DONOHUE HIGHWAY

Mark, Not recent but as you've had no replies - here goes. I travelled this route in July 2000 with a camper trailer. Road works were in progress between Bedourie and Boulia. Appeared as if this section was about to be sealed. The Plenty Highway had road works west of Boulia happening. May have just been to grade it. Was a quite smooth trip. Once across the border into NT the road seemed to become a little more sandy (red sand) but still in very good condition. Quite wide for most of the trip. The river bank was overgrown with long grass at the Marshall and Plenty crossings but we were still able to camp at a very large rest area opposite Jervois. There was drinkable water (tank), picnic table, shelter shed and BBQ plate. Joined with some fellow travellers here and had a great night around the fire with a few (or more) bottles of port to fortify us against the cold! Jervois Station had a sign up advertising camping but at a cost. The road is used by road trains so if you see a cloud of dust approaching, pull off the road and let him past. Looks really spectacular! Sometimes the dust takes a long time to settle - keep your windows closed! There were a couple of spots that were on they way to becoming bull dust pits but not many, mainly on the NT side about 200 - 300ks from the Stuart Hwy. A great side trip is to take Cattlewater Pass to Ruby Gap Nat Park. This is a truely beautifull place to spend a few nights camping. Wish I was going again!!

We travelled back to Queensland along the Plenty and then the Donohue Highway in May 2001. The Plenty was good and wide ,we stopped at Tobermoray for fuel,crossed into Queensland the road becomes a track.In some places its pretty rough.Closer to Boulia there are big road works in progress,but overall the road is in good condition. I would ring Tobermoray Station before leaving as we checked road conditions with state road conditions eg R.A.C.Q they said Plenty Highway was closed but the people at Tobermoray said the road had not been closed at all. They were not impressed. We were towing a campervan.