31 mobs of cattle that were taken down through the desert up to 1959 were mustered on Billiluna and Sturt Creek stations, out of Halls Creek. 

Getting water up from the wells was hard work and the drovers would use a camel to ‘whip’ the water up in a 12 gallon (50 litre) canvas bucket – the often-seen steel buckets at each well weren’t favoured by the stockman.

"You couldn’t hold the cattle back from the wells," Kevin says. "They'd rush to get to the water especially after three or four days. They wouldn't go anywhere though and you’d just have to get the water up and into the troughs."

Once in Wiluna, Kevin would gather a mob of brumbies from stations such as Carnegie and head back up the stock route, selling them far and wide throughout the Kimberley. “We’d travel faster with the horses,” he says. “It was an eight-week trip back and we’d bring 40–60 horses back with us. Horses were in short supply in the Kimberley ’cause of the ‘walkabout disease’ that was prevalent then.” Descendants of those brumbies still roam the Kimberley today and none are fatter or as well off as the wild horses around Lake Gregory at the northern end of the CSR.

For forty years, the Canning Stock Route periodically provided a vital transport link to the south for Kimberley cattle. By the mid 1950s, however, the route's wells and equipment had deteriorated and improvements in coastal shipping and road transport provided a better alternative than driving cattle overland.

Creating the Canning Stock Route  - This link, from australia.gov.au, is no longer available

Creating the Canning Stock Route was the answer to a host of challenges presented by the Australian outback. Pastoralists raising beef cattle in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia needed to bring their cattle to markets in the south, where tens of thousands of people lived on the goldfields near Kalgoorlie.

In between lay a vast, harsh landscape of sand dunes, spinifex grass and salt pans.

Surveyed and created in the early 1900s, the scale of the Canning Stock Route is epic. It runs for almost 1800 kilometres, crossing 800 sandhills and four deserts in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. It is a marvel of planning and skilful surveying work and was created without the aid of modern technology or conveniences. Yet, despite the huge effort to create and maintain what was designed to be a busy cattle-droving corridor, the Stock Route was never heavily used and quickly fell into disrepair. If nothing else, its existence is proof of nineteenth century European determination to tame the Australian wilderness.

Canning Stock Route - the first and last drives

Drover Tom Cole led the first known cattle drive in 1911, and in 1959, drover Mal Brown led the last. There were only thirty-five known drives, which seems incredible given the huge amount of resources taken to construct and maintain it.

In 1906, the Western Australian Government appointed surveyor Alfred Canning to survey an overland stock route from Halls Creek in the Kimberley to the rail head at Wiluna to bring cattle to growing markets in the south west of the state.

Canning Stock Route Centenary

In the 1960s the track began its new phase as the premier route for vehicular adventures. By the early 1980s, more than 100 people were travelling it each year.

It was estimated that more than 500 vehicles made the trip in 2008 and numbers have probably increased since then with the popularity of the track for both Australian and overseas adventure tourists.

Plan to use your swag or tent and leave your camper trailers at home. More than the usual wear and tear caused by travellers towing trailers is of great concern to our fraternity and the locals. Part of the attraction of this route is the challenge of driving through such a vast wild natural area. The track is not maintained and for the few who drive it each year this great experience is being lessened by track and roadside damage caused during attempts to haul trailers over dunes in particular. Nobody wants a highway through this area but it does need suitably set up vehicles to traverse its challenges. With improved durability in camper trailer design, the track is now the weak link rather than the equipment. The damage caused by towing trailers highlights that these are not appropriate for this route.    

From Four Wheel Drive Australia 

Time frames: 

Most people choose to do the whole Stock Route over around three weeks.  It is now very corrugated and needs to be travelled slowly, as well as taking the time to enjoy the sights along the way.  There is the option of doing half the route at a time eg Wiluna to Well 33 and Well 33 to Billiluna as separate trips.