Anyone done the Brisbane to Sydney trip via road? Planning one soon, maybe around November (to see Bathurst) or possibly before that. What's the average time, 10 hours? Any good places to stop on the way?

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last edited by Astroboy at 15:20:57 29/Jul/05

and the answer to your question

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Personally. I'd go the New England not the Pacific. Stop every 2 to 4 hours. Stop when you get tired (you learn that after you first near miss after waking up from a micro sleep). And unless you have time limits I'd get off the road at sunup and sundown, the transition from light to dark is when roos are out, vision is a little more difficult, besides its time to go have dinner / breakfast.

And honestly, unless you need a car down there, FLY! its cheaper and safer.

Or, you could have a point of speed and not worry about sleep. I'm not sure if Hunter is into the drug scene though, but I'll ask him.

I reckon 1000 km is a sufficient distance in which to stop in.

I thought 5918 post would be sufficient enought to get 1 funny in





I was wrong

We did it in 2 days last time, Was alot better i'd say that trying to thrash it out in 1. Mind you if you're going with friends (LOL) then taking driving shifts should make it easy in one go.

Nothing beats a road trip, i drove halfway to sydney recently, and i got pretty bored with the whole roadtrip attraction after a while, but its something you swhould do

11ish hours Hunter, if you stick around the limit and only stop for fuel and nature.

There are plenty of nice places to stop. Just about anywhere has a few friendly locals and a pub etc.

I agree with Obes on the New England and the sunup/sundown thing because of the wildlife thing. The sikfalcon will love the New England.

If you dont do alot of long distance trips (I dont mean Pine Rivers to Logan either) stick to day driving. Much less chance of nodding off because you arent fighting youre natural sleep rythyms. If it was summer I would say definitely go nightime ftw cos of glare/heat/f***wits/traffic etc.

Unless there's a group of you in a hired torago/minibus catch a f***ing plane.

The amount of stops you take usually comes down to the size of the fuel tank and how weak your bladder is. The 10hr drive is nothing, just make sure you stretch your legs when you do stop, cramps are teh evil!

CBF editing, night time driving is the easiet, especially if you plan going via the Pacific... less police, you really don't have to worry about any of the school zones, and no annoying traffic really on any of the highways.

WELL!
I've driven to Sydney and back COUNTLESS TIMES (not myself driving) And its a pain in the arse.
We usually did it in about 10 hours. But we barely stopped, we sped, and I basically tried to sleep the whole time.

And yeah, coming back does seem alot faster (WHY THE HELL IS THAT?) 'cept for this one time there was a terrible traffic jam on the freeway, and well, we were stuck in it for about 2 hours. OMG.

Best song ever to listen to while driving is: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody..

http://members.iinet.net.au/~ineffable/huntertrip.png

whereis.com.au is a bit more conservative

^Joe Satriani is more your style Hunter.^

Its cool road music.

i agree with reverend evil, have a point of wizz

My way is quicker

The Newell is a great road, but not for Sydney. Bathurst, Anywhere west of Canberra or Victoria, its definately the go.

hahah 42 ladybird st

That's awesome astroboy.
WHat website is it?

www.racq.com.au

under the travel planner thing

Ta Astro. Don't really need directions but was just wondering what good places are on the way (Newcastle perhaps? Nimbin?).

Personally. I'd go the New England not the Pacific. Stop every 2 to 4 hours. Stop when you get tired (you learn that after you first near miss after waking up from a micro sleep). And unless you have time limits I'd get off the road at sunup and sundown, the transition from light to dark is when roos are out, vision is a little more difficult, besides its time to go have dinner / breakfast.

And honestly, unless you need a car down there, FLY! its cheaper and safer.

Isn't new england an inland highway? I wouldn't mind taking the costal route. As for microsleeps, I often do a lot of long distance driving for a work so I'm pretty much used to it all but there will be definately a 2 or 3 drivers in shifts. At this stage there's three of us, but hopefully four. My bullbar should be useful for dealing with small wildlife. Might need to take a crowbar incase they get wedged in it. And yeah you're right, it would be cheaper to fly. At current fuel prices its almost $180 or so each way in fuel alone. And that doesn't include food or other things along the way.

The amount of stops you take usually comes down to the size of the fuel tank and how weak your bladder is. The 10hr drive is nothing, just make sure you stretch your legs when you do stop, cramps are teh evil!

Fuel tank is about 68 litres and on highways the Falcon 6 is quite good on petrol so would be able to do about 700 km off it depending on traffic. So would probably need a minium of two petrol stops, possibly three and if we used my bladder capacity, I'd probably only need about three stops for the bathroom. Though one of my passengers will probably be my cousins GF so the number of bathroom stops will probably be higher.

Ever seen a roo or a cow and the mess they can make of a car ?
Personally I'd avoid them, bullbar or not.

Costal is relative yes its nearer to the water then the New England, but no you won't be driving along the beach. And its a much busier road at this end and much more dangerous/uncared for in NSW. I drove the pacific once and said never again, maybe I am to quick to judge ? Done New England and Newel a bunch of times mucho better.

With 4 people its touch and go on cost, but not on time and safety.

Fuel tank is about 68 litres and on highways the Falcon 6 is quite good on petrol so would be able to do about 700 km off it depending on traffic.

130km/h uses a lot more fuel than 100km/h.

Ive done it 10+ times. Also brisbane to melbourne a few... and brisbane to perth for the record.

bathurst is out in the sticks tho, so if your going brisbane to sydeny via bathurst youll prolly want to head out through ipswich and down towards dubbo.

after bathrust you could go thru the putty to sydney and come back via grafton ect on the coast.

new england an inland highway

yeah, thats right. good road too. mate used to work for a car yard in springwood who had another yard in dubbo. did the drive with him a few times between them in commys an falcons. you should be able to get 600+ off a tank, sitting on a 100.

last edited by möoby at 18:58:09 29/Jul/05

Took the New England highway, did the trip in just under 12 hours. Making about 4 stops for food and petrol. However stopped heaps of times on the side going "wtf was that".

f***en random car -_-

Thing I like about the New England is the obvious lighter traffic and the superior peripheral vision in alot of spots compared to the coast because its cow country.(cleared) You can see off to the side and further into the distance in alot of spots than the Pacific. Its good because you can spot s*** happening and have more time to react. (sorry Hunter but meh)

If you come unstuck theres a better chance somebody will spot your car off the road and you will just roll and nail a few fences instead of bouncing off a cliff or a tree or a semi on the coast. Thats the way I see it.

For the record I found an old dude years ago who rolled his wagon on the New England south of Murrurundi and cos it was in the middle of a cow paddock I spotted his car easy even in the middle of the night. He was pretty f***ed up concussed, cuts bruises etc. Dumped him at the copshop was funny waking the copper up in his jammies.

when I was up for the Indy back in Nov, we drove home in 8hours flat no stops (well one for fuel, while I pissed me mate filled car, then he pissed while I filled the rest of the petrol)

But yeah if you've not in a rush i'd do it it over 2 days and maybe stay at coffs or further down

if you do 120 all the way down, your gona go through like 10 speed cameras arn't you?

its these type of trips where you want to invest in a radar detector im guessing

nfi about qld but here in NSW the cops or rta or whoever have to put up 3 warning signs before a radar LOL

so you've got plenty of warning ;)

been there done that a few times now.

firstly go pacific NOT new england, much nicer road now and most of the bypass's are in, only section worth bothering about is around lismore on dusk which shouldnt be a problem in the direction your travelling.

11-12 hrs is pretty easily doable, i usually to have 2x 20min breaks around 350km intervals. 14 hours is an easy target, i did that in a fully loaded transit van with 45 mins of stops so u should find it easy.

and might i also add that the new england is extremely boring and no faster, but has more risk of animals out after dark.

new england is a nicer drive, nice landscape, nice windy mountain roads and country highways, avoid all the built-up crap on the coast.

i've on only driven the super-inland route once - out westish to goondoowindi then south to dubbo, then east again to like bathurst and eventually sydney. dead boring straight roads forever are a bit of a mindf*** and not much to look at either. also did it in 2 days instead of 1.

ppl advise 2 hour stretches of driving and i agree. i did 3 hours in a go on the dubbo trip and it did my head in.

nfi about qld but here in NSW the cops or rta or whoever have to put up 3 warning signs before a radar LOL

Do they give you sufficient distance to slow down? (Serious question.)

yes, more than enough. therefore its only retards that get booked

Done Brisbane to Port return many times in my life.

We rarely stopped off to look at the sites.

the new england seems to be the most preferred, we used to do the inland goondoowindi run because its pretty fun, some nice scenery along the way. plus its all flat so no annoying big hills to climb and deal with broken down cars towing boats and shizzles