Sydney Return - Britz

Eleven nights and 3,425 kilometres in a loop from Sydney in a campervan, south to Melbourne and then back through the outback.

Canberra comes first, with the national galleries and museums, then Wodonga on the Murray and Glenrowan, where the Kelly gang’s last stand took place in 1880, and Melbourne.

The Grampians follow, sandstone ridges rising out of farmland with rock art shelters and waterfalls, then Hopetoun and Mildura on the Murray, in irrigated citrus and vine country. Broken Hill is the turning point, a silver, lead and zinc town in the far west of New South Wales that has been mined continuously since 1883 and has a serious art scene to go with it, with Silverton and its film locations nearby. Cobar, Dubbo with its open-range zoo, Tamworth and Newcastle close the loop.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Twelve days for 3,425 kilometres is a fair pace, and the outback leg between Mildura and Dubbo is the empty part of it. Everything is sealed. Winter is the comfortable season for the western half, and this is a loop rather than a one-way hire, which avoids any relocation fee. Broken Hill is the reason to take this route rather than the coast: a mining city a thousand kilometres from Sydney with galleries, a heritage-listed centre and desert in every direction.