Quilpie to Birdsville

G'day Ben.
By my map its 604K for your day 3 leg.
Cheers,
Barry

Hello sweetnam
Yes it is doable I have done it the way you have suggested BUT if I was to do it again it would be a slower trip not so many ks per day, It would be a hole lot more enjoyable their is a lot of free camping along the way cheers Bill.

Hi Ben

Re day 3, yes it is possible to do that drive in 1 day, we had to do in back in August 2010 to escape the very soon to be closed Birdsville Track. We left Birdsville around 10am and drove steady all day, with a lunch stop at Deon's Lookout with must see views. Arrived at Quilpie around 5pm, just in time for a mini cyclone.






Cheers


Stephen

You could go Bourke, Cunnamulla, Thargomindah, Innaminka, Birdsville via Cordillo Downs road. About the same distance but not quite such a boring drive IMO. Maybe via Walkers Crossing if it's open.

However, if all you're looking at is the quickest/easiest way than your original route is it.

It was a comfortable 2 day trip for me towing a soft road van - see mapQuilpie to Birdsville - We refuelled at pin B, camped at pin c and set up in the Birdsville caravan park around mid/late afternoon. The only fuel on the trip is at Windorah. Our camp was at the end of the bitumen, Morney Rest area where there is a dunny, picnic table and dump point. The rest stops were Thylungra Lagoon (morning tea,) Cooper Creek (lunch,) JC Hotel Ruins (afternoon tea,) the following day Dions Lookout (Morning tea) and Betoota (lunch) and Cuppa Rest Area (afternoon tea.)

The 280 km to Birdsville was excellent gravel. We had expected to have to walk the van over a lot of rough stuff but only had to reduce speed drastically for a couple of kilometres, mostly road works. The Diamantina council has several grader crews keeping the roads in good order for us tourists.

Some of you urban dwellers want to rip out of Sydney/Melbourne etc at a great rate of knots to hit the Simpson.

Slow down and enjoy the run/drive getting there as well.

Maybe give us a timeline you have to do your full run Sydney/Sydney.

Hopefully it's not 2 weeks.

Get a good perspective on distance etc just with google maps, slow down, enjoy all the trip.

In some perspective, the Simpson is just 1100 sandhills you have to encounter to enjoy the rest of the trip.

Hi Ben

We have exactly the same type of problem. A long way to go and see what we want to see and only limited time to do the whole trip.

We went on a drive to see the Cape York from Canberra a couple of years back. I have a strict time limit as you may also have. We took our time heading north and because we made a few extra unplanned stops to see something on the way north we were running short of time to get home. Three stops were all that we could afford for the drive from the Cape to Canberra.

Your plan is achievable. Make the best of thed rive though if you can. We make notes on the way to remind us to go back one day and have a look at things we can only "glance" at as we travel.

It annoys me when you get people who say take it slowly and stop and look on the way. That's fine but there is a problem. We wouldn't get there and back in the allotted time. Sometimes to achieve a goal we must sacrifice something on the way.

Enjoy.

Phil

Hi All

Thanks for all the useful replies - i feel better about my ideas and plans. I was struggling to get anything more that two pins on google maps.

Andrew L - thanks for the advice to slow down... good to see such useful contributions on these forums

B

We travelled from Bourke (the top of Mount Oxley in fact) to Thargomindah in one day less than a month ago.

We stopped at Barringun for an ice cream, then Cunnamulla for lunch & supplies, then stopped in Eulo for a beer and a look around. Yet still made Thargo by 4.30pm in time to set up camp etc etc.

With Quilpie being similar in driving time from Bourke to Thargo, I'd suggest you'd do this leg easily. The road is fully sealed between Eulo & Quilpie & in good condition with the occasional small patch of roadworks but no delays.

If you're staying there, the Channel Caravan Park @ Quilpie has an outdoor spa which is very relaxing after a long day on the road.