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 Child was stopped in Broken Hill, New South Wales, having seemingly driven across the entire state from Kendall near Port Macquarie 
 
 A 12-year-old boy was stopped by police after attempting to drive solo across Australia, having already covered 1,300 kilometres of his journey. The police said the boy had clear and specific plans, but to complete his intended journey, he would have had to drive through the Nullarbor Plain, a flat, desolate, hot and largely empty stretch in the south that is about four times the size of Belgium. Australia’s official tourism site advises visitors to take a full six days just to cross Nullarbor, on a motorway famous for its unbending trajectory through the barren scrubland. An investigation into the incident is continuing, and the police have not said much beyond that.
– The journey from Australia's eastern New South Wales coast to Perth on its west measures about 2,500 miles. A 12-year-old boy set off to drive it alone, and got ridiculously far. The Australian Associated Press reports the boy was stopped about 800 miles into the drive around 11am Saturday, having essentially traversed the entirety of New South Wales from his starting point in Kendall, near Port Macquarie, over the course of 24 hours. The New York Times gives some American perspective, saying the distance covered "is about the equivalent of making the long and annoying" round-trip drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, "with a few dozen more miles thrown in for rest stops and food." The child was stopped in Broken Hill due to a dislodged bumper, which was dragging on the ground. Police tell the AAP the damage suggests he was involved in some sort of accident along the way. "He'd taken the family car," police said Monday. "His parents reported him missing immediately after he left home" shortly after 11am Friday. The child is in the custody of his parents, but will likely face charges including driving without a license and not paying for gas; Sky News reports he fueled up around 6am in Cobar. As for how he managed to not raise suspicions for such a long period, Sky News reports the 6-foot-tall boy looks much older than 12. Indeed, the manager of the gas station the child stopped at thought he looked "19 or 20."