Getting to Wave Rock

Getting to Wave Rock

Wave Rock and the nearby small Western Australian town of Hyden are situated in the South West of Western Australia, under four hours drive by road from Perth or one hour by air to the Wave Rock Airport. There are a twice-weekly public bus service, regular tourist coaches and a steady stream of self-drive visitors on the sealed surface roads to Wave Rock. 

Leaving Perth eastward along the Great Eastern Highway, you drive up Greenmount Hill in the Darling Range. This is the oldest plateau on earth: a huge slab of granite, once a part of ancient Gondawana, sitting in the sun, wind and rain for more than a thousand million years. It has eroded down into the soils of the valleys, and the chains of lakes, and the granite outcrops, like Hyden Rock have been exposed.

On your travel from Perth to Hyden, notice the change in vegetation as the rainfall declines. From the fossil temperate rainforest strip of Grey Jarrah trees along the plateau edge to the ghostly York Gum trees inland to shiny Salmon Gums trees and stumpy Mallee near Corrigin, then the rolling, low sandplain heath near Hyden and beyond.

Travelling by Road to Wave Rock

FROM PERTH’S NORTHERN SUBURBS: Approx a 3 1/2 hour drive through the Jarrah Forest of the Darling Ranges to historic York, across the grazing farmlands and lake chains to districts of Quairading, Corrigin, Kondinin and to Hyden.

FROM PERTH’S SOUTHERN SUBURBS: Approx a 3 1/4 hours drive starting along Albany highway through the beginning of the Western Australian Wheatbelt via towns of Brookton, Corrigin, Kondinin and to Hyden.

Both routes then travel through Corrigin, the famous Dog-in-a-Ute town. Stop in at the Dog Cemetery west of Corrigin on the Brookton Highway, then to Wave Rock, three km east of the wheat/sheep farming town of Hyden.

Please drive carefully. Especially watch out for kangaroo and emu road hazards at dusk and dawn. There are many kangaroos which have jumped in front of cars. If this happens control your braking IN A STRAIGHT LINE ON THE ROAD SURFACE. If you do this and hit a “roo” your car might be dented but you’ll be alive. NO MATTER HOW BIG OR CUTE THE “ROO” IS, DO NOT SWERVE at speed. Once your car is swerving on the gravel edge at speed, it is likely you will lose control and maybe roll your car. Better a live visitor than alive “roo”.  The open road speed limit is 110 km per hour. Slow down to the usual 50 km per hour limit in most Western Australian country towns you pass through.

There is a modern shopping centre with a supermarket at Hyden however it is recommended you prepare your journey to Wave Rock:

• Drinks (caffeine is good for drivers)
• Water in your windscreen fluid reservoir, with a drop of detergent.
• Clean windscreen (it’s better traveling east from 10.00am and west from sunrise.)
• Sunglasses, camera, binoculars
• Torch
• First Aid kit
• Limited cash ($50 should do for emergency)
• Charged mobile phone batteries.
• Digital mobile phone (Telstra 3G or Next G)
• Tyre inflation pressure
• Fuel (there are roadhouses in every town, but are open limited hours)
• Radiator water
• Lubricants.

Stop at least every two hours for a break.  Free coffee for the driver is provided at many “driver reviver” fuel stations along the way.

For emergency services dial phone number 000

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