As a suggestion, I’d say build VIC, NSW and QLD because that’s where most of the people live, and most of the famous landmarks and almost all of the mountain ranges, are. The big industry ports, big cities, etc. You’ll be able to drive the Hume, Princes and Bruce highways, see the Snowy Mountains, Opera House, the big mining towns of north western queensland. Tons of stuff.
Folks will wanna drive the Nullabor, of course. But only those who haven’t driven that road for real 🙂 Nullabor is the native word for ‘treeless’. And they ain’t kidding.
800km. Eight hundred kilometres, of nothing at all. This includes the “90 Mile Straight”. 147km of gun-barrel straight road. And it’s soul-destroying for those who aren’t used to it.
Most of the ‘visible’ area of interior Western Australia is red dirt, rocks and roos. Check out Meekathara on any map. As I recall there’s no civilization with 300km in any direction. It’s a damn long way north of Southern Cross for not much at all 🙂
Madurah Pass. A cutting through a small-ish hill group that, for some reason, couldn’t simply be by-passed by flat road. You’re about 200m above sea-level at the top of the cutting and you suddenly sea a vast stretch of land before you. Further than the horizon, the flat, barren landscape shows nothing at all. Not even a shrub.
But GET to these places? Good heavens.
Great idea, an Aussie Map, but the big industry states on the east coast would do well.