Aussie police stop kid's coast-to-coast drive
April 23, 2017
Police only pulled the boy over on Saturday after spotting that the bumper of the car he was driving was dragging along the ground, according to the Australian news agency AAP.
He had already driven 14 hours from Kendal, near Port Macquarie on Australia's eastern coast, through most of New South Wales state.
He was stopped by a highway patrol car on the Barrier Highway at Broken Hill, one of Australia's main outback mining centers.
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The boy had been heading for Perth on the Australian continent's Indian Ocean western coast and capital of the state of Western Australia, police said.
They said the boy had been taken into detention at Broken Hill and inquires were continuing.
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The boy's intended journey across Australia's vast interior would have next taken him through the state of South Australia and then into Western Australia.
Such a journey by car through arid, mostly flat landscapes, requires several refuels. Tourists are officially advised to "carry extra petrol and plenty of water."
Australia is the world's sixth largest country. Its land mass is 50 percent greater than Europe.
ipj/rc (dpa, AFP)