The drive across the southern coast of Australia features one of the flattest, hottest, most unchanging stretches of highway on the planet. Now it's possible to improve your handicap as you make the 1400 kilometre journey.

With a new spin on tourism, 18 roadhouses and country towns from the South Australian hinterland to the goldfields of West Australia have decided to put together the world's longest golf course. The 'Nullarbor Links' cross two timezones stretching from Coolgardie 500 kilometres east of Perth, to Ceduna, 780 kilometres west of Adelaide.

Local councils have banded together to provide the funding for the council work crews and the heavy equipment needed to build and maintain the course. The links run along the Coolgardie-Esperance and Eyre highways which cross Australia's Nullarbor Plain.

Government-owned, crown land will be transformed into dirt fairways and oiled, sand greens - grass in the desert would be a bit tricky - to create a unique golfing experience.

The course can be covered, at the speed limit, in just over 13 hours. But to break up the journey with a refreshment stop and a hole of golf every couple of hours would make for a far more relaxing and overall safer experience.

Balladonia roadhouse manager Bob Bongiorno, hit on the idea earlier this year. Balladonia is famous for ducking for cover as skylab's fragments came hurtling to earth back in 1978, but now, by sometime in 2005, Bongiorno expects golf balls to be sailing through the air.

Balladonia's hole number six, a par four dogleg, finishes on the green - well closer to black if truth be told, considering its oiled appearance, and is defended by two groomed bunkers, and shaded by two eucalypts.

The Nullarbor is illustrative of Australia's diversity. The Australian continent is the planet's oldest landmass and Balladonia is typical in this way, featuring 33 kinds of eucalypt and a greater variety of plant life than in all of Europe.

The roadhouse at Balladonia is at the end of the world's longest straight section of highway and bookended by a par 5 at Caiguna (pop. 8) at the other end. Travelling 340 kilometres down the course towards South Australia there are holes at Cocklebiddy and Madura before the South Australian border town Eucla with its par 4. The drive along the highway in South Australia is along the cliffs of the great Australian Bight and features seven holes. The last (or, depending on where you tee off, the first) hole is in Ceduna on the edge of the Great Southern Land, a clifftop hole on the Great Australian Bight.

And, oh yes, don't forget to mark your golf card for a chance at holding the course record!

Ozebookings towns along the links: Ceduna in South Australia, and in the west, Kalgoorlie and Norseman.