Eleven drives that turn the distance between places into the point of the trip — coast roads, alpine passes and red-dirt epics.
Australia was built for the road trip. It's vast, the distances are honest, and the payoff for putting in the kilometres is a country that changes completely every few hours — rainforest to reef, vineyard to desert, surf coast to snow.
We've spread these across the continent and across difficulty, from sealed coastal cruises anyone can do in a hire car to remote outback routes that need planning, fuel range and the right vehicle. Each notes the rough distance and the season that suits it. Check road conditions and fuel stops before you set out, especially anywhere inland.
The most famous drive in the country: a winding coast road past the Twelve Apostles, surf breaks, rainforest detours and koala-filled gums between Torquay and Allansford. Built by returned WWI soldiers, it's also the world's largest war memorial.
Allow at least two days rather than rushing it in one. Best in the milder shoulder seasons to dodge the summer crowds.
The classic east-coast run from our home city of Brisbane up to Cairns, stringing together the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Coast, Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef — beaches, islands and rainforest the whole way.
Give it two to three weeks to do properly. Our Queensland guides break the route into regional stops; the dry season (May–October) is ideal up north.
A loop out of Alice Springs taking in Uluru, Kata Tjuta and the gorges and waterholes of the West MacDonnell Ranges (Tjoritja). The desert light alone is worth the trip.
Parts (Mereenie Loop) are unsealed and need a permit and suitable vehicle. Drive it in the cooler months, April to September.
South from Sydney across the dramatic Sea Cliff Bridge — which curves out over the ocean off the escarpment — through Wollongong to Jervis Bay's white-sand beaches. A spectacular short escape from the city.
Doable as a long day, better as a weekend. Good year-round.
Australia's highest year-round sealed road, climbing from the Gippsland Lakes through alpine country and ski towns to the gourmet valleys of Bright and the Ovens Valley wineries.
Snow up high in winter; wildflowers and clear views in the warmer months.
From Hobart up the east coast through Freycinet and Wineglass Bay to the Bay of Fires, where orange-lichened boulders meet white sand and turquoise sea. Short distances, big rewards.
Add the oysters and the cool-climate wineries. Lovely spring through autumn.
A legendary outback 4WD route through the heart of the Kimberley, linking gorges, waterfalls and remote cattle-station stays between Derby and Kununurra. Corrugated, river-crossed and utterly wild.
High-clearance 4WD, spare tyres, fuel and water essential. Dry season only (roughly May–September), when it's even open.
The great east–west crossing over the treeless Nullarbor Plain, including Australia's longest dead-straight stretch of road. Whale-watching cliffs at the Head of Bight and vast, empty horizons.
Plan fuel carefully — stops are far apart. Cooler months are kinder; carry water always.
The continent top-to-bottom up the Stuart Highway, from Adelaide through the Flinders Ranges, Coober Pedy's underground town, the Red Centre and on to the tropical Top End.
Sealed the whole way but immense — allow a couple of weeks. Best April to September.
Coast to coast across the tropical north from Cairns to Broome, through gorges, lava tubes, outback pubs and Gulf savannah. Some sections sealed, others serious 4WD.
A dry-season expedition for well-prepared travellers.
The east-coast run up from Sydney through Port Stephens, the Coffs Coast, Byron Bay and the Northern Rivers into Brisbane — a string of surf towns, headlands and hinterland detours.
A relaxed week, longer if you linger. Good most of the year; summer is peak.
The single biggest planning error on an Australian road trip is arithmetic. People look at a map, divide kilometres by 100, and produce a schedule that leaves no room for the reason they came. Australian distances are genuinely continental, and the driving day that works here is shorter than the one that works in Europe.
| Route | Distance | Honest minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Great Ocean Road | ~250 km Torquay to Allansford | 2–3 days. Doable in a long day, but that is a drive, not a trip |
| Grand Pacific Drive | ~140 km Sydney to Nowra | 1–2 days |
| Legendary Pacific Coast | ~900 km Sydney to Brisbane | 5–7 days |
| Pacific Coast Way | ~1,700 km Brisbane to Cairns | 10–14 days |
| Red Centre Way | ~1,100 km loop from Alice Springs | 5–7 days |
| Tasmania's east coast | ~400 km Hobart to Launceston the long way | 4–5 days |
| Gibb River Road | ~660 km Derby to Kununurra | 7–10 days, 4WD, dry season only |
| Crossing the Nullarbor | ~1,200 km Norseman to Ceduna | 3–4 days minimum |
| Explorers Way | ~3,000 km Adelaide to Darwin | 2–3 weeks |
| Savannah Way | ~3,700 km Cairns to Broome | 3–4 weeks, sections 4WD only |
A working rule for the long routes: plan around 400 to 500 kilometres a day maximum on sealed outback highways, and around 200 on unsealed. Then build in a rest day every four or five days, because the fatigue is cumulative and it is the thing that actually causes accidents.
Driving on less than five hours of sleep produces cognitive impairment comparable to a blood alcohol reading of 0.05. On the long straight sections — the Nullarbor's 90 Mile Straight is the famous one, with no bend for 146 kilometres — the monotony does the work by itself. Take a break every two hours whether you feel like it or not. Australia's Driver Reviver stops exist for exactly this and are worth using. The warning signs are constant yawning, heavy eyelids, and the experience of not remembering the last few kilometres. Sleep is the only remedy; coffee buys you twenty minutes.
Over 90 per cent of Australian wildlife collisions involve kangaroos and wallabies, and they cluster at dawn, dusk and night. The simplest and most effective precaution on an outback route is to not drive in the dark at all. If an animal crosses, assume more are following and brake in a straight line rather than swerving — leaving the road at speed causes far worse outcomes than the collision. On the Nullarbor and inland routes, add camels, emus, wombats and wandering stock to the list.
A road train can run up to about 50 metres with four trailers, and they do not slow down for you. Give them enormous space. Overtaking one requires a long clear stretch and a genuine commitment — if in doubt, wait. When one approaches on a narrow or single-lane road, slow down and move left so your left wheels are on the gravel; if it is a road train, pull off the bitumen entirely. Do not force a road train to leave the sealed surface, because it will simply cover you in stones and dust anyway.
On the coastal routes none of this matters much. On the outback ones it is the trip.
Most of Australia's great drives are fully sealed and fine in a two-wheel drive — the Great Ocean Road, the Nullarbor, the Explorers Way from Adelaide to Darwin, the coastal routes, and even the main roads through Kakadu. A 4WD is genuinely required for the Gibb River Road, sections of the Savannah Way, Cape York and the desert tracks. Check the route before you book the vehicle, not after.
Most Australian road trip problems that become expensive are contractual rather than mechanical.
The Australian road trip that goes wrong is almost never the one that ran out of road. It is the one that ran out of daylight, fuel or patience, in that order.
Cooee Tours has been running coach touring out of Brisbane since 1974, family-owned, with our own fleet and drivers who know these roads. There is a strong case for driving Australia yourself — and an equally strong one for not driving the bits that are simply long.
Fatigue, unfamiliar road rules, driving on the left, wildlife at dusk and the sheer monotony of the inland highways are the reasons a lot of visitors and a lot of older travellers hand the driving over. We run charter and group touring across South East Queensland and beyond, including multi-day itineraries along the Pacific Coast Way, out to the Granite Belt and the Darling Downs, and up to the Fraser Coast. Everyone gets to look out the window. Call 0409 661 342 or email contact@cooeetours.com.au.
Related reading: our guides to getting around Australia, the best 4WD adventures and the best camping spots in Australia.
Australian road trips are not year-round propositions, and the country splits into two driving seasons that barely overlap.
| Season | Drive these | Not these |
|---|---|---|
| December – February | Great Ocean Road, Tasmania's east coast, Grand Pacific Drive, Great Alpine Road | Gibb River Road and Savannah Way (wet season, closed), Red Centre (heat), Nullarbor (hot) |
| March – May | Almost everything — the widest window of the year | Northern unsealed routes may still be reopening after the wet |
| June – August | Gibb River Road, Savannah Way, Red Centre Way, Explorers Way, Pacific Coast Way, Nullarbor | Great Alpine Road (snow), Tasmania (cold, though beautiful) |
| September – November | Nullarbor, WA's wildflower routes, the southern coasts, the tail of the northern dry | Far north from October as the build-up begins |
The single most common mistake is planning a Kimberley or Savannah Way trip for the southern summer. Those roads are not merely uncomfortable then — they are closed.
A long Australian drive can be the best day of a trip or the worst, and the difference is mostly preparation and pacing rather than scenery.
And take the side road. Most of what is memorable about driving in Australia happens somewhere off the route you planned — provided you have the daylight, the fuel and the water to do it safely.
For overseas visitors, a few Australian specifics catch people out in the first hour.
If any of that sounds like more than you want on a holiday, the coach option exists for exactly this reason — particularly on the routes where the driving is long and the scenery is the point.
Australia is a country where the distance between two places is frequently more interesting than either of them. That is not a consolation — it is genuinely the case. The Nullarbor is not a thing to be endured on the way to Perth; the Explorers Way is not simply how you reach Darwin. The emptiness is the attraction, and it takes a few hundred kilometres before it starts to work on you.
Which is why the single best piece of advice about Australian road trips is to plan fewer kilometres than you think you can manage. The trip that goes well is almost always the one with a spare afternoon in it — room to stop at the lookout, take the unsealed spur to the gorge, sit at the roadhouse and talk to whoever is there, and get off the road well before the light goes.
Book the roadhouse beds early, top up the tank at every opportunity, break every two hours, and don't drive at dusk. Everything else about an Australian road trip mostly looks after itself.
Cooee Tours runs guided coach touring along Queensland's coast and beyond — you take in the view while we handle the kilometres, the timing and the stops.
See Queensland touring routesThe Great Ocean Road in Victoria is the most famous and the easiest to do in a standard car, but for sheer variety the Pacific Coast Way from Brisbane to Cairns is hard to beat. The best one depends on how much time you have and whether you want coast or outback.
You can drive the core stretch in a day, but two days lets you slow down for the Twelve Apostles, the rainforest detours and the koalas at Kennett River without rushing.
The Gibb River Road, the Savannah Way's rougher sections, the Mereenie Loop on the Red Centre Way and most outback tracks require a high-clearance 4WD, spare tyres and proper preparation. Coastal drives like the Great Ocean Road and Grand Pacific Drive are fine in a regular car.
The cooler, drier months — roughly April to September — for central and northern Australia. Summer in the outback and Top End brings extreme heat and, up north, wet-season road closures.
Head north on the Pacific Coast Way through the Sunshine Coast and Fraser Coast, or south on the Legendary Pacific Coast toward Byron Bay. See our Queensland regional guides for stop-by-stop suggestions.
Around 400 to 500 kilometres a day maximum on sealed outback highways, and around 200 on unsealed roads. Build a rest day into every four or five days of driving, because fatigue is cumulative. Driving on less than five hours of sleep is cognitively comparable to a 0.05 blood alcohol reading, and fatigue is a leading cause of regional road trauma.
Give them enormous space. A road train can run up to about 50 metres with four trailers and will not slow for you. Overtaking needs a long clear stretch and full commitment. When one approaches on a narrow road, slow down and move left so your left wheels are on the gravel, and pull off the bitumen entirely for a road train — do not force it to leave the sealed surface.
Top up at every opportunity rather than at every need. There are around a dozen fuel stops across the Nullarbor and smaller roadhouses occasionally run dry. Remote fuel is considerably more expensive than city fuel, many travellers carry a jerry can, and outback roadhouses often keep limited hours and may close on weekends.
Frequently not. Many Australian rental agreements exclude unsealed roads entirely and void cover for driving between sunset and sunrise outside metropolitan areas, because of animal strike. Read both clauses before booking, and check the single-vehicle accident excess — it is usually the highest category and the one a kangaroo strike falls under.
Cooee Tours acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and recognise that the places described here hold deep cultural significance for the First Peoples who have cared for them for tens of thousands of years.