cape york

I had 5 weeks and it was way too rushed.

By the time you get to Cairns, and return you have about 2 and a bit weeks left which is not enough in the cape.

At the risk of getting flamed like answering a similar question on another forum, by the time you pay for fuel, wear and tear, a service, tyres, accomodation and food, it is about the same price to fly there and hire a 4wd, giving you an extra week or more on the cape without rushing.

What Tony said, I took 3 weeks from Brisbane and it was a rushed trip. I had 2 nights at Tinaroo Dam and 2 nights at Chilli Beach, but the rest was driving. The poxy National Parks pre-booking system forces you to stick to the itinerary too,
The 2 x 800km days out of Brisbane and the 1200km back were done to make up time at the top end, but knock you around (I was the only driver).

Coming from Vic you will lose the best part of a week in travel alone.

If you are doing a Mach run anyway, I'd suggest heading to Dubbo, Walget, St George, Roma and straight to Charters Towers.

From there you can head to Atherton and drop down to Mossman if you want to have a look at the Daintree, head to Lakeland and straight up the PDR or drop into Cairns. Going via the Hume and Pacific Hway will add around 600km to the trip.
You are looking at 3000km just to get to Atherton from Melborne, so its a bit or a drive. Doing it at night isn't advisable as they have big roos out that way and not a lot of rain, so they will be near the roads too.

Another option may be to drive to Brisbane and stick the vehicle on the Sunlander to Townsville. Its a bit of messing around, but you can stare blankly out the window, have a beer and a sleep while someone else does the driving for you.

No need to pack everything, including the kitchen sink either. The Cape is a long way from anywhere, but its not that remote anymore. Unless you are pushing off into the sticks, at that time of year there will be someone along within 15 minutes. On my trip I carried too much stuff and saw vehicles broken from carrying too much gear. Water is easy to come by, 500km fuel range will see you get most places and back to somewhere you can fill up again, I took 1 fuel jerry and tiped it into the tank, but didn't really need to.

John
I agree with above response re flying and hiring but to answer your question, ....

up the Newell Highway, take the Castlereagh Highway north at Gilgandra through Walgett onto St George then Roma, keep going north to Emerald, then Charters Towers on through Greenvale to Atherton Tablelands.
Two drivers sharing 12-14 hour says it's 3 days.
I've done it from Tamworth on my own in 2 days and i can get to Melb in a day. Its not relaxing though.
Mark

I'm hoping to get up there next year (every year another bit trip comes up elsewhere !), and in the course of researching find most reports say you need about 3 weeks Cairns to Cairns. And that is a minimum to enjoy and see some things.

Personally, I drive long hard days on highways when I have a mission to get somewhere, but even I'd be looking at 3 days ex Melb to Cairns . . . it could be done in your month time frame, but you won't see a thing on the trip up and back apart from glances as you pass.

What are you wanting to do/see in FNQ or the Cape John?

If fishing is what you're after, can help with this.

I live in Cairns and last year did a rush job up the Cape. 2 weeks was ok for me but then again I,ve seen more than enough "wilderness'. A comfortable trip would be 3-4 weeks from Cairns. About 40 hours minimum from Melbourne to Cairns.....thats not seeing anything either. I prefer the journey...not just the destination. Hiring is a possibility but its bloody hard to take the personal camping gear you want. Start of June to mid September its like the centre of Melbourne up there...not my cup of tea thanks. 5-6 weeks min. if I had to do a cape/vic run.

.
A point re transporting vehicles by rail.........

I seem to recall that in some (maybe all) cases, it is required that all personal belongings be removed from the vehicle before shipping. But I cannot find reference to it now.

If so then it would make it rather impractical to ship a holiday vehicle full of camping gear.

Does someone have further reference to this?

A friend drove bamaga to port Douglas in 12 hours but would you want to?
I did 7 weeks from melbourne to cape York including 2 weeks cairns to cairns. If I had my time again I would of spent way more in the cape and less elsewhere. So to answer your question you could do it all in 4 weeks but you really don’t get time to enjoy every thing on offer

Not sure but I believe Qld Rail no longer transports vehicles on it's passenger services .
You will need 3weeks to see a "little " of the cape. I have done the trip twice & there is so much more to see, I live in Cairns.
Have a few sick days!??

There is only one way to do this in 1 month, and still be able to see some of the area around Cape York.

Drive to Cape York, taking around a week to 10 days, travelling at a sensible pace and allowing a little sightseeing along the way.

Spend about 2 1/2 weeks in FNQ, sightseeing and relaxing.

Drive back to Cairns, put car and camper on car transporter and send it back to Victoria by road, unaccompanied.

Catch big silver bird out of Cairns, back to Vic.

Pick up car and camper as soon as it arrives back in Vic.

My missus and I went from Perth (W.A.) to the Daintree and back in 1 month, many years ago.

We only took the bare 80 series wagon, and utilised cheap accommodation along the way.

We chucked the HDJ80 on the truck in Perth, and had it trucked to Adelaide. Cost - about half the going rate, as it was a backload.

We caught the big silver bird out of Perth, and flew to Adelaide, and picked up the wagon, and then drove through S.A., N.S.W. and into Brisbane - and then up the QLD coast to Cairns, where we lodged for a week.

On our return, we threw the 80 series on a truck again and sent it back to Adelaide. Cairns to Adelaide was also at backload rates.

We caught the big silver bird and flew Cairns to Adelaide, and picked up the wagon, and then drove Adelaide to Perth.
Seem to recall we floored it a bit across the Long Paddock and did Pt Augusta to Norseman in one very long day.

We got back into Perth inside 1 month - and we still covered over 9000kms in the 'Cruiser.

We saw a lot, but also missed a lot. Gave us a good idea of areas to come back to, and spend more time at, though.
Some areas you only need to fly through at 120kmh without stopping. LOL

Cheers, Ron.

Back in 2006 we did a 3 week trip Brisbane to the Cape and back again, saw plenty but obviously still plenty more we didn't see also...had a great time though, even with a 3 year old in tow.
2 years ago did a trip to Tassie and drove to Melbourne via The Newell Hwy in 2 days to catch the ferry over, would certainly use that route again if time is the main concern to get there as is your case. Marks reply above is a decent route for the time frame you have, it'll be some long days behind the wheel, but atleast it beats sitting at home mowing the lawn.

I’d suggest a different route to everyone else, an inland route.

Travel to Bourke, Charleville, Longreach, Winton & Hughenden, then up the Hann Highway to The Lynd, Mt Garnet, Ravenshoe & Atherton. According to RACQ, it’s almost the same distance as the other options, is less busy, fuel is readily available and a good percentage of the route is rated at 110 kph. Less than 100 kms of good gravel on the Hann, so it’s a good trip.



Suppose you could try one route on way up, and a different way on return. I feel you would find some of the Roma-Charters Towers route to be somewhat slow, and in a few places only single lane bitumen. Anyway, your choice, John. Safe travels,

Bob

Another option to look at which is what I did in 2014, me and a mate did a fast run up to Cairns (3 days), left the car at Big Blue Storage just outside of Cairns. $100 per week in a lock up shed with full security and high roller door. Flew back down to Melbourne ($129 Jetstar, $45 dollar taxi ride from storage place to airport). Flew back up a week later and did 4 weeks on the Cape. Left the car in storage again for 3 weeks then me and the mate flew back up and drove it down. Yes a few more dollars but a trip like that is worth some extra to ensure a good time.

When I did Kimberley in 2016 we drove to Broome, did the trip across to Darwin and then flew back, paid for a friend and his wife to fly up and they had a 3 week holiday bringing the car back. ($1,000 total for all airfares). They obviously paid for the fuel back down as they got a trip out of it.

Just some different options to consider.