Gibb River Rd

When the road has been graded following the wet ( about now) the GRR is a nice easy drive, except for the 30k each side of Mt Barnett RH. This section is somewhat rocky and as the graders can't level it, is subject to corrugations, but still OK if speed is adjusted accordingly.
The Kalumburu Track out to Mitchell Falls can be somewhat rough, once you get past Drysdale River Station, but again OK if driving to prevailing conditions.

In September, you should still be OK crossing the Pentacost River. This river is impassable in the wet, but then the GRR is closed. This late in the "season", oodles of traffic may have chopped up sections of these tracks a bit, but just check with the authorities in Kununnurra (NE section) and Broome (SW section) as to current conditions as you are about to leave.

I traveled the Kimberley, including the Gibb River, Kalumburu and Cape Leveque Roads last May/June in my non-lifted Colorado and had plenty of clearance.

It's a fully formed dirt road which is subject to heavy tropical rain during the Wet (Nov/Dec-Feb/Mar) which gets repaired early in the dry and then deteriorates during the dry with all the traffic, but hopefully will have been graded again by September. But expect corrugations which are unavoidable since the vast bulk of drivers feel they have to use it as a race track with fully inflated tyres in 2WD.

The roads to Kalumburu and Mitchell Falls are not as well maintained and are narrower and more windy. Again the major threat is posed by the other idiots on the road, for whom anything less than 110 km/hr is an affront, when 70 or 80 gets you a much better look at the country.

Give it at least a fortnight as there's absolutely truckloads to see.

Maybe I am a woose but when I travelled the Mitchell Falls road about 4 years ago, it was by far the worst road in Australia.
Numerous cars are damaged on this road , and Drysdale Station has a good business replacing suspension components.

When I was on the roadI came across a Navara which had sheared all studs on the RH rear, and later when dipping in Drysdale Rover crossing met owners of 2 Landcruiser 200s which had destroyed 2 front shocks and 1 respectively and were waiting for parts.

I had no damage to my Range rover or Camper trailer , but you have to treat this road and the Kulumburu road with respect and drive to the conditions ie slower than nearly all rental vehicles. I found that at times there was no speed that you could "plane" on the corrugations as they were so large that I was reduced to 10Kmh on some stretches.

While I was at Drysdale there was a story going round that on that day a European woman had hitched back to Drysdale to cancel their credit card , as they had rolled their Britz Hilux camper on the GRR, and it was an excluded from insurance cover.

You have to have a well maintained vehicle preferably with newish shocks, and good LT tyres with IMHO more than 80% tread. For Nissan Patrols you have to be particularly careful that the mag wheels are torqued to spec and flush on the hub, as I have seen several lose rear wheels .
I did the GRR again last year and there are long stretches that you can sit on 70-80KMh , especially those north of the Drysdale turnoff . The bitumin now extends to the entry of El Questro, but the dirt 30Km into El Questro is now the worst corrugations on the entire GRR. You have to be a bit vigilant on the GRR as many creek dips are concreted but others have a rough rocky bottom.
Sorry for being long winded
Regards Philip A

Hi
From the posts above you have both views. That is the message, it can vary.
But, from my personal perspective, if you drive to the conditions, are not overloaded, and are wise with regards to lowering your tire pressures, you should be fine and return without even a puncture let alone other problems.most if not all of the damages reported in above threads could/should have been avoided if above simple rules were followed.
CJ

Took this in July 2014 in Derby. Have to assume this happened on the GRR, no one around to ask what happened at the time. Probably a visual representation of what speed, incorrect tyre pressure etc can do. I see plenty of traffic heading up the Gibb road at this time, take it easy and enjoy your trip.

Mark.

We did the GRR in May-June last year. I think the previous posters have pretty much covered speed, tyre pressures and general road info quite well.

Only one other snippet of info I think is relative is that other road users, including and particularly the drivers of the rather large 4WD tourist coaches that seem to think that GRR stands for Gibb River Rally.

A beautiful part of the country. Slow down and enjoy. Your Nissan should have no dramas if prepared correctly.

Cheers
Pop

Hi All,
We did the GRR and Mitchell Plateau Road in August 2013. The key to both is to lower your tyre pressures and moderate your speed. The difference between low and high tyre pressures is quite dramatic. The low tyre pressures moderate the jar of the corrugations. A number of camper trailers in our group had issues with shocks on the Mitchell Plateau Road. We put this down to too high tyre pressures and a little too much speed. The Mitchell Plateau Road is not well maintained and for us was 80 km of unrelenting corrugations.
With respect to tyres if you have road tyres you do need to be careful with sidewall damage. Thus the lower pressures need to be managed very carefully. Light truck tyres are much less prone to this type of damage.
When we did the GRR it was undergoing a massive realignment from El Questro to the Pentecost River.
We found that the road into El Questro was being constantly graded.
Overall the area is well worth a visit. The roads are mixed and the key is to travel carefully.Mitchell Falls is a real highlight. Take the chopper out to the falls and then walk back to the camp ground. There are about 5 places to swim on the way back. All guaranteed croc free. Enjoy the trip. By the way we encountered a Holden Commodore towing a caravan successfully travelling the GRR.

I was volunteering at the Kalumburu Mission in 2007 and a couple of French tourists pulled up in a BA Falcon wagon to get fuel and asked me....
"Is this Kununurra?"

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Hi Robert, you are welcome to read my Blogs from 2008 of our three and a bit weeks on what was our best trip. We went in June before the crowds. While there were some rough and corrugated patches, and the road to Mitchell Falls particularly corrugated, we lowered all tyre to 25 psi cold, and we were carrying a heavy load, and took our time. Come July, someone came into Kununurra a week or two after us and said it was the worst road he had ever been on. It also gets crowded in the peak time of July. If you go in September, there will be less crowds, but also less water, including at Mitchell Falls.

Most of all, you have to watch out for the people driving way too fast and on a tight schedule, drifting to your side of the road as they approach at speed. Also the convoys of people towing camper trailers that seem to feel the need to travel in touching distance of the one in front, sucking a up massive cloud of dust.