Entry 12 – October – 2025 Canberra to Brisbane drive
After nine days spent enjoying time with our Canberra based family members we were in need of an escape to a quiet location for some rest and relaxation. The country side we were driving through was looking good for the farmers crops.
Over the last week we had been communicating with our caravan manufacturer who assisted us with a process where we identified five of our eight roof mounted solar panels being faulty. Credit to Bushtracker Caravans, we were informed their supplier had provided a batch of faulty panels and when can you attend our manufacturing facility for replacement of the faulty panels at no cost.
Bushtracker were able to fit us into their busy schedule in nine days of our departure from Canberra. It was a bit of a deviation from our planned itinerary, in the opposite direction from our planned route home. It was just up the road about 1,600 kilometres on from Canberra.
There was a need for consideration of drive time. Departing Canberra, we spent two days driving, regularly swapping drivers, with a focus on safety. About 750 kilometres up the road, we propped at the town of Moree at a caravan park with hot artesian pools. We were happy to get some kilometres behind us, helping psychologically to allow time out from driving. Our bodies were in need of rest/chill time.
The hot artesian waters provided the perfect tonic, soothing our tired bodies. We frequented the various pools all at different temperatures several times daily. There was plenty of conversation in the pools, ironically with someone different on each pool visit.
Three days later we resumed our focus on drive time. We stopped at Goondiwindi for a change of drivers in a rest area. The driver reviver booth was open, providing us with a cup of tea and biscuits. The two host ladies whom were both in their late 80’s and Mary all ganged up on Steve providing him with plenty of life advise. One of them quoted, “behind a good man is an even better woman.”
This was our first experience at a driver reviver station and one Mary would be happy to attend again.
Up the road a bit, after more driver changes, we propped, setting camp on the grounds of the Cecil Plains Homestead. It was a great setting. There was a rail line bridge nearby, with no sign of any rail line proceeding into the country side either end of the bridge. It was a lovely quiet setting.
After a couple of days rest we continued with our driving duties. The most direct route was to travel east through the large congested town of Toowoomba with copious traffic lights. Once through town there were demanding steep and windy roads to contend with. There was the option of a recently constructed bypass road. This was a toll road with a fee of $2.88 and seemed to be a good option. Further investigation showed the only choice to pay this toll was a requirement to set up an account with a minimum fee of $25.
We had frequented this location quite a number of times over the years. All the driving route options are rather demanding, requiring an elevated level of concentration.
In this instance we decided to travel the “countryside route.” We headed north into the hills. Once we were out from the reach of the tentacles of Toowoomba we headed east.
Initially we encountered light traffic conditions. It was pleasant driving, though we encountered quite the number of large road trains, mostly stock transports, even considering it was a Sunday.
Once we headed east the volume of traffic increased, seemingly most consisting of people out for their weekend drive.
We were nearing densely populated regions and from our Australian travel experiences, Queensland roads are lacking.
We were back in Queensland and almost instantly we were reminded how bad Queensland roads can be.
Notably an absence of passing lanes and a general failure to provide safe driving road conditions. It adds to the fatigue facture with a requirement of an additional level of concentration.
Our next stop was at the town of Kilcoy, where we set camp at the showgrounds. There was a nice walking path nearby. This was our first time at Kilcoy and we liked it.
Bushtracker Caravans manufacturer were about 80 kilometres up the road. This was our planned last stop, where we prepared our caravan for its time at its manufacturing facility. We cleared areas within our caravan where they might need access, hopefully to expediate the required work.
Bushtracker accepted our caravan at 7.30 am. The priority was to replace 5 solar panels and they inspected other areas we had requested for some tweaking. They were pleasurable to deal with. Noticeably, we weren’t fobbed off.
We were at Queensland’s, Sunshine Coast. By 8.30 am we were walking along the beach.
We dined out at lunch time, walked about one of the large shopping malls for a look and chilled the day away.
At 3.30 pm we returned to the factory and they were still working on our caravan, completing attention to our requested tweaking. At 4.20 pm we departed with our caravan and they closed their gate for the day.
We returned to the Kilcoy Showgrounds for the night. Steve inspected the completed work and we readied ourselves for our return trip home.
A day later the ambient air temperature reached 36 C. We activated the caravan air conditioner, whilst off grid. We were delighted to see the status of our batteries stayed at full charge whilst the air conditioner was operating. We were pleased with the operation of our new solar panels.
