Melb to Bris and back, via Newcastle and Bega

[Rufus®]

So we are off to Brissy for a week or 2, leaving saturday week (20th??). Should be a fun drive, with 2 kids, one 3 and the other about to turn 1. Hoping to take 3 days to get up there, catch up with my olds and spend a bit of time relaxing (ie dump the kids with the grand parents and have fun!! lol) and catching up with mates.

Then back to Newcastle to catch up with a mate for few days, then down to Bega to see my sister and her family, all in all about 3 weeks away from home, most of it will probably be driving!!

So what do i need to watch out for driving through NSW and QLD? Will be going up the Newell and back the down the Coast. As it will still be School Holidays, are there double demerit points to watch out for anywhere? Anything else?

How far is Newcastle from Brissy? can you do it in a day (remembering with kiddies)? and same to Bega?

Hope to see some of you JC boys and girls out and about.

Cheers, Damo.

[minux]

Be aware, follow speed limits, realise when you are fatigued and stop.

Other than that be safe and have a sweet holiday

[Julie]

There will no doubt be double demerits on Australia Day Long weekend, the rest should be ok

[Rufus®]

Be aware, follow speed limits, realise when you are fatigued and stop.

Other than that be safe and have a sweet holiday

Cruise Control is a good thing.... until you hit a town or school zone..:P

Will probably be stopping every few hours anyway, to let the kids run wild for a bit, the missus will be driving too...

There will no doubt be double demerits on Australia Day Long weekend, the rest should be ok

Sweet, will still be in QLD for that, so we should be safe.

Thanks.

[sircruisealotVS]

i think the only thing you need to worry about it bloody camper vans/caravans!! get stuck behind one of them on the wrong bit of road without overtaking lanes for ages and it drives you nuts.
brissy to newy is easy days drive, its roughly 800k's or so, it takes me about 9hrs to go from south brissy to the central coast (just south of newy), with adequate breaks to rest.
always watch out for those small towns that pop up, they're usually only 50-60k's/hr and that feels REALLY slow after sitting on 100+ for so long, so you get tempted to go faster. but there's good possibilities for a local cop to stake out somewhere in town to catch unaware travellers speeding through, so take note.
have a safe one mate, hopefully traffic isnt too bad for you.

[Shifty1]

Qld rocks atm.. just got back from there today, the weather.. LOVED IT!

Enjoy..

[mattman]

As others have said, just take it easy and take plenty of breaks. There's no need to rush things, get in an early start (8am-ish) and you'll be done with the days driving by mid afternoon.

Just did ADL-BRIS myself... easy as pie if you just take it easy. Half of it was along the Newell and it's generally good road...

PS... the newell from goondiwindi to toowoomba is the MOST BORING ROAD EVER!

[Rufus®]

Thanks everyone, planing on taking it easy and enjoying the scenic drive. I just hope my boys enjoy it as much, although i think they will be a little restless after the first few hours.

Cheers.

[Garth]

depending on which way you are going, there are fixed speed cammers in nsw, i know of them from ballina all the way upto the nsw/qld boarder, one at balina, one at byron bay, one at sexton hill at tweed heads (2 min's from the boarder) there are road works from ballina to mulimbimi. if you see a
4wd parked on the side of the road in qld be carefull, it's a speed cammera, we dont have fixed ones here, and they are painfully signed, and do hide. stick to the speed limit on the m1.


otherwise enjoy the visit to qld, we got no water

[Hairy Eater]

i'm sure the speed cameras in QLD arent really legal cos of the way the cops setup the sign ..... the other day i approached the 4 wheel drive cop camera only to see the sign in front of the their vehicle ... and the sign wasnt even facing me either .... was facing across the rod .... not towards any oncoming traffic ...

[badaz]

If you want a easer trip get yourself a portable DVD player. I dont go anywhere with out ours its a much easer drive and the kids arnt whinging. Recently back from the Gold Coast and the only thing I heard from them was when the need a dunny stop. Good luck with the drive. The roads most places are good there is abit of road works. Plan your fuel stops well I got from the Gold Coast to Newcastle on 1 tank if that helps