The World’s Longest Golf Course Spans Two States And 1365 Kilometres Of Outback In Rural Australia! 

Would You Take On The Nullarbor Links Challenge?

The world’s longest golf course is 1365 Kilometres in length. There are 18 holes, a Par of 72, one State border to cross and a lot of wildlife to avoid. The Nullarbor Links runs across the empty, desolate Nullarbor Plain, stretching from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in Southern Australia. The course takes players across the Australian outback and along scenic stretches of coastline, stopping at roadhouses and motels along the way where golfers can load up their cars with essential supplies, from golf club rentals and golf jumpers for men to petrol and the standard Australian roadside sausage rolls, before teeing off on the most off the beaten track golf course in the world.

The World’s Longest Golf Course

The Nullarbor Links is certainly a unique enterprise. The eccentric idea was put into action by Bob Bongiorno and Alf Caputo, who were looking for a way to attract more tourists along the long Eyre Highway between Western Australia and South Australia. The aim was to slow down travellers and to give people a reason to spend their money and their time in the villages and roadhouses along this enormous stretch of road. They wanted to provide ‘Activity for travellers along the renowned desolate highway’. The result is the longest golf course in the world, a course which can take 4 days to complete.

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia To Ceduna, South Australia

The course can be played in both directions, with players teeing off in Kalgoorlie- a mining town in the Goldfields region of Western Australia- and finishing in Ceduna- a coastal town at the end of the Eyre Highway in South Australia, or vice versa.

The 18 holes of the Nullarbor Links golf course crosses one of the emptiest places in Australia, the Nullarbor plain. There’s nothing for hundreds of kilometres, it’s sparsely populated, it’s empty. Along the way, travellers driving the route will find roadhouses and motels, places to fill up the car with petrol, to buy supplies and stay the night, and to play a hole of golf too of course.

The longest stretch of road between holes is over 200 Kilometres in some places, and golfers need to not only be prepared with their golfing attire, but also be prepared for a road trip across harsh Australian outback.

Teeing Off On The Nullarbor Links

Golfers need to purchase score cards in Kalgoorlie or Norseman in the West, or Ceduna in the East to play the course. In Kalgoorlie, the long game begins on more traditional golf courses, and a strict dress code is even enforced at the golf clubs here.

From here the course heads out into the empty outback, passing through Norseman- an old mining town that was the scene of one of the first gold rushes in Western Australia- and then through rural Australian station country, where farms can be the size of European countries.

The Skylab 

At the Balladonia Motel, the first real stop on the Nullarbor Plain itself when playing from Kalgoorlie, golfers tee off at the site of a peculiar incident involving Skylab, a NASA space station which broke up in the Earth’s atmosphere in 1979, strewing debris across the Goldfields countryside. The shire even fined NASA $400 for littering.

90 Mile Straight

After golfing amongst the debris of a space station, the course heads onto the world’s longest stretch of straight road, 90 miles with no corners or bends. Just straight, straight road for miles. At the start of this long road, golfers can play a 4 Par hole at the local motel, before preparing themselves for what is the most numbing drive in Australia.

Border Kangaroo

Several holes and hundreds of kilometres of driving will bring players to the Border Kangaroo, where after crossing from Western Australia to South Australia, they can tee off in the practically named Border Village.

The next hole is the longest on the entire course, at the 538 metre long Dingo’s Den. It’s not just dingos that golfers will encounter along the Nullarbor though, players will have to avoid kangaroos crossing roads, eagles on the highway and emus disrupting play. And from Dingo’s Den it’s onto Wombat Hole where golfers have to avoid an unusually large population of wombats to keep on Par.

To The Coast

The drive is almost over as players near the coast at Ceduna, where the final hole is played. After that, it’s time to claim a victory certificate officially confirming the successful completion of the world’s longest golf course. But golfers will not only have finished the course, they will have driven over a thousand kilometres through rugged outback and will have experienced a side of Australia that few people really ever stop to enjoy.

Richard Collett

Are you travelling to Australia? For more inspiration then check out the best photos from my Western Australia Road Trip HERE!