Savannah Way - Burketown - Borroloola with onroad caravan????

14 weeks will allow you to do HALF, so pick a half of the country and enjoy. Lawn Hill is awesome, allow 4 days there, no less, lots of walks in the 5 km range.
I have been there more than once the same for B/Town, unless the roads have just been graded you may well damage your van. Sadly you will find many of the best places to visit are best visited without an "onroad van" Maybe a tent is an option?

Good luck

Lyndon

Going to Booroola that way would almost certainly cause damage to your van.
Also there is currently (as far as we know) no fuel available on that road.
You could go to Barkly Homestead from Cammoweal and then up to Cape Crawford and take a day trip to Boorooloola area. At that time there will be helicopter flights into the Hidden City.The road from Cape Crawford to Daly Waters is Ok with some good camp spots.
We agree that in 14 weeks you will not see much except the road in front of you. Halve the trip distance and enjoy it more. The rest will be there for the next trip. If you overdo this trip you will never want to do another one!
We have met too many people having a boring and miserable trip because they are doing nothing but drive. What looks doable on a map while you are comfortably at home can be a lot harder in reality. There is too much to see and do to just whizz around for the sake of cicumnavigating the continent!
Enjoy planning your trip- but be realistic about what you wish to achieve. Lynne

Hi Rachael

Although we didn't go onto Borroloola, we did travel from Lawn Hill to Burketown towing an onroad van (14ft millard), in September last year.

We found the road to be much better than we expected, although you still have to take your time and drive with care. We found the worst section was the road from Lawn Hill to Gregory Downs...that was atrocious and I wouldn't recommend towing an onroad van along there.

Keep in mind that when you are travelling on these roads, that going short distances can take you all day. This could have an impact on your trip as you don't have alot of time.

If you still decide to go this way, wait until you are a bit closer, and then give the local Police a call to get the road conditions in the area.
Safe travels!

Hello Rachael

Give the visitor centre in Katherine a ring before you set off on the Savannah Way they are pretty switched on there.

This road varies from dam awful to good depending on when the grader has been there.

As has been said elsewhere, watch out for dirty fuel. Best fill up at a large National Brand servo

as you have said , road conditions at the time will play a massive part in the outcome, but if they are anything like they were last year when we went through that area, there will be not alot left of your van at the end of the trip. we were at the end of the dry season, and the corrogations we experienced at that time were some of the worst i have driven (especially between Hell's Gate and Booroloola), it certainly tested out our offroad camper trailer.
no way in the world would i take a onroad van along that route, i'd certainly want a really good offroad van to even consider taking it along there if the conditions turned out to be similar to what we experienced on our trip.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think we will just stick to the highway & go back to Mt Isa from Lawn Hill & then across & up to Katherine on the highway. We don't have any great desire to go to Borroloola area this trip, just thought it might be a bit of a different way to get to Katherine if it was possible. We are taking our tent so will park the caravan in some places & go off road where we can.

Rachael,
You could always free camp at Camooweal, then take Tablelands Highway north at Barkly Homestead and free camp at Brunette Downs and then head up to Borroloola, all bitumen road. We took that way in 2010 (via Lawn Hill) due to the Savannah Way from Burketown being closed.
Kevin

Yes, do not fuel up at Cape Crawford. We thought we would top up just in case and the diesel was $1.99 a litre and when we got to Borroloola it was $1.75! A rip off as the tankers drive past there to get to Borroloola. Also interesting that at Cape Crawford I mentioned to the Irish girl serving how dear the fuel was and she just snarly replied, 'well you are in the middle of no where.' As I said, up the road it was a lot cheaper. Kevin