Tag Archives: Queensland

Gum tree at the back of our house on neighbour’s land

Gum trees are renowned for their shallow root bases and for falling over in strong wind. This gum tree is on neighbour’s land, but would crush our bedroom if it fell down. With mini tornadoes predicted on the nights of 26 and 27 January in Brisbane, we decided to vacate our bed and roll out our swags in the living room. The gum tree shed small branches during the wind, but fortunately stayed upright.

image

image

image

image

image

image

Brisbane to Melbourne — via the Kidman Way

According the Whereis, the preferred route from Brisbane to Melbourne is:

  • via the Pacific Highway — 1788.0 km 19 hr, 2 min.

By way of comparison, travelling some alternative routes:

  • via the Newell Highway — 1664.9 km, 20 hr 3 min
  • via Bourke and the Kidman Way — 1900.7 km, 21 hr, 52 min

They are interesting statistics. Travelling via the Newell Highway takes 61 minutes longer, but is 123.1 km shorter.

Travelling via Bourke and the Kidman Way feel like you are going to the end of the earth, particularly in the stretch between Cobar and Hillston where there is no fuel for 250+ km. However, it is only an extra 112 km over the Pacific Highway route and takes and extra 2 hr 50 min!

I am not sure how Whereis works out its time figures, because I think I was definitely averaging higher average speeds on the Western routes because there were fewer towns with slow speed limits and the posted speed was generally higher.

Anyway, if you are travelling between Brisbane and Melbourne, and can spare an extra 3 hours, it is definitely worth seeing the most western sealed north-south road in New South Wales. Plan your stops, carry extra water, and be aware that mobile phone coverage is VERY limited out there (I hired a satellite phone).