There’ll be a lot to do on the trip, and rest assured a couple of surprises will be popping up along the way.





Once we leave the coast, we’ll be heading for Charters Towers, in its day one of the richest gold mining towns in Queensland. From there we make for Hughenden, perched on the edge of an ancient inland sea, and home to the Flinders Discovery Centre. Here you will not only get to meet “Hughie”, the 7-metre tall Muttaburrasaurus, but you’ll marvel at the world-class display of ancient fossils. North Queensland evenings are ideal for relaxing, so after the stones ‘n bones, why not take a drink and some cheese and watch the sunset from Mount Walker?
Julia Creek is our next port of call. Here we’ll meet a special little mate, the endangered Julia Creek Dunnart. From there we head to Cloncurry for 2 nights, stopping on the way for a real bucket-list item, lunch at Crocodile Dundee’s Walkabout Creek Hotel.
The day following our arrival in Cloncurry will be spent viewing the wonderful exhibits at the John Flynn Museum and then the Cloncurry Unearthed Museum.
Mount Isa is next on the itinerary, and we head there via a slight detour in order to take in the sights of Mary Kathleen. This place, an abandoned uranium mining town, is an absolute hidden gem. Mount Isa is a great spot to resupply if you find yourself getting low on essentials.
After The Isa comes Boulia and its well-known Min-Min Encounter Show. Are Min-Min lights real, or just a figment of outback imagination? This is certainly the place to find out more about them.
From Boulia, we head for Winton, first lunching at the Middleton Hotel, one the most isolated pubs in Queensland.
We will then spend 2 nights in Winton, which gives us all a stretch of time to catch up on washing and other chores. We highly recommend that you allow a day to spend at the Waltzing Matilda Centre, which, as the brochures say, is maybe the only (certainly the first) museum in the world built around a song. You will also find here displays tracing the local origin of QANTAS, Australia’s national airline.
Our last stop before heading home to Townsville will be Torrens Creek, population 20, and home to some splendid national parks and lookouts. The tour will treat you to a meal at the Torrens Creek Hotel, where you’ll probably get to meet most of the locals!
Once back in Townsville, we will gather for the last time to share memories around a farewell dinner.

Our tour begins in Melbourne with a bus day trip to Royal Park, the starting point for the 1860 expedition. Then it’s on to the the cemetery where Burke and Wills are buried and to Moonee Ponds, where the expedition party camped for their first night. Leaving the city of Melbourne behind in our own vehicles, we travel through Bendigo and Swan Hill and on into western New South Wales, looking at interesting monuments along the way.
After stopping at Pooncarie and camping overnight on the banks of the mighty Darling River, we move onto Menindee for a relaxing evening at Copi Hollow, part of the Menindee Lakes System. We then divert a little with a 2-night stay in Broken Hill for a day off, during which we will be visiting the Living Desert Sculptures exhibition. Back on the road again, we continue north to Tibooburra, where we’ll be spending the night.
The following evening will be spent at Innamincka on Cooper Creek. Here we visit the sites where Burke and Wills eventually perished. Then it is on to Dig Tree, Camp 65 on the Burke and Wills expedition. From Dig Tree we head north to Haddon’s corner, spending the night at Deon’s Lookout. Our next 2 nights will be spent in Birdsville, gateway to the Simpson Desert. If you have ever wanted to drive up Big Red, the largest sand dune in the Simpson, now’s your chance.
Whether you climb the dune or not, you will be treated to dinner at the infamous Birdsville Pub. Fully refreshed, we continue north on to Bedourie, Boulia then Mt Isa. At Mt Isa we will visit the Underground Hospital and Museum.
Once we reach Normanton, where we stay for 2 nights, we will have a day trip on
the Gulflander Train. Our tour will finish at Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is here we will get to do something that Burke and Wills couldn’t; enjoy a glass of champagne and a cheese platter on the beach as we watch the sun go down over the water. In the evening a seafood banquet will be our farewell dinner.