road conditions flinders ranges/birdsville track

Personally I can see nothing wrong with having a Plan A, esp. if you have limited time and some must-see items on the agenda.

It's perfectly on the cards that Judy can get stuck in an outback town on her itinerary for a week and it's possible to avoid that with up to date road and weather info.

Hi Judy

On a recent club trip we planned on going down to Victoria through Delegate to Bonang and then across the McKillop track to Barry Way and back home into Canberra. One vehicle had LPG. We head out and at the end of McKillops Track we turn north and there is a sign saying that barry Way is closed at the border. Two alternatives. Turn back through the track or head down to Orbost on the coast. It is also sunday late afternoon. The LPG car does not have enough fuel to go back the way we came so we have to turn south. The leader was not told the border was closed when he rang on the friday. (!!!!).

That started a 200 kms and almost three hour detour south to the Pacific Coast for LPG at Numeralla then Orbost and finally north up the Bonang Highway to NSW and home.

That's why it is handy to know what the road conditions are like.

Phil

Phil, my point exactly! your leader was informed the track was open when he asked. His plans were set around this wrong information.
It can also be the other way around and be told a track is closed when it's open, this may cause you to change plans to taking a not so preferred route for no reason.
I prefer to be prepared for most circumstances that way we can enjoy the holiday.

The problem is that he was not told either way whether it was open or closed. If he had been told it was open then it would have been. Zip - nothing. So we went blind like you suggested we should have. I am sorry that I did not make it clear. Bad news. For warned is fore armed.

That is a major traffic route from Cooma to the coast so they would have not made an error.

Not everyone has the resources or the time for 200 + Kms detours. Try that in Queensland with the ltest NPWS camping having to be prebooked and you can end up sleeping in the car in a truck rest stop because you cannot get to your NPWS booked camp sight as you have a detour. Or I could even end up late for my Chemo treatment that was arranged for me to have in Alice Springs because the Tanami was closed. No thanks.

Phil