Pls help us plan our trip

I imagine that you are the best judge of your children and their capacity to endure such a journey. In regards to the wet season it can start to get underway as early as September/October and run through until end of April into May. Cyclone season tends to be a little later although cyclones have occured as late as May (TC Pierre ran until 21May2007).
Many people think that the west season is a great time to see parts of the tropical north however road closures, flooded tourist areas, closures of some attractions, wet, steamy, hot conditions daya after day can all be a bit too much for most to endure. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Would probably make more sense to work across to lower down the Stuart

and go to Ularu first then up to Katherine to Kakadu up the back way then

Darwin back to Katherine and head west A lot less k's

We have done similar and its taken us 10 months not counting 2 places we stayed over a month in . have done 44,000k so far and not home yet.

Temps at Kununurra have been in the 40's this month and even down here in SA have had 4days over 46 and one of 51

The humidity is a killer in the summer in the north west Like 90%.

Roads may be closed as this year.

Most people are heading south from August on due to the heat and humidity.

Even as a Queenslander who is sort of used to humid weather found Darwin draining in mid winter with mid 30's and humidity.

Wouldnt catch me there in summer.


Cheers

Hi Lucky

You don't say how old your children are, but at any age short days driving and lots of outside activities will be needed. I also don't know what sort of rig you will have.

As already said, it is not the time to tour the north (unless by plane). You may be disappointed if you can't get to key northern destinations due to rain, and you may get stranded for up to two weeks or so (you need to be provisioned for this possibility). Not only will it be hot when you stop, but most key features involve walking, and that would be most unwise in the summer in the north.

Even the southern half of the country will be hot soon into to time frame, but regardless, you would be better to pick areas in the somewhat cooler southern half, have more time to enjoy your touring, and spend a lot less on fuel.

When i could only holiday in or around January, we stuck to the southern coast. The bare minimum to see a taste of Tasmania took us seven weeks, with two weeks driving with a bit of looking around from WA to Melbourne on the way, and four weeks on the return journey venturing inland a little to places like the northern Flinders, but by then it was April and getting cooler. We were away three months in all.

Last year we sort of did the lap over five months June to November; west coast to Alice Springs (where we had spent some weeks looking around the previous year) by direct short cut via the Gary Junction Road, north to Darwin via Kakadu, then Litchfield, Mt Isa, but no further north as it was already too hot for us. We toured south through fossil country in inland Qld (a key point of our trip), then through the Armidale region, rural NSW and quite quickly home through SA and the Nullarbor, much of which we had seen before. We didn't spend long in any place and i consider we toured quite quickly. Rather than thinking we did the big lap, I think of it as we saw a little bit of each state. We have still got so much to see and could spent months touring in any state.

Far better to enjoy a smaller area and see it thoroughly, than to plan a big journey and be disappointed, or have it turn out to be an ordeal. I don't know if you have been to Tasmania, but you could easily spend three months there alone in a much nicer summer climate.

Motherhen

Hi There luckymum,
We are currently on the road with 3 kids in west oz, we crossed the border in Oct 09 and are currently in Esperance heading up to Kalgoolie in a day or two Jan 10. There is a lot to see over here that you and the kids will enjoy (not sure how old the kids are). There are alot of km's in between things, and once you get to your destination its well worth the hundreds of km's of nothing.
I am not sure how much time you allowed in West Oz for your trip?
We traveled up north and down the west coast in the build up, it was hot and humid all day every day, the only relief we got was knowing that there was a swiming pool or gorge( if no crocs insite) and a cold beer at the end of the days travels.
if you have any other questions drop us a line and we will try and answer or help you out.

Troy and Kate.

If you have been to Ularu why go back

Nearly 1000km to see what you have already seen is neither economically sensible or time wise either.

If you want to see WA go up to Kakadu then Darwin, Katherine and spend more time in the west.

You can go back to the centre maybe on another shorter trip.

There is a lot better things to see than the Rock

We thought the Olgas much more interesting

Wouldnt waste fuel going back to Kings Canyon either.

So much to see in WA and will take more than the time you have to see a lot of it.

We worked on the theory of go the furtherest and see that

We can take shorter trips later to see the closer stuff


Cheers

Hi
We are planning a trip from Qld leaving in July 2010 until January 2011. We have 2 children 10 and 8. Our plan at this stage is to head to Cairns then across the Savannah way to Karumba and on to Lawn Hill and then to the NT via Boorooloola. We will do Devils Marbles and then head to Darwin as we did Alice and Uluru 2 1/2yrs ago. We hope to head to WA about mid August and at this stage have 3 mths to do WA before heading to SA/VIC. We hope we are doing the right thing.
We thought it safer to be about mid-way down the WA coast before the wet begins to hit. We also want to do more of a "round Australia" trip if we have the time.
Good luck with your planning and trip.