Melbourne to Cairns via the inland highways
The intention was to drive up the inland highway to Cairns, exploring telescopes and bushwalks as we went and then to turn around and drive slowly down the eastern coast of Australia seeing and exploring all the bushwalk options and waterfalls in the Great Dividing Range.
Unfortunately, the planned trip southwards had to be aborted due to unexpected family problems.
1st Day
Prepared for the departure.
2nd:
Headed out at 10am aiming for Parkes. Spent an overnight at Bundure, north of Jerilderie.
3rd:
Continued on and arrived at Parkes. Parked at the Parkes Showground for the night.
4th:
Visited Parkes Radio Telescope. Visitors were advised to turn off their mobile phones and other radio transmitters. A selection of photographs and videos were available at the theatre (Admission applies).
Allan with former profession in radio engineering can now put a tick in his bucket list.
He's been my best friend and the closest for many years and who did most of the writing for this page.
Drove to Camp Blackman to an unpowered van sites in Warrumbungle National Park. Bookings are required. Book online or call the NPs Contact Centre on 1300 072 757 from7am to 7pm daily. Our campsite and vehicle park pass was arranged at Parkes Visitor Centre.
The Warrumbungles, an area of former volcanic activity, has landscapes that include forested ridges and deep gorges, an ideal destination for hiking, camping, stars gazing, etc..
A short walk from the campground for great sunset views. Siding Spring Observatory
Views from the fire trail for walkers.
5th:
Walked 2 short tracks in the Warrumbungles:
1 Burbie Canyon track: 2km return. Grade easy. Track starts on opposite side of the road.
2 Fans Horizon lookout track: 3.6km return. About 2 hrs. Start from Pincham carpark,
walking up and up to the lookout for views of Grand High Tops area.
6th:
- Visited Siding Springs Observatory & The Anglo-Australian Telescope
- Did a short walk to Whitegum Lookout: 1km return on paved path takes about 30 minutes.
- Prepared for a long walk Grand High Tops Circuit
Split Rock view from road
Back to Whitegum Lookout for late afternoon light
7th:
Grand High Tops Circuit (return via West Spirey Creek): 14.5kms return
Starts from Pincham Car Park to Spirey Views lookout via Pincham Trail, The Breadknife, Grand High Tops, Balor Hut and Ogma Gap. Then returned via West Spirey Creek. A full day.
Spirey Views lookout. Having a rest after the climb
Belougery Spire and The Breadknife from lunch spot
8th:
Drove from Blackman campground in the Warrumbungles to the G'Day Big Sky Caravan Park at Narrabri. Did the shopping, gas refill and washing.
9th:
Drove from Narrabri to Waa Gorge, 50km to the east. Waa Gorge is located in the far north of Mt Kaputar NP, approximately one hour drive from Narrabri.
Mt Waa from Allambie Road
From the carpark, follow the short walking track to waterholes. Climb the small hill on the left of the waterholes and follow the rocky creek bed that leads to Waa Gorge.
Then visited Sawn Rocks formation which are basaltic columns. These 40m high columns are in the northern section of Mt Kaputar NP. The drive to Sawn Rocks offered views in all directions.
10th:
Drove from Narrabri to Walgett and Lightning Ridge via the Australia Telescope Compact Array near Yarrie Lake. This is a fascinating group of 6 x 250 tonne radio dishes on a 3km railway so that they can be spaced out as required and/or used in conjunction with other AAT dishes to make one ginormous virtual telescope. Fascinating audio-visual displays at the site too.
+Australia Telescope Compact Array
Collected travel info for the ongoing trip at Walgett Information Centre before driving to Lightning Ridgesa and setting up camp at Lorne Station van campsite.
11th:
Did the tour of these Lightning Ridge attractions. We went down an opal mine, bathed in a bore water pool, looked at a cactus garden, saw the local museum, opal shop, miners cottage and then went to see the sunset from the local lookout (20m above the rest of the countryside)
Left Lightning Ridge and drove to Hebel on the NSW/QLD border and then on to Dirribandi (bakery for lunch), St.George and then Surat. Nothing of note on the way and almost no internet or phone either. Camped at the Fisherman's Park north of Surat for the night. Noted that we may have a gas leak problem
Boolimba Bluff Lookout: 6.4km return (about 2hrs30mins)
Rock Pool: 400m return (20mins)
Reached the end of Boowinda Gorge, which is also the turn off for Carnarvon Great Walk
It was more enjoyable on the return with more light
13th:
We drove to the Carnarvon Gorge from Fisherman's Park, Surat in Qld via Roma and Injune. There was marginal to no phone and data coverage for most the journey and fairly flat and boring too. However the scenery became more interesting as we enter the Queensland Central Highlands area. At the Injune information centre (the only place with a WiFi to the internet) we booked into the Carnarvon Gorge Big4 "Breeze"campsite for 2 nights.
Carnarvon Gorge Visitor Area
14th:
Did 3 short walks around The Gorge Mouth, including a very steep walk up to Boolimba Bluff Lookout, Mickey Gorge and the Rock Pools swimming hole track.
We also booked with Qld Parks for an overnight camp at the top of the Gorge and also booked 2 extra nights for the van at the "Breeze" campsite.
Mickey Creek and Warrumbah Gorge walk: 3km return, 1hr30mins
15th:
Overnight backpack walk up the Carnarvon Gorge to the Big Bend campsite at the top of the gorge. No side trips on the uphill walk so we could arrive at the campsite early and have plenty of time to set up the new tent.
Carnarvon Gorge Main walking track
Big Bend bush camping (9.7km from Visitor Area)
Unsure if these are finches?
Loos with the view. BYO drinking water. Creek & tank water needs to be filtered.
16th:
Other hikers were up early and so we got up early too. Half of the group (about 12 hikers at the Big Bend campground) continued their 5 day Great Walk. We hiked back to the Rangers Office at the Kooramindangie Plain with several side trips to Boowinda Gorge, Cathedral Cave, Wards Canyon, Amphitheatre, and finally Moss Garden as it got dark. We were extremely tired.
The start of Boowinda Gorge
It was more enjoyable on the return with more light
Cathedral Cave
Wards Canyon
A dry waterfall. It was rather cool in there.
Millstream Falls (L), Ringers Rest RV campsite (R)
Lunch with the views at Mungalli Dairy Farmhouse
Mungalli (L), Pepina, Ellinjaa, 
Billabong Campground near Kuranda. Stayed here in 2019 when we travelled in a rental car.
Amphitheatre
Moss Garden
17th:
Drove from Carnarvon Gorge to Capella Van Park via Emerald to stock up on food supplies and gas. The gas leak appears to be a failure of the gas meter/fuse. Removed this for safety and to stop the gas loss. Otherwise the day was uneventful.
18th:
Drove to the Fletcher Creek Rest Area 42kms north of Charters Towers via the Gregory Hwy. Otherwise uneventful.
19th:
Drove to the 40 Mile Scrub rest area via rather isolated roads, parked the van and then drove to
the Undara Lava Tube National Park and checked out the resort. It was rather up market tourist trap with overpriced accommodation and profit restricted lava tube tour numbers. There was no available tours for 4 days.
the Undara Lava Tube National Park and checked out the resort. It was rather up market tourist trap with overpriced accommodation and profit restricted lava tube tour numbers. There was no available tours for 4 days.
We went for a crater walk around Mt. Kalkani in the national park instead then drove back to the 40 Mile Scrub rest area. Rather disappointing that the G'Day group now own the Undara site and are still running it as a cash cow.
20th:
Drove to Mareeba on the Atherton Tablelands and camped in Ringers Rest RVcampsite, which was rather "rustic" but cheap. Before that, we visited the Innot Springs Hot Pools and spent 3 hours of bathing and fish & chips there. It was a much better experience than Undara. Well maintained and well organized and reasonably priced. Also we revisited Millstream Falls near Ravenshoe.
Innot Springs Hot Pools
21st:
Had a quiet day around Mareeba today. Phone & internet working here so was able to update mail. Visited Coffee Works but it has shut the coffee liqueur and coffee tastings and has closed the coffee museum as well. It's little more than a gift shop now.
Moved the van to the Granite Gorge Nature Park which offers a great campsite and a nature tour of their gorge and a mini zoo. A great van campsite.
Granite Gorge Nature Park: Wallaby feeding,walks, camping.
22nd:
Decided to re-visit some favourite waterfalls on the way to Cairns (sort of) and moved the van to Milla Milla early in the day. It was bit showery so we went to Mungalli Dairy for a Farmhouse Lunch, then Mungalli, Pepina, Ellinjaa, Zillee, MillaMilla, Tchupala, Wallacha, Silver, Nandroya Falls to finish the day. We managed to dodge most of the rain until the end of the day.
Zillee and Millaa Millaa
Tchupala and Wallacha Falls
The campsite at Henrietta Creek Campground that we'd missed in 2019 due to a car accident. Silver and Nandroya Falls.
23rd:
Drove back to Kuranda, visited the tourist trap town and then tried to book the accommodation and travel for tomorrow. Cairns was totally booked out (and expensive) so camped at the Billabong campsite near Kuranda instead. This has rather "basic" facilities (primitive unisex shower and toilet cubicles) but is a reasonable "no-frills" base camp. The Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail cable-car trips were booked for the next day. Also visited the Barron Falls and Barron Gorge Lookouts to finish off the day.
Barron Falls and Barron Gorge Lookouts.
24th:
Started early to make the journey down to the Freshwater railway station to catch the Cairns-Kuranda tourist train. A pleasant trip up the Barron Gorge to Kuranda on the very long tourist train. We had lunch at the Kuranda Hotel and then boarded the Skyrail gondola for the cable-car trip back down to Smithfield, Cairns.
We then had a "Cooks Tour"of the Cairns CBD (just another tourist town) and an aborted trip to see the Grey Peaks National Park which was too difficult to access in the time. So we returned to the Billabong campsite for the night, after shopping.
Stony Creek Falls by train.
Could not view it on foot (in 2019) when we made it just to the top of the falls.
25th:
Rain was threatened for the Cairns area for the next few days and we had already seen most the things we wished to see in this area when we were here in 2019. Also, we had to return to Melbourne quickly rather than spending weeks slowly going down the east coast of Australia. So we decided to bypass the previously seen areas and resumed our trip where we left off in 2019, at the Whitsunday Islands area, So we drove from Billabong to the Rollingstone rest area, just north of Townsville, via Babinda bakery for lunch, avoiding a rainy weekend in the Cairns/Innisfail area. The prize-winning bakery made a mean chilli pie.
26th:
Drove most the day through Townsville, Ayr and Bowen which we had already visited. Finished the day at the Gunna Go caravan site just north of Proserpine where we intended to stay for 2 or 3 nights. After setting up the van we went for a quick tour of Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour.
27th:
Spent the Sunday on some domestic activities and then went down to Airlie Beach to try to book a tour of the Whitsunday Islands. This was rather unsuccessful as the Sealink tour of lots of the islands that we wanted was in "dry dock" for the next two weeks and so we finally settled for second best and a morning "mail run" trip around Daydream, Hamilton and Whitsunday Islands with 2 hours on Whitehaven Beach. Having made the booking we then went down to Conway Falls and the Conway beach in the Conway National Park.
28th
It was Dzung's birthday and a very early morning start to catch the boat at Airlie Beach at 7am. After departure at 7:30am from Airlie Beach, we docked at Hamilton and Daydream islands ...
and then spent 2 hours on Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island where we walked to the two lookouts.
We then returned to Airlie Beach via the reverse route. The cruise was very enjoyable although it was obvious that many of the islands have become tourist traps too, with lots of ugly tourist infrastructure ruining the tropical islands
The cruise finished at 3pm, so we wandered round Airlie Beach looking for a suitable seafood restaurant for Dzung's birthday dinner. We had no luck in the main town (the P&O cruise locusts had eaten the town out of seafood) so a "Google" search found the best seafood meal in the area at The Rocks restaurant in the west of Airlie Beach. This was a very enjoyable seafood feast tower with 3 layers of seafood and sauces to be devoured. Sort of made up for our "second best" cruise earlier.
29th-30th:
We are heading back home quickly. We decided to go the quickest/shortest way back to Melbourne and to avoid Brisbane, Sydney and the east coast as we would not have time to visit any of the walks and waterfalls that we had planned to visit.
However there was little to be lost by visiting the Glasshouse Mountains just north of Brisbane, which Allan had always wanted to see, and it would make a break from continuous driving. So we drove down the Queensland East Coast without stopping and roadside camped with the Avan near Yaamba Rest Area (north of Rockhampton) and Chatsworth Park (nr Gympie) to get to The Glasshouse Mountains north of Brisbane.
31st:
From Gympie we drove to the Glasshouse Mountains area (previously unvisited) and looked around for a suitable van site. The first attempt was a dud (a rather "shady," partially residential walled site near Beerwah with lots of industrial farms surrounding it), so we then went to a second van site (Ocean View Tourist Park) and then went to Glasshouse Mountains Information Centre, Glass House lookout, and then climbed Mt Ngungun and viewed several other volcano remnants.
Views from Glass House Montains lookout
Mt Ngungun summit walk, 2.8km return, about 2hrs
Started from Ngungun entrance parking area on Fullertons Road, south of Beerwah.
The tourist park had a great view of the supermoon and good amenities. Because of no option for unpowered sites, this was only the night when the van was parked in a powered site . Worth the investment in the solar panel.
32nd:
Spent the morning exploring the waterfalls of the Glasshouse Mountains area at Mapleton, Kondalilla and Gardener Falls near Melany. Small waterfalls, but worth the visits. We then drove through the mountainous Crystal Waters area and then the plains of New England to the rest area at Dalrymple Park, Alora via Kilcoy, Esk and Toowoomba. Alora is about 50km south of Toowoomba
33rd:
Drove from Alora to Gilgandra via Warwick, Goondiwindi, Moree, Narrabri, and Coonabarabran. Camped in the backyard of the Gilgandra Royal Hotel (after a bit of van parking shenanigans) and had a pub meal there. Saved on cooking, given the 630km drive :-)
34th++
Retraced our steps of a month earlier, getting back to the Bundure Area
Then drove Home the next day.