Your sunshine coast to geelong campervan route, without the faff

You can physically bash out the Sunshine Coast to Geelong drive in three very long days, but you will arrive looking like a servo pie left under the warmer since Tuesday. Four days is the bare minimum for competent two-driver travel. Six or seven days is the nicer version, with time to empty the cassette before it becomes a moral issue.

The inland run via Toowoomba, Goondiwindi, Narrabri, Dubbo, West Wyalong and Albury is sealed and 2WD-suitable in normal conditions. It is also big-country driving: straight roads, stock trucks, harvest traffic, wide loads and long gaps where the best attraction is shade.

• Fast but sane: 4 nights, average 475 km a day.
• Comfortable: 6 nights, average 320 km a day.
• Good for first big-lappers: 7 nights, with a rest day at Dubbo or Albury.
• Do not: plan your first van handover day as a 500 km leg; groceries, bedding, LPG and nerves all take time.

The practical sunshine coast to geelong motorhome road trip runs west from the coast, then south on the Newell before joining the Hume into Victoria. It is longer than some coastal/Sydney options on a map, but it saves toll dodging, low-clearance city carparks and the charming experience of changing lanes beside a B-double at 80 km/h.

Expect about 1,900 to 1,950 km depending on your Sunshine Coast start point and where in Geelong you finish. Drive times below are wheel-turning estimates only; add fuel, lunch, dump-point faffing and the inevitable stop where someone decides they need a better camp chair.

• Best general line: Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Goondiwindi, Narrabri, Dubbo, West Wyalong, Albury-Wodonga, Geelong.
• Road surface: sealed highways all the way in normal weather.
• Avoid in peak hour: Brisbane approaches, Toowoomba Range if you are tired, and Melbourne’s M80 between about 7-9 am and 4-6 pm.
• Do: use truck pull-outs and town bypasses properly; a motorhome is not a sports hatch with curtains.

Most hired campervans and motorhomes will drink roughly 11-15 L/100 km depending on size, headwind and how heavy-handed you are up the Toowoomba Range. With a 70-90 L diesel tank, range is usually comfortable, but do not play chicken with fuel west of the coast. Fill in the bigger towns and treat half a tank as your new empty.

The longest ordinary servo gap on this route is not terrifying, but it is enough to annoy you if you roll past cheap diesel smugly. West Wyalong to Narrandera is about 169 km. Narrabri to Coonabarabran is about 120 km, then another 154 km to Dubbo. Goondiwindi to Moree is about 126 km. These are fine distances until there is a closed pump, roadworks detour or a brutal westerly.

• Reliable fuel towns: Toowoomba, Goondiwindi, Moree, Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Dubbo, Parkes, Forbes, West Wyalong, Narrandera, Wagga Wagga and Albury.
• Dump points: commonly available at showgrounds, visitor-centre precincts, holiday parks and council facilities in the larger towns; check current council or dump-point app listings before arrival.
• LPG swaps/refills: easiest in larger towns and major servos; availability is thinner after hours.
• Do: top up drinking water before free camping. Do not: assume every rest area tap is potable.

Queensland and inland NSW will introduce you to road trains and B-doubles doing exactly what they are built to do: moving freight across vast distances. Give them room. If one sits behind you, hold your speed, wait for a straight section, ease left only where it is safe, and let the professional get on with their day.

Summer can push inland towns above 38°C, and bitumen heat makes van interiors feel like a pie oven. In winter, Toowoomba and the NSW/Victorian inland can throw single-digit mornings at you. The route is sealed, but heavy rain can flood low country around the northern NSW plains and create detours that add hours.

• Road-train rule: never pull back in sharply after overtaking; leave a long, boringly generous gap.
• Wind warning: high-sided motorhomes feel crosswinds between Coonabarabran, Dubbo and West Wyalong.
• Wet season watch: check QLD Traffic, Live Traffic NSW and VicTraffic before committing to the day.
• Do not: take unsigned dirt shortcuts in a hired 2WD camper unless your rental conditions explicitly allow it. Most do not.

Free camping is not a national personality trait; it is a local rule. Some towns welcome self-contained vans in signed areas for 20-48 hours, others fine overnight sleepers in beach carparks and suburban streets. The Sunshine Coast and Geelong foreshore areas are especially poor places to test your luck.

For this route, mix showgrounds, holiday parks and legitimate free or low-cost camps. Powered sites are worth it in hot weather so you can run air-conditioning where allowed. National park campgrounds in Queensland, NSW and Victoria generally require online booking before you arrive, and dogs are usually not permitted in national parks.

• First-night tip: book a powered site near Toowoomba or Goondiwindi if you collect the van late.
• Self-contained etiquette: use your own toilet and grey-water tank where required; no sneaky sink water into the gutter.
• School holidays: book early, especially Easter, Christmas and September holidays.
• CTA for sanity: check campervan availability online first, then build camps around the vehicle dates.