gregory downs / lawn hill road conditions.

Hard question to answer, road conditions change due to mine trucks, however the mines keep the road in pretty good condition. We were there last year, but had a LC200 with an offroad van, no problems, just lower your tyre pressure and drive to the conditions. Most crossing aren't deep, but check each one before you enter. You will be surprised about the number of people up there. I would stay at Gregory Downs, on the river and do day trips into Lawn Hill. You will have a great time.
Regards Hugh

Hi Brian

We were at Lawn Hill last year - and while you'd probably be ok, that definitely depends on the road conditions. The real issue will be your tyres, if you need to pull over for a road train/truck (likely to happen) you'll want to drive very carefully.

I personally wouldn't do it with a Commodore - but then again, I've also seen Mazda hatchbacks on the Development Rd at Cape York!

Perhaps check closer to the date with the nice folks at Adels Grove before going.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Brian. We were through there about 6 weeks ago towing a Coromal off road van with a Mitsubishi Challenger. It is a good well formed gravel road all of the way but narrows a bit towards Adel's Grove. From Gregory Downs to the mine turn off the road was very good and quite OK to Adel's Grove although a bit corrugated in places. There were no washouts but a couple of stream crossings but they were dry and quite solid. From Adel's Grove to Lawn Hill Gorge the road was awful but it is a good width and sound gravel. It was just that you almost needed to change gear to drive up the corrugations (exaggerating of course), particularly the short bit between Adel's Grove and the turn to Riversleigh.

The clearance issue for you will probably be heaped gravel between the wheel tracks. That can be a bit of an issue.

If you phone Adel's Grove make sure you are talking to one of the people who own the place. Their seasonally hired staff may not have a clue. Whoever you talk to, press them for detail, so that you understand what they are saying. Just "good" or "terrible" and the like are not good enough. As you probably know, one man's goat track is another man's highway.

And don't even think of going out of Lawn Hill to Camooweal. Also, don't expect approaching traffic to slow as they approach you, unless your dust will blow into their face. They all seem to think the priority is to stay on top of the corrugations no matter how fast you have to go to do that!

It is a great place to visit and one of my favorite places on Earth, as you will guess from my signature picture.

Cheers,

Kevin