Melbourne to Brisbane by car - in 7 days - real?

Welcome to the forum.

While the drive from Melbourne to Brisbane via the coast is extremely attractive, August is winter, and for the most part quite cool to cold (certainly south of Sydney) - at least by Australian standards - max of about 16°C, and possibly wet.

But to answer your questions, we use www.rentalcars.com to rent cars overseas, and while I haven't actually used them here in Australia, I'm sure they're fine. Be sure to take into account the one-way drop-off fee.

I have would have three nights south of Sydney (around Lakes Entrance, say Narooma, Wollongong), and three nights north of Sydney (Port Stephens, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay).

In terms of accommodation, we generally use cabins in caravan parks (also called holiday parks, or RV parks) - they are self-contained and you can save a great deal in self-catering, plus you tend to meet other Australians on holiday. Quite often the parks are just about on the beach.

Chains to look at include Big4, TopTourist, and HPA - all have decent websites. There are plenty of independent parks too. In August you will not have to pre-book, other than maybe from Byron Bay north.

Getting around / through Sydney is a challenge, there is no handy ring road or by-passing freeway - and a GPS unit could be very useful. To get through, put in Sutherland (in the south) to Cowan (in the north) and follow the major roads.

For the 150 km south of Sydney, the road north from Nowra through the Royal National Park is very scenic indeed. Stick right on the coast.

7 days is a bit of a rush. Have you considered doing just Melbourne to Sydney? or actually driving in 2 days from Melbourne to Sydney and spending the rest of the time between Sydney and Brisbane where it will be a little warmer than down south at this time of year.

Stops along the way between Brisbane and Sydney could be
- Hunter Valley
- Port Macquarie
- Coffs Harbour/Nambucca Heads (great little caravan park on the water with cabins)
- Byron Bay (or Lennox Head)
- Tweed Heads (I like Cabarita and Kingscliffe)

We have done the drive between Sydney and Brisbane and really enjoyed it. I think we did take 2 weeks though, but stayed 3-4 nights in each location.

We always found reasonably priced apartments and townhouses along the way. We used the website stayz.com.au with good success. Also as the previous posted mentioned, cabins In caravan parks are very good alternatives.

Have a great trip!

I don't think it's a rush really, in Australian terms ... more of a fairly steady and leisurely road-trip. And it will be cool - at least until well past Coffs Harbour - so it's not beach-lounging weather.

Rush if you want to deep dive into where you base yourself, leisurely if you aim is just driving between Melbourne and Brisbane! All relative! But hey I am all for slow travel ;-)

Fair enough ... I'm mostly into travel where each road or place is given the time it deserves, whether in Australia, North America, or Europe. So neither fast nor slow, just appropriate!

I think seven days Melbourne > Brisbane can be a nicely measured road-trip (having done it quite a few times indeed).

Love how everyone experiences travel differently! I have done Sydney to Brisbane in 2 weeks and craved more time!

I'm into cutting the cloth to fit.

If the OP advises seven days, then a Melbourne > Brisbane road-trip can be really rewarding. If I thought it could not (Melbourne > Cairns, say) - I would certainly say so. I'm not unrealistic ... in fact my advice is usually spot on.

I will agree with simplefamilytravel on this one Michali in that having just seven days for Melbourne to Brisbane ( aside from your times allowed in cities ) could be considered something of a rush if you take into account just how much there is to see or you want to see.

You are in fact looking at two very different drives in that Melbourne to Sydney is along single carriage way roads for the greater part wheres Sydney to Brisbane is becoming more and more motorway.
That difference does give the Melbourne to Sydney run far more smaller seaside villages to go through and it ought to be treated with much enjoyment, certainly deserving of much time.

There is quite a lot of online information available re doing the drive, http://www.timetravelturtle.com/2016/03/melbourne-sydney-road-trip-guide/ being one example and as you can see, six days is mentioned so you need to about halve that time and so your use of such a guide can start with identifying what is of more interest to you.
The total distance is about 1000 km. but by the time you do some detours etc., you are probably looking at more like 1200 km. if not more so planning on averaging 300 or 400 km. a day ought to be aimed for, it reasonably easily achieved because the road is pretty good even if a bit twisty in places.

Unless you want to drop into paces like Phillip Island for koalas and penguins ( meaning an overnight there ) or do a side trip into Walhalla ( an old gold mining town ), I would consider going as far as Eden for the first night as though it is about 550 km. and a bit over six hours ought to be allowed, it is a rather blander section of Melbvourne to Sydney unless you start doing quite a few detours.
Use http://www.travelmate.com.au/ for your distance/time planning.

The southern NSW coast has far more interesting countryside and is often referred to as one of Australia's hidden gems, it not having suffered too greatly through tourism development.
Quite a few of the seaside towns are established on esturaries, often with a lake involved and being much closer to the water, the already slightly milder climate is made even better.

You have the larger busier towns of Merimbula, Batemans Bay and Jervis Bay area before Nowra plus half a dozen or so smaller villages so stopping anywhere that suits your progress can be done. Being a cooler time of the year, I would not bother with park cabins as Motels will be much more comfortable and likely closer to other services for food/dining.
Being August, you will likely have no difficulty in finding vacancies in any town you have arrived in and feel like stopping for the evening, it getting dark at about 6 pm. which is about the time hotels and clubs have their evening meals.

About ten kilometres out of Eden, there is the Sea Horse Inn - http://www.seahorseinnhotel.com.au/ , a superb older building that is well worth the effort to get to.

Getting up to Jervis Bay and Nowra, it may be advisable for you to head inland at that point for Kangaroo Valley and take the road up the escarpment to the top of Fitzroy Falls for there is quite a bit of roadwork occurring between Nowra and through to near Kiama as the old road is upgraded to motorway status.

From Fitzroy Falls, you could head across to Robertson and back down to the coast just south of Wollongong.
http://www.visitnsw.com/things-to-do/drives-and-road-trips/sydney-melbourne-coastal-drive highlights some of the aspects of the south coast and as the motorway heads past Wollongong, you need to keep a good eye out for a turn off the motorway on the left to take you across and on to the Grand Pacific Drive - http://www.grandpacificdrive.com.au/ , that being the route through the Royal National Park.

Depending on how long you are staying in Sydney, you may want to ditch your rental for the few days or whatever, otherwise you just need somewhere to park it and you could find it easier to get around by public transport.

If you do keep your car and have not yet booked accommodation for Sydney, I would just keep following the signs for North Sydney ( rather than the North Coast bypass options ) and once you are over on to the northern side of the Harbour, look for signs to Manly as that could be a great place to stay and you could leave your vehicle there if you were getting a ferry across to the Sydney CBD, that being one of Sydney's best trips and then when leaving Sydney you will not have too bad a travel experience.

Doing Sydney to Brisbane has its highlights, even on the motorway such heading down to cross the Hawkesbury River but after that, you will need to be heading far off the motorway to see things and you could even consider going inland a bit to get away from traffic and more road works.
Not far past Newcasrle for instance, you could turn off for Gloucester taking Bucketts and Thunderbolts Ways which will take you through some great countryside to the New England Highway, Armidale being one place you could stay at before heading back down to the coast via Waterfall Way, waterfalls along that route.
Alternately, you could head a bit further along the New England Highway to Glen Innes or Tenterfield before heading back down towards the coast via places like Nimbin and Casino to head to Byron Bay.

There are just going to be so many places you will not be able to see but do your research and plot a route accordingly.

There re no end of rental car companies and so unless you already have a good deal you can get trough your flights ( some discounts available by use of boarding passes etc. ), just do a search via sites like drivenow or drivelater and they do the checking for you.

Everyone hass their own opinion and from that its really up to the OP which piece of advise they take and which piece they discard. Just because someone has a different opinion doesnt necessarily mean they are wrong. Forget the " my way or the highway".