East coast Australia trip - feedback pls

Welcome to the forum!

It is hellishly fast ... all of it really. But especially this part:

Sep 11: Atherton Tablelands
Sep 12: Townsville
Sep 13: Magnetic Island
Sep 14: Magnetic Island
Sep 15: Airlie Beach
Sep 16: Rainbow Beach
Sep 17: Whitsundays Island
Sep 18: Whitsundays Island
Sep 19: Bundaberg
Sep 20: Fraser Island
Sep 21: Fraser Island
Sep 22: Sunshine coast
Sep 23: Sunshine coast
Sep 24: Brisbane
Sep 25: Brisbane
Sep 26: Gold Coast
Sep 27: Byron's Bay
Sep 28: Byron's Bay
Sep 29: Sydney

Not just in terms of the kms you need to cover each day, but having so little time in the places you will visit along the way.

We are not going to book a campervan for Cairns -> Sydney.

Do you mean you are going to book a one-way campervan Cairns > Sydney?

Oops. That was meant to be We are now going to book a campervan for Cairns -> Sydney

What would you recommend as a better itinerary?

Can I suggest that you redo your (nice) Excel list with two changes: (1) where you plan to spend each night, rather than the day (not the specific campground, just the place), and (2) showing the km distance between each stop, adding about 20% for local diversions.

That might show you the sorts of distances that are entailed. And would be a good basis for further comments.

For example, Townsville > Airlie Beach is 275 km (and doesn't allow for getting from Magnetic Island), and Airlie Beach to Bundaberg is 775 km.

By the way, the Whitsunday Islands are Airlie Beach, and Rainbow Beach is south of Fraser Island. Also - it is just Byron Bay.

Have you costed a one-way campervan rental Cairns > Sydney?

You might as well pick up the campervan for Daintree / Port Douglas / Cape Tribulation / Kuranda / Atherton ... otherwise you will be seeking accommodation - and it's not a particularly cheap part of the world.

You could visit the Blue Mountains (with the campervan) immediately on arrival into the Sydney region, and then drop it for your last two nights in Sydney itself.

Otherwise, just drop it on arrival, and take the commuter train up to Katoomba and back - nice trip, avoids bad traffic, and very cheap. Sydney traffic is not for the faint-hearted, btw.

After reading the first part of your post I thought "you're in for a treat, as there are so many places in Australia that fit what you are looking for". After reading your itinerary however, I realised that you wont have a lot of time to actually enjoy the things you want to enjoy or experience. Instead you will spend a huge amount of your time on the road, you are trying to include way too much. If you stick with the itinerary you have, you will "touch" destinations that are great for hiking (like the Grampians), scuba diving, surfing and snorkeling (pretty much everywhere between Cairns and Sydney) without having much time to actually do those activities. And you will be near places known for wine (like the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale near Adelaide, the Yarra Valley near Melbourne or the Hunter Valley near Sydney) but wont have time to visit some wineries, or will be in places where it would be fun to do a brewery tour, but again, no time....Or get a glimpse only of the most wicked rainforest area in Australia (Cape Tribulation / Daintree), or miss one of the best places to see Kangaroos and Koalas (Kangaroo Island) etc.

I would very much reconsider your itinerary. I would spend more time between Melbourne and Adelaide. Hopefully your flight to Cairns can be rebooked.... And then I would spend more time between Cairns and Brisbane, return the Campervan there and then fly to Sydney and spend a couple of days there before flying back home.

I agree with much of that ... and a further saving could be to cut out Townsville / Magnet Island and the Whitsundays, and just rent a vehicle for the Cairns region, then fly to Brisbane and have a vehicle for Fraser Island > Sunshine Coast > Gold Coast > Byron Bay > back to Brisbane (or Gold Coast Airport) - fly to Sydney.

Other than Fraser Island itself, you don't need a 4WD vehicle, and you could do all this trip with a modest sedan, staying in holiday park cabins and hostel private rooms. A campervan doesn't really fit your itinerary very well - you're heading to highly urbanised places about 95% of the time.

Fraser Island is best done with a 4WD day-tour (or possibly a two-day trip).

hey hey there nomnommonster, You;re not on a road trip holiday you're are Le Mans! That is A LOT of driving in that itinerary. I've always said you should factor in a speed of 80km/h as achievable. The speed limit on highway is 100km/hr but by the time you add in the 60km/hr slow downs for towns, petrol stops, toilet stops, the odd photgraph stop, supplies shopping etc you really only achieve 80km/hr or even less. So whilst you CAN drive that distance in that time you're not really having much time to see and experience, just the need to move on to the next place. There's plenty of advice here on options for change, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel, just adding voice to maybe reducing the distance covered in the time available Daintree to Sydney.
Have fun,
Tim

I thought the speed limit is 110km/hr?

But, OP, as others have said, it's way too much! As you're from Canada, you should be aware of how big your country is, and how long it takes to see places that are so spread out - Australia is bigger, so you need to actually look at distances and times to get from a to b to c and revise your itinerary.