cairns to weipa road

Go to " target="EOF" class="lbg">www.mynrma.com.au/travel_planner.asp .
Click on “Adv Route.”
In the “leaving From” type in “sydney” and “Hickson & Napoleon”
In the “Going To” type in “Cairns”
Select “shortest” or “fastest” and then click on the “Go” button
Print out the results.

If you click on the turn arrows or the town names the map at the top of the page changes to a good scale to show the detail at that point.

The above will give route instructions including the distance to within 10's of meteres to the next turning point. The fast route is 2485kn – 31:24 driving time and the shortest is 2353km – 37:24.

The route up the coast would be the less hills but the traffic will slow you more than the hills. It is 2641km- 34:33. The shorter routes do not have any notable hills and cross the Great Dividing Range through undulating country. After you get to Gunnedah the country is very flat. There are no hills to compare with Tasmanian ones along any of these routes.

PeterD

The bitumen runs out at Lakelands (inland from Cooktown) and you should have no trouble to Weipa. The roads made out of bauxite are usually great.

The route for less hills is to travel the Newell highway up to Goondiwindi and then keep going inland up to Emerald up to Charters Towers and then up through the lynd to the atherton tableland where the road north up the cape begins.

As noted elsewhere there are all sorts of route planners around.

Most importantly, enjoy the experience whichever way you go!!!

Jim

There'll be some differing views on this one, but what ever you do you will have some hills - especially for the first 150 km out of Sydney.

First of all - getting out of Sydney is relatively simple - but don't expect it to be like Hobart. Get a Sydney & Suburbs map from the RACT and have one of your mates boned up as navigator. From the ferry terminal, turn right onto Hickson Road, and go along perhaps 250 metres, then turn left into Napoleon Street which winds and goes steeply up the hill. First left into Kent Street then in 500 metres right onto the Harbour Bridge. Big green signs will guide you.

Follow the signs to Wahroonga / Hornsby / Newcastle, and you should go across the bridge, then the Warringah Expressway and Gore Hill Freeway, then come off at Pacific Highway heading north. Just go as fast as your car will go, put your flasher on a second or two before you want to change lanes and let the traffic whizz around you.

Once you get onto the Newcastle Freeway (Highway 1), you have about 100 km of hilly road to Newcastle. There is one useful picnic area and one service centre about half way up, where you may want to stop, have six cups of coffee and get fuel.

When you get to the top of the freeway, you have the choice of going via the Pacific Highway along the coast (Highway 1) and staying on it all the way to Cairns. Good roads most of the way, interspersed with some not so good, and VERY busy. You need a few bucks for the toll bridge as you cross the Brisbane River, and there is plenty of fuel, caravan parks, motels etc all the way.

My recommendation is that you go the inland route - almost no divided roads, but a lot less traffic and trucks, and relatively flatter.

To go this way, as you approach the top of the Newcastle Freeway, follow the signs to The New England Highway (15) to Musselbrook and Tamworth. Don't go as far as Tamworth though - at Willow Tree, turn off along 37 to Quirindi, Gunnedah and Narrabri. Then you are on the Newell Highway (39) - the Victorians' favourite way to avoid Sydney - and follow it to the border, then its the Leichhardt Highway to Taroom, where you head for Emerald, Charters Towers and on to Cairns. Unless you want to see Cairns, you can stay on up the tablelands and go straight on Mareeba and up to Lakeland.

I will leave the condition of the road to Weipa to others who have been this year, but check the "On the Road" tab in ExplorOz too.

Happy travelling and catch a couple of barra!

Max

Thanks to both Alan and Max. The Newell through to Emerald and Charters Towers seems to be the go. We shall take it easy as I'm not too sure of what range I'll get out of a tank of fueld. I have a 120 litre tank in the Hilux and it usually returned 10 to 10.5 to the 100ks. I've only towned my mates boat a short distance of around 280km round trip which was up hill and down dale and it retunred around 15lts/100ks. The car seems to be 'in between gears' on some of the steeper pinches, either ringing its neck in 2nd but when you chnage into 3rd she just dies. I'll reckon I'll try to hold her at around 3000rpm in 2nd on the hills. It will take for ever and a day to get there, but I'll get there. Thanks again.

Where abouts in tassie are you from Jim, I bet you are going to miss the cold weather down there. My daughter livesa on the east coast and tells me it has been a very cold winter so far. We are heading down there for christmas again, We cant wait, we love it
Darren

Try very, very hard to avoid negotiating your way out of Sydney during peak hours LOL they don't take any prisoners :))))))))

Hi Jim,
I'd do exactly what Max from Sydney recommends.

I live in Newcastle and would follow all his directions from Newcastle onwards.

Geoff.

Just back from second trip to Cape road pretty rough Archer to Musgrave came down through Lakefield from Musgrave. Cheers Rob

Thank you all for your assistance. What a great resource this forum is. Any way I can help you in regards to Taswegia, please feel free to ask. (We complain down he if you cop three sets of traffic lights red in a row at Devonport, and I thin we've only got a total of 7) Cheers to all...Jim

Same bloke still own the pub over there Jim ??!!