Overnight stops from Dubbo to Newcastle

That is a good route. We have done versions of that several times in our efforts to avoid the Newell. Two good caravan parks/campgrounds with plenty of space, grass and shade are Wellington Caves and Sandy Hollow (on Golden Highway in Upper Hunter). You won't be squashed in at either of those. The Mudgee/Gulgong area is well worth some time. There are some good lesser known wineries in the Upper Hunter if you are interested. The road from Wellington to Gulgong to Cassilis (Golden Highway) should give you no problems with a van. Enjoy your trip Lynne

Hi Didi

We went to Dubbo via the Bylong Valley, then spent a couple of days at Dunns Swamp - quite a large national park campground. From there we deviated further south to Glen Davis where there is a community run free campground with hot showers near the site of an old shale oil works.

The Wellington Caves CP was very nice with huge although slightly sloping grassy sites so we stayed an extra day there before heading to Dubbo. While at Dubbo we commuted in 14 kms each day from the Terramungamine Reserve free campground on the Macquarie River. This small free campground gets crowded, but it was ever so much nicer than staying near the highways in town.

Motherhen

Mendooran has a great free camp by the Castlereagh River, right on the edge of town. It's in the Camps 5 book....check it out, it is good, with a pub just a few hundred meters up the road.

And I second Wellington Caves. Plenty of room and very quiet.

Fred