Alice Springs to Brisbane via Mount Isa and Longreach - Mighty

Thirteen nights and 2,992 kilometres from Alice Springs to Brisbane in a campervan, across the Barkly and outback Queensland with two nights at most stops.

Alice Springs takes the first two, in the MacDonnell Ranges, with the gorges west of town and the Telegraph Station the place grew out of, then Tennant Creek with another two, on the Barkly Tableland, cattle country of a scale that is hard to take in.

Mount Isa follows with two more, a mining city built on one of the most productive single deposits in the world, with the underground experience and the hard rock history behind it. Longreach comes next with two, the birthplace of Qantas, with the original hangar and the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. Morven, Toowoomba with two nights, and Ipswich carry the route down to the coast at Brisbane.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from Mighty, 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. Fourteen days with two nights nearly everywhere turns what could be a hard crossing into a tour of outback towns, which is the point. Winter is the season, since summer inland is punishing. The towns are a couple of hundred kilometres apart with very little in between, so fuel and water want topping up at each, and road trains need room and respect. This is a one-way hire of considerable length, so a relocation fee is worth confirming at booking.