Perth to Melbourne Roadtrip!!

GalwayGunner

Hey!!

Myself and two backpacker mates just flew into Perth and are planning on doing a roadtrip to Melbourne over the next few weeks and then settle there for the year. Anyone out there done anything like this before?!?

Any good suggestions on what to see on the way or whether we should buy or rent a car/van?!?

If you have done this send on any tips/tricks that you think might be useful!

Cheers!

Spud83

We done the trip the opposite way as part of our journey. We bought a van, but it was between six of us and we were using it for the full trip. Melbourne to Sydney (the scenic round the whole country route, not the direct 24 hour trip.)

I'd say red my blog here.

The only tip I would give you is to stop in Mt Gambier. Really nice little town. A good few things to see. But also head to the Irish bar, and see if you can get talking to the manager. He will probably buy you a drink and may even offer you free accommodation for the night. At least he did to us, we got a lock in too with just him, his chef and her husband. Incredibly funny night and although the accommodation was free we spent over 100 dollars each on food and drink in is his pub that day/night.

GalwayGunner

Cheers man - will definetely check out that place so!

Xavi6

If you're starting in Perth I presume you will be using the Eyre Highway to get to the East Coast via Perth.

The Eyre Highway is 1700kms long and incorporates the longest stretch of road in the world that doesn't contain a turn! The road has recently undergone a lot of redevelopment and is vastly improved.

Going from Perth I recommend you head straight down south for a 3 or 4 days. Take in Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough etc and hit all the local breweries and wine tours. Really beautiful down there and plenty to see and do.

From there go down to Albany and maybe take a day or two to rest there before hitting the highway. It's gonna be a long trek but I'd say it'll definitely be worth it. Planning on doing it myself in a year or two.

Spud83

Xavi6 wrote: »

If you're starting in Perth I presume you will be using the Eyre Highway to get to the East Coast via Perth.

The Eyre Highway is 1700kms long and incorporates the longest stretch of road in the world that doesn't contain a turn! The road has recently undergone a lot of redevelopment and is vastly improved.

Man that is one really long f*ckin road. With very very little between Ceduna and Norseman. We actually drove from Ceduna to Perth in one go (1932km), took about 24 hours straight driving.

Oh actually one more point the border between WA and SA is very tightly controlled. Have nothing on you or in your van/car at this point (includes fruit) and make sure your passports are easy to reach (not buried in a bag on a roof rack with 6 other bags.)

GalwayGunner

Someone once told me that sometimes if you're lucky a car rental agency that needs a campervan returned back to its point of origin might hire ya to drive it back from Perth to Melbourne for them - did any of you ever hear of this???

Spud83

GalwayGunner wrote: »

Someone once told me that sometimes if you're lucky a car rental agency that needs a campervan returned back to its point of origin might hire ya to drive it back from Perth to Melbourne for them - did any of you ever hear of this???

Yes its possibly. I'm not sure if they hire you as such but rather give you enough money that should cover fuel costs and give you the car for free. They also give you a set number of days i.e you will get x amount of days to get to Melbourne. So although its a good idea cost wise it may restrict you a bit and put you under pressure. But definitely something worth checking out when you get over there, or try contracting the renting agencies now.

jmayo

Xavi6 wrote: »

If you're starting in Perth I presume you will be using the Eyre Highway to get to the East Coast via Perth.

The Eyre Highway is 1700kms long and incorporates the longest stretch of road in the world that doesn't contain a turn! The road has recently undergone a lot of redevelopment and is vastly improved.

Going from Perth I recommend you head straight down south for a 3 or 4 days. Take in Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough etc and hit all the local breweries and wine tours. Really beautiful down there and plenty to see and do.

From there go down to Albany and maybe take a day or two to rest there before hitting the highway. It's gonna be a long trek but I'd say it'll definitely be worth it. Planning on doing it myself in a year or two.

Last year in Perth, didn't do the whole across Oz thing but did go South to Busselton, Margaret River, Pemberton, Land of the Giants tree top walk and down to Albany. There are some gorgeous drives through the huge trees, only watch out for the roos around dusk.

Also went up north to Monkey Mia, the missus was not to happy with the so called boring roads, but I just loved the roads with the odd stop offs at deserted beaches along the way. Mind you i was not the one swiming in the shark invested waters

BarryCreed

or before you go, you could take a 3 hour trip north of perth to Lancelin/Cervantes to see the Pinnacles. Most folk don't rate them, but I have to say watching the sunset over the pinnacles more or less on your own at the edge of the desert was pretty cool. The silence was great. It was a great moment of reflection....:p

I went as far as Esperance, then looped back up through Kalgoorlie as I had to fly to Melbourne. To continue the drive on past Esperance to Adelaide-Melbourne would have been cool....

bringitdown

Went the 'Long Way Round'

Perth -> Southern Loop (Margret River, Esperance, Albany, etc) -> Perth
Perth -> North to Geraldton, Canarvon, Monkey Mia, Exmouth, Coral Bay, Port Hedland, Broome, in NT, Darwin -> South to Kakadu, Alice Springs, Coober Pedy, Adelaide -> East toward Melboune via Great Ocean Road.

Unbelievable .... well recommend doing it in a good solid car or camper van.

GalwayGunner

Cheers for the advice lads - just bought a feckin tank of a car and am taking off tomorrow morning!!

Thanks again!!

chris85

GalwayGunner wrote: »

Cheers for the advice lads - just bought a feckin tank of a car and am taking off tomorrow morning!!

Thanks again!!

Good luck with the trip man, hope it goes well.

Diamondmaker

I drove the whole Nullarbor from Perth to Adelaide and then on to Brizzy. Some amount of driving truncated to flights to Hobart.

The road trip was awesome. |Do some exploring off the road in the 'Bor can find somecrazy things. Some awesome scenery too and the road kill count is total carnage en route!

Stopped in some 2 horse towns just to sllep other small places like Warnambool tured out to be an awesome party night. The locals in the off the beaten track laces take very kindly to the Irish we found so do mingle the smaller the town the better when it cmes to that.

Price of fuel is sky high ( relative to normal Oz prices ) on the 'Bor. Shudder to think the price on the most expenive fuel we came across is now ( Nullarbor roadhouse ) - 8 hours either way to next fuel stop !

You will get some awesome photos of the "endless" road tapering to nothingness, dead straight over the horizon....really mind blowing scales out there!