Sydney to Melbourne.... The back way

[VioletGT]

Hi all, Thinking of doing a Melb trip over the Christmas break and want to go the back/scenic roads.... Anyone have any tips? Anyone ever done it it before?

Cheers, Tony.

[Whoosha]

Following the coast rd down from Wollongong is a great run down with some great places to see, some of the small coastal towns need to be detoured off the main rd to see . Merimbula down to the Lakes is all so good, Bairnsadale then left at Sale down the sth Gippsland hwy to Wilsons Prom or Phillip island and your nearly there are all great drives , only down side they can be a bit busy at that time of year and youve turned a 10 hour drive into 3 to 4 days

[XR6WGN]

Always wanted to drive from Canberra to Adelaide taking the route Whoosha described - maybe one day I'll do it.

Found this a while ago - one of many maps which I download and store:

http://www.australianroadtrips.com/d...uringmap09.pdf

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by Whoosha

....then left at Sale down the sth Gippsland hwy to Wilsons Prom....

Actually, technically, it's straight ahead. At the roundabout at the corner of York and Foster streets, you need to turn right to continue following the Princes Highway to Melb. Straight ahead puts you on to the start (or end, depending on perspective) of the South Gippy.

Tony, the other way you could go is through Canberra, and then on to Cann River following the Monaro. The drive from the NSW/Vic border to Cann River is pretty good (windy). Of course, the down side is that anything on the north side of the border (especially on the Monaro plains) is as boring as bat poo.

Craig H

[outback_ute]

Follow the coast one way as Woosha has described, go through the mountains on the way back -
Head out to Lilydale, then Healesville, Marysville, Alexandra, Lake Eildon, Mansfield.
You can go north and take a short section of the Hume, or there is a road via Whitfield that has sections of dirt, to go to Beechworth. You could go to Bright & Mount Beauty depending on time.
Then over to Corryong and cross the NSW border. At this point a shorter version would be going via Tumbarumba or Kiandra up to Tumut which would put you back on the Hume.
Otherwise go via Kiandra and Adaminaby or Thredbo and Jindabyne to Cooma and up to Canberra, where there are still more options to get back to Sydney avoiding the Hume that you might be more familiar with. 2 or 3 days would be fairly full depending on which way you go.

[Itsme]

I have done the coastal trip a few times & plenty of scenic routes on the way but as mentioned by Whoosha it will take you a few days for the trip. (well worth it)
I have always found it to be an easy trip if you are not in a hurry.

Might pay to check out accommodation bookings as it is popular in the holiday season this time of the year.

[GYRKIN GT]

The coast route described by Whoosha is spot on. We head down to Phillip Island every other year for the MotoGP and that is pretty much our chosen route down.

However, for the return trip, we head back to Cann River, chuck a left and head up through Cooma and onto Canberra etc.

You will love both of these routes.

A word of warning though, as you're travelling through Cann River (either direction), make sure you stick to the speed limit. It's notorious. Few years back, I was stopped by a HWP bloke who must have been 10-15 metres into the bush with his radar gun. Thankfully, I was only marginally over and he turned out to be an absolutely top bloke - only gave a warning) Lesson learned though, NEVER exceed the limit anywhere near Cann River.

[mcnews]

Doing one way and a different the other way is the go. For sure. Inland route from Phillip Island should read - San Remo - Healesville - Taggerty - Thornton - Eildon - Jamieson - Mansfield - Whitfield - Bright then see how you go for which mountain passes you take across the border.