Perth to Sydney Road Trip

Start things off with a leisurely leg today and stock up on supplies in the city before setting course for pretty Northam, just 1 hour and 30 minutes from Perth. This town in Western Australia’s wheatbelt is tucked into the Avon Valley and has a long agricultural heritage. Northam sits and the blending of two rivers, the Avon and the Mortlock Rivers and is well-loved for its large population of white swans and other birdlife.

Sightseeing spots in Northam

Northam’s historic buildings

Around 180 buildings in Northam have heritage significance, so take a wander around town to admire the elegant architecture of the late 1800s, such as Northam Town Hall and the Post Office. Make sure you swing by the 1836-era Morby Cottage, which was he first European settler’s house built here. It’s open to the public to peruse on Sundays.

Northam Suspension Bridge

A must-see in Northam, the suspension bridge spans the Avon River, taking pedestrians from one bank to the other. It’s one of the longest suspension bridges in Australia and is a great viewing point for those elegant white swans as they glide across the water.

Around three hours’ drive from Northam will land you in Hyden. This low-key outback town might seem unremarkable at first, but it’s home to some truly incredible sights. Come spring the outback plains are festooned with colourful wildflowers, but all year-round people come to catch a very particular wave.

Sightseeing spots in Hyden

Wave Rock

Although there’s no coast within cooee, Wave Rock certainly draws a crowd. Estimated to be more than 2700 million years old, its striped granite curve reaches 15 metres high and is a truly astonishing, and Instagram-worthy, site.

Hippo’s Yawn

Not far from Wave Rock is Hippo’s Yawn, a formation than resembles, well, a hippo yawning. You can climb into the throat of the geologically formed hippo for a great shot. While you’re here, be sure to check out the wildlife park, where you can catch up with camels, alpacas, wombats and koalas.

A little more than four hours from Hyden will have you arriving at Kalgoorlie-Boulder. This historic outback mining town in Western Australia is shaped by its gold rush heritage, which is still visible in the old-world elegance of its buildings. The past is palpable here and a good way to engage with it is on a visit to Museum of the Goldfields. Kalgoorlie rewards those who slow down, an extra night here gives you time to properly explore the goldfields heritage beyond the Super Pit and scratch the surface of this fascinating outback city.

Sightseeing spots in Kalgoorlie-Boulder

Super Pit Lookout

Kalgoorlie is also home to one of the world’s largest open-cut gold mines, the Super Pit. Spanning 3.5-kilometres long and 1.5-kilometres wide, the Super Pit is a colossal crater plunging 600 metres deep. While it draws a crowd as a tourist site, it still a working mine and yields plenty of gold every year.

Hannans North Tourist Mine

If you’ve worked up a bit of gold fever after checking out the cavernous pit, head to the Hannans North Tourist Mine. This open-air museum will scratch your prospecting itch with its gold-panning ponds and a tour in modern haul truck.

Spend an extra day in Kalgoorlie to really penetrate the many layers of this mining town. Then on day 5, carry on along the Eyre Highway for about four-to-five hours to reach Balladonia. A tiny outpost town surrounded by the Great Western Woodlands, an expansive area of biodiversity which is larger than both England and Wales combined. This one already builds in an extra day in Kalgoorlie, which is well deserved — use it to explore the Museum of the Goldfields or simply soak in the atmosphere of one of Australia’s most characterful outback towns.

Sightseeing spots in Balladonia

Balladonia Heritage Museum

After the 90 Mile Straight, your eyes and legs will need a break, so when you pull into Balladonia, head to the Heritage Museum housed at the Balladonia Roadhouse. The museum has a curious collection of artefacts and historical bric-a-brac, but it’s most unusual exhibit is pieces of the US Skylab Space Station, which crash-landed nearby in 1979.

The Nullarbor Links

Undoubtedly the world’s longest golf course, the Nullarbor Links is an 18-par golf course stretching for 1,365 kilometres with one hole in each town or roadhouse along the Eyre Highway. On this trip, you’ll tee-off in Kalgoorlie and play your last hole in Ceduna, with Balladonia on the way.

Mark this as a driving day, but be sure to pull into Cocklebiddy. Perhaps better known for its roadhouse than anything else, the Golden Outback community of Cocklebiddy is around two and-a-half-hours from Balladonia. It’s a good spot for a break and to have a swing at the next whole in the Nullarbor Links course, otherwise, keep trucking on to Eucla, another three hours away.

Still in WA but only 10 minutes from the South Australian border, Eucla sits on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain. Once home to Australia’s busiest telegraph station outside the capital cities in the early 1900s, the town has historic roots worth exploring.

Sightseeing spots in Eucla

Eucla Lookout

Pull over at Eucla Lookout and let the scale of the place sink in as you take in the view rolling toward the coast and over the sandy ruins of the Old Telegraph Station. It’s a pause that reminds you of just how remote this corner of Australia is.

Eucla Museum

The Eucla Museum at the Eucla Motel is a compact but curious stop while you’re fuelling up or stretching your legs. Eucla began life in 1877 as a manual repeater station on the overland telegraph line, and a handful of artefacts from that pioneering era have survived to tell the story.

As you continue skirting the Great Australian Bight today you’ll cross the state border into South Australia. About a four-hour drive from Eucla, make your first SA stop at beautiful Fowlers Bay. This Nullarbor Plain town sits on the edge of Port Eyre and once bustled with activity as a port that serviced the western reaches of the country. Today, it still has a frontier feel and is a great place to rest and recharge as you explore the vast and raw beauty of the Bight. Fowlers Bay’s frontier charm and proximity to the Bight make it worth lingering, consider an extra night here before the road pushes on east.

Sightseeing spots on the Great Australian Bight

Bunda Cliffs

To truly absorb the massive scale of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain itself, which stretches for 1100 kilometres and takes up an area the size of Victoria, head to one of the Head of Bight Lookout on the Eyre Peninsula. From the lookout, you’ll have uninterrupted views of the Southern Ocean and the Far West Coast Marine Park. You can also take in the cliffs from the Eyre Highway, just pull over when you see a particularly good spot for a photo.

Head of Bight whale watching

One of the most incredible places to whale-watch in South Australia, the Head of Bight overlooks a sheltered bay below, where Southern Right whales gather to calve and play between June and October. There are boardwalks and two main viewing areas from which to enjoy the antics of these enormous marine mammals.

From Fowlers Bay, it’s less than three hours around the curve to Streaky Bay on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. It will have been a few days since you’ve encountered a town this big, so relax and acquaint yourself with this stunning spot and its beautiful beaches. You may want to spend an extra night here.

Sightseeing spots in Streaky Bay

Murphy’s Haystacks

You’ll find the striking forms of the ‘inselbergs’ (that’s German for ‘island mountain’) between Streaky Bay and Port Kenny on the Eyre Peninsula. These startling pink granite formations rise from the surrounding farmland and look like prehistoric creatures. They look particularly otherworldly at sunset when the sun’s warm glow reflects off the strange shapes.

Streaky Bay Jetty

The Streaky Bay Jetty pushes out into the clear blue waters of Murat Bay and is well worth a wander or trying your luck by casting out. Back on shore, the shark-safe swimming enclosure will help you cool off after a dusty drive and the grassy foreshore alongside is made for settling in with some fresh local fish and chips.

Port Augusta is a little under four hours from Streaky Bay and sits at a crossroads between the main arterial roads connecting Perth to Sydney and Adelaide to Darwin. It’s also where the outback meets the ocean and sits at the gateway to South Australia’s extraordinary Flinders Ranges. There’s plenty to see in this remote city, so be sure to allow yourself enough time here. Port Augusta sits at one of Australia’s great geographic crossroads and has more than enough to fill two days — the Flinders Ranges on its doorstep alone makes a compelling case for staying longer.

Sightseeing spots in Port Augusta

The Big Galah

Perched on the Eyre Highway, the Big Galah proves Australia’s love for oversized things is country-wide, even all the way down here. This eight-metre-high icon of the bush is blushed pink and has recently been renovated, so it’s ready to pose for your selfies. It sits by a gem shop, where you can pick up opals, local gemstones and carved emu eggs.

Wadlata Outback Centre

No visit to Port Augusta is complete without a trip to the Wadlata Outback Centre. Here you can step back to a time when dinosaurs roamed the region and discover first-nations and settler history. You’ll also learn about the crucial Royal Flying Doctors Service, School of the Air and unearth facts about the gems concealed underground.

Welcome to South Australia’s Riverland region. A little over four hours from Port Augusta, the drive reveals flat, dry country that gives way to softer greens as you close in on the Murray River. Renmark is the first major town you’ll hit in the Riverland and it’s a beauty is nothing short of remarkable after the raw outback landscape. This unhurried river town feels like a well-earned reward. After weeks of outback driving, the lush banks of the Murray River have a way of making you want to stay. If your schedule allows, an extra night in Renmark is a restorative way to ease into the final leg of the journey.

Sightseeing spots in Renmark

Renmark riverfront

The Murray River is at its most inviting along the Renmark riverfront, where towering river red gums line the banks and pelicans patrol the shallows. Take the Renmark Riverfront Town Heritage Walk, a five-kilometre trail that lays out the town’s history alongside gentle river vistas.

Murray River paddle steamer cruise

The Murray River’s paddle steamer history is a fascinating chapter in Australian story. These vessels were once the lifeblood of inland trade, but today the PS Industry makes a lovely tourist experience with a 60-minute cruise upstream. Renmark is one of the best places on the river to step aboard a restored steamer and feel the rhythm of the paddles.

After just a 90-minute drive, you’ll find yourself across the border in Victoria. Following the Murray east to Mildura, you’ll arrive in a sun-drenched regional city built on irrigation, viticulture and citrus. This city claims itself to be the tropical north of Victoria and punches well above its weight for food, wine and things to do. If you’ve been craving some urban delights, you’ve found them in Mildura.

Sightseeing spots in Mildura

Lock 11 on the Murray River 

One of a series of locks built to regulate the Murray’s flow, Lock 11 sits right in Mildura and is surprisingly fascinating to watch in operation. When a boat passes through, the lock fills or empties to adjust water levels. It’s the only lock in Australia that allows people to walk across the lock gates. The surrounding parkland along the riverbank is lovely for a stroll.

Perry Sandhills

Set on the other side of the squiggle that is the Victorian and New south Wales border, you’ll find Perry Sandhills in the NSW town of Wentworth. It’s worth the 30ish-minute detour to experience this unexpected desert landscape of shifting golden dunes rising from the flat riverine plains, which were formed by thousands of years of wind erosion some 40,000 years ago. Hire a sandboard and plunge down the side of a dune.

Today’s drive takes you north into New South Wales and deep into flat and beautifully desolate country. Hay is a little more than three hours from Mildura, and the road there is famously, almost hypnotically, flat and straight. Don’t underestimate the meditative quality of this drive, but do keep a lookout for mobs of emus darting across the plains. Hay itself is a small outback town with a big history and a fierce pride in its identity.

Sightseeing spots in Hay

Shear Outback

Leaning into outback legend, a visit to Shear Outback, also known as The Australian Shearers’ Hall of Fame in Hay celebrates the tough, skilled world of shearing and the pastoral industry that shaped the nation. It’s an interactive and genuinely engaging museum, not just for history buffs.

Bishop’s Lodge Historic House

This gracefully preserved heritage building dates back to 1888 and has an interesting history connected to the early Anglican church in outback New South Wales. It offers a glimpse into colonial-era life in a remote and unforgiving landscape. Rose fans won’t want to miss a stroll around the gardens here to see these dainty blooms.

The drive from Hay to Bathurst is one of the longer days on this leg, clocking in at just under six hours and climbing up through the Central Tablelands as the flat plains give way to rolling hills and the Blue Mountains foothills. As Australia’s oldest inland settlement, Bathurst has plenty to inspire from gold rush history to heritage buildings, but come October and the city swells with visitors coming for the ‘Great Race’, an car race that battles it out on the curves of Mount Panorama.

Sightseeing spots in Bathurst

Mount Panorama Circuit

Even if you’ve never watched a lap of the Bathurst 1000, driving the Mount Panorama Circuit is a genuine thrill. The public road is open to regular traffic outside race events, meaning you drive up and over the mountain at road-legal speeds and imagine what it feels like to tackle Conrod Straight or The Chase at full throttle. The views from the top are excellent, too.

Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum

Housing the impressive Somerville Collection permanently, this museum contains an extraordinary range of fossils, minerals and gemstones, including a complete mounted T-Rex skeleton. It’s a surprisingly world-class collection for a regional city, so allocate some time in your schedule to peruse its contents.

It’s the home stretch! From Bathurst it’s three hours to the heart of Sydney, but don’t rush to the finish line. You’ll want to build in plenty of time to stop in the Blue Mountains. After all, it’s one of the great natural wonders of New South Wales and a stunning way to finish the trip. Drop down through the mountains, follow the highway east, and let Sydney reveal itself in all its harbour city glory.

Sightseeing spots in the Blue Mountains and Sydney

Three Sisters at Katoomba

The Three Sisters are the Blue Mountains’ most iconic landmark. These three sandstone pillars rising above the Jamison Valley are sacred to the Gundungurra, Wiradjuri, Tharawal and Darug nations. Stop at Echo Point Lookout in Katoomba for the classic view, and if time allows, take one of the walking tracks down into the valley for a different perspective.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

You’ve driven across the country. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, affectionally dubbed ‘The Coathanger’, is your finish line. Whether you’re crossing it by road, walking the pylon lookout, or simply gazing at it over a well-deserved drink in the Rocks, few moments on a road trip are more satisfying. Welcome to Sydney!

Finding the perfect campsite is easy with G’Day Campgrounds. Travellers Autobarn customers enjoy 10% off bookings, making it the go-to choice for hassle-free overnight stays across Australia. Alternatively, the free CamperMate app helps you locate nearby sites on the go, or browse our guide to free camping in Australia for budget-friendly options along your route.

If you’re hiring a campervan from us in Perth, there’s plenty to see in the west once you get your wheels. Check out these other incredible WA road trips before you make your way to the east coast:

• Perth to Exmouth road trip
• Perth to Esperance road trip
• Perth to Broome road trip
• Perth to Ningaloo Reef in 10 days

The road awaits! Get prepared for your Perth to Sydney road trip by finding the best campervan deals with Travellers Autobarn. With free unlimited kilometres on every hire and a range of campervans to suit all needs, your journey will get off without a hitch.

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