Six roads, and what each one costs you
Every distance here was measured on the road network through the actual stops, not drawn as a straight line between two cities. That is why some of them are longer than you expect.
The six
Ordered by distance. The vehicle column is what the road asks for, not what is comfortable.
Only one of them chooses your vehicle
Five of the six are sealed end to end. Any car can drive them.
The Kimberley is the exception, and only if you take the Gibb River Road. Broome to Derby to Kununurra on the Great Northern Highway is 1,129 km of sealed road that any vehicle can drive. The Gibb crosses the same country on a mostly unsealed road and needs high clearance.
Everything else on this list is a question of time and fuel, not traction.
If you are choosing a route first and a vehicle second, that is the right order. Pick the road, then let the road tell you what to hire.
One route is decided by fuel, not traction
The Nullarbor is sealed the whole way. The question is how far the next bowser is.
Norseman to Ceduna is 1,228 km with no town in between, only roadhouses. Thirteen of them sell fuel, and the gaps run from 12 km to 296 km. The longest is Nullarbor Roadhouse to Ceduna.
Check your vehicle’s loaded range and fuel availability, allow a reserve, and confirm any fuel-carrying restrictions in your hire agreement.
How long these actually take
The hours below are moving time with no stops. Nobody drives them that way.
A driving day on a sealed highway is realistically six to eight hours once you add fuel, food and a stop you did not plan. That makes the east coast a five-day drive at minimum and a three-week trip if you want to see it.
The Stuart Highway is the outlier. It is 3,025 km of almost nothing, and the towns are far enough apart that you plan the day around them rather than around the clock.