Slow times on the Stuart Highway

Only in the Territory would someone think to transport a demountable - blocking both lanes of the main road out of town - at three PM on a Friday afternoon. So slow was the traffic and so painful the process, I had time to take a picture, download it, write up some words and shoot it off to the NT News - all in the space of about 16 kilometres.

At least they're not doing things by halves
It may not be the longest load the Stuart Highway has seen – but it might well be the widest!
With a police escort and surrounded by a swarm of six support vehicles, this demountable house brought southbound traffic on the Stuart Highway to a crawl yesterday afternoon.
Starting the slow journey in Nightcliff, and destined for delivery in Katherine, the house took up both lanes of the highway, and came precariously close to hitting trees, traffic lights, road signs and street lights as it left the suburbs of Darwin.
The unusual sight saw drivers pulling over for a better look at how something so wide would make it across some of the not-so-wide sections ahead.
Virginia Perkins, who was on her way to Mandorah, said she couldn’t believe her eyes when she came around a corner to find a full-sized house slowing the traffic ahead.
“The highway gets pretty narrow in some places, so I hope they’ve got their measurements right,” she said.
However, the house was being transported on a special hydraulic trailer, allowing it to be raised up and over any obstacles which had been identified along the route, a spokesperson for the NT Government said.
The house was expected to arrive in Katherine yesterday evening.

Northern Territory News, Saturday 10 May 2008