CANNING STOCK ROUTE TRIP

Video, Images and Trip information

CANNING STOCK ROUTE TRIP

Video, Images and Trip information

The Canning Stock Route is considered to be one of the longest and most remote 4WD tracks in the world. The track covers more that 1800km through Western Australia, between Wiluna in the South, and Halls Creek in the North, traversing three major deserts along the way: the Little Sandy, the Great Sandy, and the Gibson.

First surveyed by Alfred Canning in the early 1900s as a stock route for beef cattle, it endured little use in that role and fell into disrepair over subsequent decades. The CSR has since become a 'bucket list' trip for many Australian and global adventurers.

I joined several mates in an assortment of LandCruisers and Nissan Patrols to tackle the Canning in 2024.

Affiliate link notice: This site contains eBay affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CANNING STOCK ROUTE

In the early 1900s, East Kimberley cattlemen needed a way to bypass the tick-infested coastal routes to bring beef south, to the hungry goldfields of Wiluna.

In 1906, the Western Australian government appointed Alfred Canning to survey a route. Canning and his team identified 51 wells (numbered from South to North), each approximately one day's travel apart to sustain cattle on the long trek. The wells were mostly based on ancient Aboriginal water sources.

The route’s creation was marred by poor treatment of the traditional owners. Canning’s party was accused of kidnapping and shackling Aboriginal men, and forcing them to reveal "soaks" (hidden water sources) by denying them salt and water. In response, Traditional owners damaged or destroyed several of the wells in the early decades of the route, and occasionally attacked drovers.

Despite the time and effort involved in surveying the CSR, it's ruggedness and harsh climate meant only about 37 mobs of cattle ever made the full journey between 1910 and when the route was officially abandoned in 1959.

Rebirth as a 4WD destination

1968 saw the first traverse of the full CSR in a motor vehicle, with three surveyors (Russell Wenholz, David Chudleigh, and Noel Kealley) travelling from Wiluna to Halls Creek in a group of Land Rovers.

Its use increased over the years, from around 50 vehicles per year in the 1970s, up to around 800 vehicles per year currently. Track Care WA volunteers have invested much time and effort to restore some of Canning's original wells, and install toilet and camping facilities at selected locations along the track.

From the 1980s until the early 2000s, the standard method for crossing was to pre-order 205-litre drums from the Capricorn Roadhouse near Newman. These were trucked to a designated fuel dump site at Well 23, for hand-pumping into vehicles.

In the early 2000s, the Kunawarritji community near Well 33 established a general store and commercial fuel depot to service the growing number of adventurers travelling the CSR. Kunawarritji remains the only commercial fuel stop directly along the track.

CANNING STOCK ROUTE TRIP PREPARATION

Make no mistake, the CSR is a remote and challenging track. It's extremely hard on vehicles; The distance between fuel is long; and help is both far away and expensive.

For these reasons, ensuring you and your vehicle is ready for the trip is vital.

Reliability

Make sure your vehicle is in good mechanical condition and recently serviced. I recommend having it checked by a 4WD specialist before you depart. Make sure you tell them you're heading on a rough and remote trek, and they need to service and thoroughly check the vehicle over.

Check all nuts and bolts, particularly on accessories, and apply Loctite as required.

First Aid

You are located a long way from assistance. It's vital to carry a comprehensive first aid kit.

Fuel

You'll need to carry enough fuel to travel around 1,000km on sand. As a rule of thumb, expect almost double your on-road fuel consumption. Long range tanks are the best solution, but jerry cans can be an option.

The only reliable fuel supply along the route is located at Kunawarritji, about 900km north of Wiluna. I consumed 187 litres between Wiluna and Kunawarritji.

Water

You need to assume a consumption of least 4 litres per person, per day. Some of the wells along the CSR have drinkable water, but most do not. It's generally useful for washing, and with boiling and purification, can be good for emergencies. I carried 60 litres of water in my Long Ranger tank, and avoided using the well water other than for washing.

Tools

Carry a comprehensive toolkit. As we were travelling in a group, we chose to share the tools amongst the vehicles, so we didn't carry multiple complete sets. A range of cordless tools (drill, grinder, recip saw etc) are worthwhile additions.

Communications

As a minimum, carry a UHF radio and either some form of satellite communications or an HF radio. A handheld satphone (such as an Iridium or Inmarsat phone) will give reliable communication when in or out of the vehicle.

Services such as Starlink can, with an appropriate setup, be used in motion or when camping, but not when hiking away from the vehicle.

Itinerary

You can download the itinerary we used here (in Excel format) and use it as the basis for your trip. We travelled big distances getting to the CSR, then took it pretty easy on the track, only covering about 100km per day, which equated to about 4 hours of driving including stops and detours.

Spare Parts

Ensure you carry the following as a minimum:

Recovery Gear

Ensure your group carries minimum basic recovery gear, including:

Vehicle Protection

If you value the paint on your vehicle, then you'll need to apply some sort of paint protection for the CSR, otherwise you'll likely need a respray when you return.

You can either install a permanent coating, such as PPF, or consider a temporary coating as I did, such as Road Warrior Plus. Watch the trip video to see how the Road Warrior performed.

 

SLIDESHOW

Check out some images from the CSR trip

THE CANNING STOCK ROUTE - WHAT FAILED

Scroll down to read detailed info about the 300 and my own modifications and accessories in particular. But for a more general idea of all vehicle and part failures, here's a list of everything that broke on the vehicles in our convoy:

LandCruiser 300

  • Rear shock guards loosened
  • Headlight mounting bolt came out
  • Mirror trim came off
  • Intermittent water tank pump failure

Landcruiser HZJ105

  • Failed UHF aerials x2 (internal failures)
  • Cracked radiator brackets
  • Cracked wheel carrier

LandCruiser 200 with TVAN camper

  • Failed Engel 60L fridge
  • Flat tyre (dust in bead)
  • Failed battery (Heavy duty lead-acid)
  • Failed rear brakes (they dragged, wearing out pads and rotors)
  • Failed shocks on TVAN (Koni)
  • Failed rear AC hoses (Likely rubbed through by ARB Frontier fuel tank)

Holden Colorado

  • Failed Ironman fuel tank (early end to trip).

Nissan GU Patrol wagon

  • Cracked roof rack brackets

Nissan GU Patrol ute

  • Bent and cracked rear coil tower (despite being fitted with a Superior bracing kit)
  • Failed alternator
  • Failed OzTrail fridge drawer (cracked pipework)
  • Failed fuel transfer pump
LandCruiser 300 on the CSR: How did it perform?

The vehicle:

Overall, I was very happy with how the 300 handled the trip, from beginning to end. Definitely far more comfortable to drive over long distances than the 200. It just gobbles up the kilometres. The cruise control works extremely well, so long as you're set above 100km/h (otherwise it flares and hunts). The fuel economy was around 12L/100km on the highways, which was reasonable given I was heavily loaded.

Despite the severe corrugations for much of the trip, no rattles have developed, and the car still feels tight.

The only real disappointments were dust related. Quite a lot of dust came in to the cabin through the back doors, and also the rear guards. There was also dust on the clean side of the air filter, showing that Toyota haven't made much (if any) improvements over the 200 in this area. I am hoping that Donaldson are hard at work developing a PowerCore airbox for the 300.

I also lost a door mirror trim, which presumably rattled off. Fortunately, Toyota replaced this under warranty upon my return. I was told that the trim is not available as a separate part, meaning an entire mirror replacement which would have cost over $600.

TJM XGS Suspension and Upper Control Arms:

Best suspension I've ever had in a 4WD. The XGS performed brilliantly. The ride and handling was excellent, and it suffered no fade despite high loads, reasonably high temperatures, and constant corrugations and dips/humps. Travelling across the spinifex of the hastily-constructed bypass track, the rear shocks were too hot to touch, yet still didn't fade.

The only minor issue was the stone guards on the rear shocks suffered from the corrugations, and spun around the shocks. This was a trackside fix, by applying some tape to the mounts to increase the tension. The guards were replaced by TJM on our return with an improved design.

> Read original suspension article

ROH wheels and Maxxis RAZR AT811 tyres:

The wheels and tyres both performed flawlessly on the trip. With no damage and no punctures.

I did suffer one slow leak, caused by dust working its way into the bead of one of the tyres, due to low pressures. This was fixed on return by demounting/remounting the tyre to the wheel.

While I've been very happy with the performance of the RAZRs, they don't seem to be lasting as long as the Nitto Ridge Grapplers I ran on the 200.

> Read original wheel/tyre article

GMF Front bar:

The front bar performed well, with no significant issues. Some of the small trim/mesh screws came loose due to the vibrations. These were replaced by GMF on out return, and they have since changed the washers supplied with the bar to prevent it reoccurring.

> Read original front bar article

Kaymar rear bar and wheel carriers:

No issues at all with the Kaymar rear bar or the wheel carriers. I had a set of MaxTrax attached to one of the spare tyres, and the additional weight didn't have any negative effect.

Note that Kaymar have since released a second, one-piece version of the rear bar for the 300, although this version continues to be available.

> Read original rear bar article

Communications:

My communications equipment on this trip consisted of:

I also ran ExploreOz Traveller software on an iPad mini for navigation.

All of the equipment worked well, with no issues. The UHFs are a must for vehicle-to-vehicle communications when in convoy, and offer a range of a few KM depending on terrain. It's also good practice to announce your departure and direction of travel when leaving each well, so drivers coming the other way are aware you're in the vicinity. Particularly in narrow sections of track, and cresting dunes.

The handhelds are useful for guidance, such as when climbing difficult dunes.

The Iridium phone is really unbeatable for reliable communications anywhere on the planet. I've had one for a couple of decades, and I take it on every trip. Day-to-day, I don't leave it connected, only buying a plan when we're heading off on a trip.

That said, when we did the CSR, standard Starlink was not able to be used when in motion. That's changed now, so a Starlink mini mounted to the car, and a standard phone with WiFi calling enabled, makes the Iridium phone somewhat redundant, so long as you're with the vehicle. It's still useful when hiking away from the vehicle though. I suspect that in future, I'll still take the Iridium phone with me, but I won't bother connecting it to a plan any more. You can still call 000 (or 112) even with no SIM card installed, and no paid plan. So a worthwhile safety measure to have foe when you're away from the car, or for times when starlink fails.

I was hoping to have an interface for displaying the ExploreOz software on the Landcruiser's main screen, but at this stage that's not possible. So I mounted an iPad mini to the dash using a Ram Mount, and navigated with that. ExploreOz is great software, and Australian made and owned.

Richards Auto electrical accessories:

No issues at all with any of the Richards Auto products.

The custom power outlet setup in the cargo area powered the fridge module without any hiccups.

Likewise, the accessory power fuses installed in the front, powered the UHF radio and the sat phone handsfree kit without an issue.

The tailgate light was fantastic when accessing the back of the car in the dark, illuminating the whole area, including the fridge module, microwave etc. One of the best accessories you can fit, when you consider the pitiful interior lighting that Toyota provide in the back of the car.

Fridge and Power Module:

Technically, the fridge and power module performed brilliantly. The Custom Lithium battery was enough to power two fridges (A Trailblazer 50 fridge, and a Engel 29L freezer), plus power the inverter running a microwave, starlink and assorted battery chargers. It easily did this on one night stops, and was usually enough for two-night stops, if we topped it up with some solar via the Redarc charger during the day. Despite the extremely tough conditions, none of the electronics or fridges suffering any issues.

Structurally, the faceplate of the module suffered stress fractures about half way through the trip. I patched it up using part of an old phonebox, and when I returned home, I modified the faceplate by increasing the material thickness (2mm to 3mm), and adding radiuses to the corners where the cracks developed. The article details the modified design.

> Read the original fridge and power module article

Safari ARMAX Snorkel:

Although I didn't attempt any deep water crossings, I was thankful to have the snorkel fitted to minimise dust ingested my the engine. The factory intake is right inside the front guard, meaning much more dust than the snorkel intake at the top of the windscreen.

The snorkel copped a beating from the foliage along the track, and came away unscathed.

> Read the original Snorkel article

Long Ranger fuel and water tanks:

Probably the most important modification for this trip. The combination of 252 litres of fuel, plus 60L of water saved me from carrying at least 5 jerry cans of fuel, plus 3 of water on the CSR. It would not have been possible without a roof rack or trailer.

The southern half of the canning required 187 litres of diesel between available fuel stops. The fuel tank also allowed me to save hundreds of dollars on this trip alone, by skipping most of the expensive fuelling locations along the way.

The only minor issue to report was an intermittent fault in the water pump from the tank. Presumably an electrical issue, there pump was replaced under warranty upon my return.

> Read the original fuel/water tank article

Affiliate link notice: This site contains eBay affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

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