Electromoto Adventures
The Journeys
that came before
Three crossings, two electric motorcycles, three pioneering journeys, across Australia's most remote roads. The chapters of the story that led to the Big Lap.
Sydney to Darwin
via Birdsville
The Darwin ride was conceived as a journey nobody else had attempted — and deliberately made harder than it needed to be. The sensible route to Darwin goes via the coast and the main highways. Ed chose to go via Birdsville.
After selling the Harley-Davidson LiveWire, Ed bought the Italian-made Energica Experia Green Tourer — a machine with a 22.5 kWh battery, integrated hard luggage and a charging system that accepts Level 1, 2 and 3 inputs. He left Sydney on 14 June 2024 on a cold, wet morning, heading north through the mountains near Walcha, then west through Tamworth, Gunnedah, Lightning Ridge, Roma and Charleville. Beyond Charleville, the country changed. Roads emptied. Towns thinned. The charging infrastructure — already sparse — effectively disappeared. For the remaining 3,300 kilometres to Darwin, a single DC fast charger existed. Every overnight stop was a 10-amp domestic power point, an eight-to-ten-hour charge, and a carefully calculated departure time. "I choose to go to Darwin via Birdsville — not because it is easy, but because it is hard." The critical obstacle was the stretch from Windorah to Birdsville — 390 km of mostly unsealed road with no fuel, no mobile coverage and nothing in between except the Betoota Hotel, which had recently reopened after twenty years closed. Ed rang the proprietor, Robbo, to ask if he could book the single available room and charge from a power point during his stay. The response: "No worries." He arrived at Betoota with the feeling of someone who had just done something that had never been done. No electric motorcycle had ever been out this way. He stayed two nights, charged fully, and rode the remaining 160 km to Birdsville across red sand and gibber plain. From Birdsville, Ed rode north through the Channel Country towards Mount Isa — 700 km of outback road completed two-up with his son Evan, who had flown in to share the most remote section of the journey. From Mount Isa, Evan flew back to Sydney and Ed continued alone — north on the Barkly Highway, then up the Stuart Highway through Katherine to Darwin. The bike performed flawlessly. The ride was completed ten weeks after a cardiac procedure. Both his previous journeys had been preceded by similar recoveries. He planned them precisely, understood the risks exactly, and completed them anyway.
Cape Tribulation
In July 2022, Ed rode a Harley-Davidson LiveWire 3,800 kilometres from Sydney to Cape Tribulation via the Queensland coast — choosing back roads through mountains he had never ridden rather than the direct highway north.
He used the Queensland Electric Super Highway for fast charging, topped up at motels and caravan parks overnight, and arrived at Cape Tribulation having proved the concept worked.
Across Australia
Three months later, he shipped the bike to Perth and rode it back to Sydney — 4,500 kilometres across the Nullarbor Plain, the first time any electric motorcycle had made that crossing.
Between Madura Pass in WA and Tanunda in South Australia, nearly 1,400 kilometres, there was no DC fast charger. Ed rode at 65–80 km/h to manage range, charged overnight from domestic power points at roadhouses, and completed the crossing in 21 days.
ABC South Australia covered the Perth–Sydney crossing as it was happening. The reporter told Ed after publication that it was the most-read article in South Australia and the Northern Territory on the day it appeared.
