Leg 7 – the course… 

The length and competitive content of this seventh leg, seven special stages totalling 329km, made competitors look forward to the rest day coming up at Broome. The run north up the West Australian coast took the field to the 46km ‘Bullfrog’ special stage 130km from Perth, with many rocky outcrops to catch the unwary or over-enthusiastic. It was here in the 1979 Repco Reliability Trial that the three Fords driven by Colin Bond, George Fury and Greg Carr faltered to let the Commodores of Peter Brock, Barry Ferguson and Shekhar Mehta to grab the first three places which they hung on to until the finish.

During the 433km transport between special stages, with a service at Geraldton, the course headed inland to take on two stages over farm tracks – the 43km ‘Tallering’ and 37km ‘Tardie’ stages located between Mullewa and Cue.

After Cue it was a straight 324km highway run to Meekatharra for another refuel/service/rest break before tackling the 55km ‘Peak Hill’ stage north of the town, followed shortly after by the 37km ‘Mingah Springs’ stage, both fast undulating runs with numerous creek crossings (22 in the latter stage).

Due to darkness the crews would not have sighted the world’s largest rock – Mount Augustus, which is 8km long, 5km wide and rises to 717m; it takes 54km to drive around it. It dwarfs Ayers Rock – 3.6km long, 348m high and a circumference of 9.4km.

Onwards still in a northerly direction to Marble Bar for refuelling and servicing, and then for two stages near the town – 70km ‘Corunna Downs’ and 40km ‘Marble Bar’, the latter a testing stage with a wide sandy crossing, to join up with the main Northern Highway, followed by a 580km transport to Broome. An extra hour service was allowed by the organisers given the toughness of the leg.