Sydney to Darwin via mitchell/matilda/stuart hways -necessary extras?

Hi Cecily

Without trying to find your now chosen route from a previous thread, I will answer without reference to particular roads.

Two way - virtually essential to keep in touch with trucks, traffic and be aware of hazards ahead. A hand held will keep you in touch with traffic close by. A built in will give greater range and better clarity of sound. It is not a substitute for a phone, nor will a phone keep you in touch with passing traffic and road conditions.

There are very few places in Australia, and as far as I can ascertain none on major routes, where you need to go more than 300 kilometres between fuel outlets, and in most cases much less. What is your maximum distance your can travel on a fuel tank? Extra fuel rarely needed.

Generator - not if you have good solar panels and batteries, but power depends on what you have. We all have different needs. You can get rechargeable lanterns and recharge from the car cig. lighter when driving. We used to do this when camping without any power sources in the past.

Kangaroo whistles - some say they work. Simply do not drive in the outback between dawn and dusk and you should not hit a kangaroo, cow, horse or camel and the latter will do a lot more damage.

Recommended stops? There are caravan parks in almost every town and powered serviced sites at highway roadhouses. You can overnight between these in many rest areas. I do not know your route so cannot advise further. Purchase Camps Australia Wide from the bookshop for other free and low cost camping.

Motherhen

Thankyou Motherhen, some really helpful recommendations.

I know nothing about 2 way radios, when you say handheld and built in - is that the CB radio? Sorry but I am very ignorant about these..are the hand held and the built in the same as the CB radio? We had a quote for around $500 - 600 installed, what do you think we should maybe paying if you know this information.

We are heading up thorugh NSW from Dubbo to Bourke, on the Mitchell Highway and then onto the Matilda in QLD which takes us to Cunnamulla, CHarleville, Augathella , Blackall andLongreach for a day or so thenWinton, Kynuna, Cloncurry and Mt Isa for a day or so, - Camooweal, Barkely, threeways. ( some people say these last 2 are very expensive for van parks.) Up the Stuart HIghway to Renner Springs,Ellliot, Dumarra and Daly Waters, then Mataranka to Katherine where we wil spend a couple of days.

Thanks for your info re petrol, rechargeable lights, generator etc. Much appreciated.
Cheers, Cecily

Thanks heaps baz that is great info. So good to have your recommendations re stops and the fixed radio. Its so helpful to know in advance about interesting places to stop so we can plan distances around the recommended places. Thanks again Cecily

Hello Ct,

The route you are taking has a lot of open country that enables you to see roos and emus. Just don't get going to early in the morning or travel into the late afternoon. Depending on the weather roos will still be on the move up to around 8am and from 4 pm on. That is quite normal in winter but they can also travel through the day. I had a good video on my truck dash cam of around 100 roos crossing in front of me around mid-day.
Just keep your eyes open and all should be good.

With a uhf radio, you could buy a 5 watt handheld and just have an external aerial installed. You can get an adaptor to go from the external aerial coax to the radio. If you just use the handheld by itself you will still be able to talk to others around 10 klms away as most of the country is flat. That will be limited between Cloncurry on past the Isa as it is a bit hilly.

You will strike road trains that will be travelling around 90kph. Do a search on this site as Doug T did a good blog on what to do regarding trucks. Most road train drivers are courteous, and if you ask them on the radio (channel 40) where you can pull over and let them go, they will normally just say there is a place up the road and give you directions. Just cut them a bit of slack, and if you are around hilly country don't let them lose there momentum when approaching a hill. Whatever you do don't panic and drop a wheel of the bitumen.

As said, wiki camps or camps7 are good for places to stay. Elliot I would avoid and give my love to the Mataranka police who love to put me on the bag.

Happy and safe travels

Slow one, what a great response. All that info is so.helpful. We will take your suggestions to the auto electrician tomorrow. I will checkout the other site re road train info. Thanks again we will say.hello.and avoid the town you mentioned. That info is so helpful. Thanks for taking the time to ecplainbabout the radios as have no experience with them. We are really excited and looking forward so.much to this trip. Cheers Ct

Cecilyt,
Just a update on the road train side of things. I am one of those people that drive road trains for a living but not on this route.
You will encounter road trains from Dubbo to Darwin 3590km so there is no real way of avoiding them. A constant speed,straight driving within your lane and some communication is always going to make it easy from both parties concerned.
Please don't try and use your vehicle to teach them how to drive and at what speed. There are idiots in all professions and unfortunately we have some as well. But I think if you follow these simple few pieces of advice your trip should go along fine.
You will encounter 2 trailer, 3 trailer and 31/2 trailer road trains as you get further north.
Trust me there is a lot of drivers that would prefer to be doing what you are doing ( holidaying ) than what they are doing ( working )
Enjoy your trip and hopefully you put a post on here to say how much you enjoyed your trip.
Cheers and happy travels.

Believe me Bd I am not about to try to.teach any road train driver anything! I appreciate what you are saying and if I could get off the road I would. I have a son in law who is an interstate truck driver and I have the utmost respect for him in his job. Do drivers of cars use their rAdios to checkout if there are any road trains in the area. That's what.someone else suggested. Is that a good thing to do? Cheers Ct

Hi Cecily

Many have covered your questions already, so let me just comment on the driving side as you appear concerned about large road-trains.

Firstly, don't stress about it, and secondly simply drive to the conditions that are prevailing at any given time and apply common-sense...

Enjoy your trip!

Cheers, Baz, The Landy...

Hi
I read all of your replies which are good however there is one point that seems to be overlooked and that is emergency communication.
Many parts of your trip could be without mobile phone coverage and Cb radios cannot be relied upon to seek help in case of an emergency!
If you realy need to be able to call for help anywhere, anytime due to health reasons then you need either a sattelite phone or a HF radio. I am not sure of current prices but you could be looking at couple of thousand dollars for either. The difference is the Sat phone needs to be connected to a service provider similar to your mobile but the cost is much higher. HF radio has a yearly connection fee of about $100 but all calls to the operator are free (the operator then organises help)

This is a basic overview only and remember that a sat phone can be taken with you if you go walking but the HF is built into your car. My preference is HF.