developement road Cook town to Weipa

Hi Tony thank you very much for your input, it sounds like you have been up that way a couple of times so your answer is greatly appreciated.

Hi Hoyks,
In my experience limited as it may be I have found no matter where you are the locals always drive to the speeds that they are comfortable with. as for being a rolling road block with the van well I drive to the conditions that suit me at the time and if I am holding up traffic I generally pull over and have a cupper or wait until the dust settles before carrying on, not knowing the area I don't know where the lakefeild national park is thus my query was for the development road only.
Our plans are to go to Weipa leave the van there for a few days and take our tent and head further North to the tip we hope to be up there for around a month or two.
thank you for your comments and maybe we'll find the lakefeild national park.
thank you.

Good morning Malcom,
it is good to hear from a local as you will be aware of the road conditions all the time. We generally travel with the usual spares for remote travel anyway and a pretty comprehensive tool box including wheel pullers, welding stuff, etc, etc, and also a good deal of common sense, in the shape of my wife, lol.
In all the years that we have been traveling around Australia I have never had to use my gear on our gear or vehicle, but from time to time we have been able to help others out, who were in difficulties.
Malcom thank you very much for your in put it was great to hear from you, and our decisions will be made closer to the travel time that we are in the region, our plans for travel change on a daily basis.
thank you very much

Hi Broodie

No I'm not a local but I've been stuck in both Bamaga and Weipa long enough to count as an honorary local :)

Sounds like you are well equipped so you should be ok. Just check the wheel bearings for heat every time you stop, that was probably the most common failure we saw.
There's caravans all up and down the development road. Plenty of big rigs belting up and down delivering to the communities so you won't be alone.

You'd be staggered by the damage that occurs up there. Apart from engine & suspension issues, we saw a Coaster bus with its floorpan ripped out on a rock - writeoff. Camper that seized a wheel bearing and tore the entire axle with wheels off - flat deck recovery and new axle ex Cairns. Caravans that had started to simply fall apart requiring costly patch ups. Wheel bearings seized but axle still in place so the wheel had been ground away dragging it in to town. etc etc etc
I was staggered by the variety of damage around the camp sites.
A big problem for travelers (particularly in Weipa) is that the repair shops all have contracts with the mines and indigenous organisations so their vehicles come first and are bumped to the top of the schedule. Waited a week before I could gain a slot to have a steering rack fitted, kept getting bumped out.

Although the dev road is busy enough for help to arrive, if you take any of the side tracks you can be alone for months. There's a whole lot of nothing up there to explore.
I bought myself a sat phone when I eventually got home again :)
Good luck with your trip. Its a brilliant place to travel and I'd be back up there in an instant.

Hi Malcom, just to give you a general idea of the way we travel is to tow the van to an area, park it up, as a base camp, then I am allowed to go and explore side tracks, as long as I take extra fuel, and the tent then we can go a few days without coming back to the van. this has come about from when we lived in the kimberlies in the seventies, I got side tracked in my Cortina te station wagon on the gibb river road and only just had enough fuel to get us back to fifteen kilometres out of Whyndham, needles to say she wasn't happy as she had to stay with the boys while I walked into town, for fuel, lesson learnt very quickly, two months of silence was the result, lol, now.
thank you I am a quicker learner now days and listen to sound advice.
Thank you