Katherine-Borroloola-Hell's Gate-Lawn Hill

Steve,

We covered most of this July/August last year. Roads were "usual" as in fair to good with the odd rough patch to shake up the beer. We towed a tinnie on a custom trailer and had no real issues other than two ruined tyres. Do yourself a favour, if time permits then detour into the beach at Wollogorang Station, a bit West of Hell's Gate. Great spot for a fish and some R&R. We (wife, two kids 8 &11) had plenty of wet creek crossings but nothing of note. Watch out for the "big lizards" though.

Make the usual inquiries before you head off and you'll have a ball. We came across two trailers with dramas - one with broken leaf springs (heading into the beach), the other was a broken axle. He was having a nice stay at Hell's Gate roadhouse. Ezzze Peazzzy.

Mike.

Hi Steve , can only vouch for the tracks around lawn hill , you will find the dirt roads in the area fairly rough for that time of year, will you be coming from hells gate through kingfisher camp to lawn hill as that is a nice drive, would reccomend camping at adels grove which is about 15 mins from lawn hill as there is better facilities ie. hot showers small shop , fuel etc ( although fuel is expensive)and can run generators if you need to . We have towed campers all over this area and have had no drama's .As for the route to Cairns, the more scenic route is to go from lawn hill to gregory ( worth a camp on the river bank here ) then on to three ways ( fuel available at both but again fairly expensive ) then go north to Normanton The turn off to head towards cairns is just before normanton but it is worth the short detour to go and have alook . Then you have all of the small town s across the top Georgetown ,croydon Mt surprise etc ( a lot of historical site seeing ) then into the Tablelands ( Gods country , although a little dry at tthe moment ) then down the range to Cairns . All of the roads from Gregory to Cairns are bitumen but a lot of single lane , make sure you pull off for the road trains as these guys can use all of the room they can get .
Hope this helps
Regards fatboy

Depends on how late the season - we toed a Cavalier across the Gulf track in July last year - had no problems with crossings (the Calvert was the deepest - front bumper on GU Patrol) ... we had a snorkel on but didn't need it here (but did for OTL) . Karumba will probably be booked out if you are looking for R&R .
Wollogorang is a good rest site - check out their station meals .
Leichardt Falls was a nice overnighter .....

Steve,
Sounds great,

We are travelling the reverse from Lawn Hill through to Roper River/Mataranka in August then straight back to Wagga as I think our 4 weeks will nearly be up.

From Lawn Hill if you head for Karumba you can get to Cairns via Chilligo on the Burke Development Road which we found to be a well maintained dirt road and easy going. We took 2 days and enjoyed a great little camp site on the 1st Walsh River crossing. (Over the causway and about a 100 mtrs on the right hand side is a little track going back down to the river).

I hope I can find my GPS Track files to submit to this site.

I'll watch for further posts with interest, Have a very good trip.

Cheers

Bob L

Hi Steven
Had some great fishing last march april at king ash bay returned mid april
via gulf road the creeks were all about 500 to a metre deep with the calvert
being the worst,got hung up on a rock mid way through the calvert but managed
to back up &continue on only damage to car was about 6inches water in cab,
i was the first car to come through heading south a couple had gorne through
heading north,woollingerang,were most helpful with information as i rang
them at booroola to see if the road had been used,giving me the information
that a couple of 4x4 had called in heading north &must have got through
as they had not returned,hope this is of some help
Friar

Hi Steven
Had some great fishing last march april at king ash bay returned mid april
via gulf road the creeks were all about 500 to a metre deep with the calvert
being the worst,got hung up on a rock mid way through the calvert but managed
to back up &continue on only damage to car was about 6inches water in cab,
i was the first car to come through heading south a couple had gorne through
heading north,woollingerang,were most helpful with information as i rang
them at booroola to see if the road had been used,giving me the information
that a couple of 4x4 had called in heading north &must have got through
as they had not returned,hope this is of some help
Friar