Help Itinerary Gold Coast to Darwin

June July is the best time. Too Hot and possibly wet Dec Jan. Which way do you plan to go, Short, Interesting, Easy?

All NP's will be closed in the end December including Kakadu, Litchfield and Limmen NP......December is the build up for the wet and is hot 44 deg on average in the day and mid 30's at night.....You won't see any swimming holes..... Although I do spend the wet up here in the NT and love it....It is only for a few if you can handle the heat......Most camp grounds in the outback will be closed as well.....
Would therefore suggest going in June/ July.....
It would take you 2 weeks to get there driving 4 hours a day and not every day staying at places like Lawn Hill, Lorella Springs, Katherine George or Edith Falls...etcLitchfield is great for kids with plenty to see and do and a lot of swimming .....
Cheers Andy

As mentioned, the Top End is great during the wet, but the main reason why June/July is the best time is due to the weather and accessability to the attractions. The vast majority of swimming holes will be closed in Dec as are many of the attractions, and the Darwin temperatures are 27-36 with high humidity, and hotter than that once you go inland.
Another thing to consider is a lot of the highways flood at short notice during Dec/Jan with the NT being cut off a few months ago on all 3 main highways at the same time.
We recently drove from Brisbane to Darwin, not towing and sitting on 110(ish) in Qld and 130 in the NT and took us about 4 days of driving doing 8-10 hour days behind the wheel. So I'd be allowing 4 weeks if you have the time. There are long stretches of "nothing" going across the Barkley Hwy and through western Qld so you may wish to throw in a few days of doing more than 4 hours of driving for these sections.
Hope this helps

Last time I travelled with small kids was when I was one of them, so I'm no expert, but as an "almost Gold Coaster" who's travelled west a few times...
If your time is short, consider starting with a couple of bigger days as you get past the closer things. You can do them another time. Then you can ease up a bit to the preferred 4 hour days.
How you bribe small kids to be human through a few big days is the problem, though. I have the luxury of travelling with a small dog who sleeps well as soon as the car starts and just asks for a ball to be thrown every 3-4 hours...
Yes, the dinosaur trail is awesome, but from our corner of the country, it's only a couple of days away. Hubby and I did the dinosaur trail as a 2 week stint in itself (and we're not grey nomads with the luxury of a slow itinerary). Your kids would love it -don't miss Lark Quarry as well. Oh, and the bilbies in Charleville. And they have bush poets and entertainment of sorts at many inland caravan parks in peak season (ie winter)...our favourite was in Longreach where a bloke demonstrated his dogs' prowess by herding up some ducks! There's a beaut boat ride on the Thompson River in Longreach and a stagecoach ride...
The outback has some big stretches (yes, around Barkley was a bit monotonous) so the 4 hour run will often get you nowhere.
I'd say "push it as far as you can if you have to" and skip most of the nearer stuff then you'll be able to slow up and enjoy.
As for wildlife in winter...off the top of my head, on our last trip we saw wild pigs, roos, wild goats, whistling kites (buy a bbq chicken and throw the bones in the air for the whistling kites to carry away-parks in Katherine were great for whistling kites and we were first introduced to this "picnic clean-up strategy" in Kakadu-the kids will love that!!), goannas, emus...

:)

Thanks everyone .....love all the ideas and are excited to get on the road!!! cheers jemima