Thanks a heap Geodyne! You have given us a good idea of which route to
take back home and it certainly sounds like a wonderful one!

I have travelled the Emerald - Roma road many times myself as I am
originally from the Dalby/Chinchilla area and I'm always going 'home'
for one reason or another. AFAIK, the road is still under construction
but I doubt it's the same section as you mentioned (although, it does
seem to take them forever!!).

I would like to take a few days to travel down and back and not rush
the trip in two days. We are going to the Melbourne Cup on the 2nd
November so I figure if we leave on the 23rd October, that should give
us plenty of time to sight-see on the way down. As for coming home, if
we left on the 4th November, that would give us 4 days to get home
before heading back to work on Monday (*groan*).

Has anybody taken the coastal route from Central or North QLD to
Victoria? I'd love to know how long it took and what sights there were
along the way.

Geodyne wrote in message . ..
On 12 May 2004 20:06:24 -0700, (KnAPowell)
wrote:
As for the trip home, we'd prefer to go inland but we're not sure of
the best route to take, hence this post. I'd love to hear from anyone
who has taken this trip themselves or just knows a great route back to
Central QLD with a few sights along the way.

I did trips along the inland route many times as a kid, travelling
from central Qld or NQ to western Vic and have a very soft spot for
many of the sights along the way. If you were rushing, you could make
it from Emerald to Melbourne in two day's driving, but that would be
without stopping to take in the sights.

From Melbourne, the best thing to do would be to take the Newell
Highway route. This would take you through whichever parts of Victoria
you want to see (such as Mt. Macedon) to Deniliquin (you could stop
and check out the Murray River there or in Echuca), then up to Hay,
West Wyalong, Forbes, Parkes (which has the radio tlelscope featured
in the movie "The Dish"), Dubbo (where you could see the Western
Plains Zoo), Coonabarabran (where the Warrumbungle National Park and
Siding Springs astronomical observatory are definitely worth a visit)
and Narrabri. Just to the north of Coonabarabran, and not far from the
highway, is an area called the "sawn rocks" in Mt. Kaputar National
Park. These are basalt columns that have solidified into long columns.

from there, I'd turn off from Moree to go to Mungindi and head north.
As an alternate to Coonababran, you could turn off at Gilgandra just
north of Dubbo to go to Walgett and Lightning Ridge before driving on
to Mungindi. From there it would be north through Roma and straight up
to Emerald, although you might find it nice to visit Carnarvon Gorge
if you haven't already done so before. You'll pass it as you travel
down the road between Roma and Emerald. The last timet I was there
they were still building the Roma-Emerald highway. It must be really
flash now.

You're going to like the coastal drive as well - it's very pretty,
especially on the southern NSW/east Vic border. It's a great idea to
do both the coastal and inland routes. There'll be quite a contrast
between the two.

Geodyne