Melbourne to Perth Overland
Dec 27th 2006, 5:19 am
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 226
Melbourne to Perth Overland
Anyone done it via ,car train or bus ?? fancy doing it but would like to share any good ,bad or indifferent experiences...
cheers
Stew
cheers
Stew
Dec 27th 2006, 5:29 am
#2
Life is good
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Perth, WA
Posts: 1,019
Re: Melbourne to Perth Overland
Originally Posted by stewmac
Anyone done it via ,car train or bus ?? fancy doing it but would like to share any good ,bad or indifferent experiences...
cheers
Stew
cheers
Stew
Did the journey by car from Perth to Melbourne to Sydney in a VW combi that would only go 80ks ph, which at times was annoying, so my advice would be get a decent car/combi to do the trip in. Trained it back to Perth after a few months as my car died on me.
Would definately do it again. Train trip was fun but being sat upright in a chair for a few days (Including sleeping) wasn't so much fun, I did however have a ball with the people I met on the train, especially on stop offs. I was backpacking at the time and given the time again I would treat myself to an upgrade.
Drive was cool too, fab skies at night, locust storms by day, brilliant! Loved both trips and would recommend it.
Claire
Dec 27th 2006, 5:38 am
#3
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 226
Re: Melbourne to Perth Overland
Cheers Claire, shld be doing one-way in December as we intend to move to WA from VIC as i have family in Waikiki and the weather is crap in VIC 
Originally Posted by claire edwards
Hi Stew,
Did the journey by car from Perth to Melbourne to Sydney in a VW combi that would only go 80ks ph, which at times was annoying, so my advice would be get a decent car/combi to do the trip in. Trained it back to Perth after a few months as my car died on me.
Would definately do it again. Train trip was fun but being sat upright in a chair for a few days (Including sleeping) wasn't so much fun, I did however have a ball with the people I met on the train, especially on stop offs. I was backpacking at the time and given the time again I would treat myself to an upgrade.
Drive was cool too, fab skies at night, locust storms by day, brilliant! Loved both trips and would recommend it.
Claire
Did the journey by car from Perth to Melbourne to Sydney in a VW combi that would only go 80ks ph, which at times was annoying, so my advice would be get a decent car/combi to do the trip in. Trained it back to Perth after a few months as my car died on me.
Would definately do it again. Train trip was fun but being sat upright in a chair for a few days (Including sleeping) wasn't so much fun, I did however have a ball with the people I met on the train, especially on stop offs. I was backpacking at the time and given the time again I would treat myself to an upgrade.
Drive was cool too, fab skies at night, locust storms by day, brilliant! Loved both trips and would recommend it.
Claire
Dec 27th 2006, 5:41 am
#4
Life is good
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Perth, WA
Posts: 1,019
Re: Melbourne to Perth Overland
Well you are moving to the right state, it's bloody hot here!
Let me know how you get on with your trip over.
Claire
Let me know how you get on with your trip over.
Claire
Dec 27th 2006, 9:08 am
#5
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 413
Re: Melbourne to Perth Overland
Originally Posted by stewmac
Anyone done it via ,car train or bus ?? fancy doing it but would like to share any good ,bad or indifferent experiences...
cheers
Stew
cheers
Stew
Try to hit Port Augusta at night,the bay looks nice lit up with the town/power station lights.
DO NOT use cruise control on the car,it can put you to sleep if you are not familiar with long distance driving.
Watch out for kangaroos and camels on the road around Iron Knob,roos cause serious damage to cars,camels would probably write it off.
I hope you are not doing it in a mini.A fitter I know did Whyalla/Perth in a Mini when BHP laid off a lot of people there,never again he said.Good Luck.
Dec 27th 2006, 9:57 am
#6
Oz here we are!!!
Joined: Jun 2006
Location: Wanneroo, Perth, WA
Posts: 57
Re: Melbourne to Perth Overland
Hey there,
We did the Melbourne to Perth run just before Christmas. We have a 1996 Landrover and towed a 26ft caravan the whole way, cost us a fair bit in fuel I can tell you! We did Adelaide to Perth in four days straight, it was pretty intense especially one day when the temperature hit 47 degrees Celsius! Definitely recommend the Great Ocean Road but it does add a few extra km's to the journey.
The Nullabor was fine, long and straight and pretty uneventful. Watch out for sh*t-mix fuel, we filled up at the Boarder Town and got 100 less km's to the tank than usual. Definitely carry as much extra fuel as you can, preferably from somewhere you know is ok. Everyone warned us not to drive at night but we did Ceduna to Norseman in one hit and it took us 18 hours, you really have to watch out for the roos and it's best to slow things right down if you do plan to drive at night, not only do the live ones like to dash out in the road but there will be loads and loads of carcases courtesy of the road trains, some are quite big and could do a lot of damage if hit at speed. Also be aware that a lot of the road houses close at 6pm, we got caught out as we expected them to be open a lot later, luckily we had spare fuel on board or we would have been stuck there till they opened again in the morning!
If you want to read about our trip in more detail check out our blog, it's broken down into the different stages.
Have fun!
We did the Melbourne to Perth run just before Christmas. We have a 1996 Landrover and towed a 26ft caravan the whole way, cost us a fair bit in fuel I can tell you! We did Adelaide to Perth in four days straight, it was pretty intense especially one day when the temperature hit 47 degrees Celsius! Definitely recommend the Great Ocean Road but it does add a few extra km's to the journey.
The Nullabor was fine, long and straight and pretty uneventful. Watch out for sh*t-mix fuel, we filled up at the Boarder Town and got 100 less km's to the tank than usual. Definitely carry as much extra fuel as you can, preferably from somewhere you know is ok. Everyone warned us not to drive at night but we did Ceduna to Norseman in one hit and it took us 18 hours, you really have to watch out for the roos and it's best to slow things right down if you do plan to drive at night, not only do the live ones like to dash out in the road but there will be loads and loads of carcases courtesy of the road trains, some are quite big and could do a lot of damage if hit at speed. Also be aware that a lot of the road houses close at 6pm, we got caught out as we expected them to be open a lot later, luckily we had spare fuel on board or we would have been stuck there till they opened again in the morning!
If you want to read about our trip in more detail check out our blog, it's broken down into the different stages.
Have fun!
