Adelaide to Gold Coast road trip: Best stops, distance & drive time

Adelaide to Gold Coast road trip: Tailem Bend to the Victorian border.

Just south of Tailem Bend, you need to branch east down the Mallee Highway. This, it is fair to say, is not Australia’s most riveting road, and there is very little to see on the way to the Victorian border.

If you’ve got a 4WD, you might be interested in having a ride over the sand dunes near Peake.

Otherwise, Lameroo has a golf course, supermarket, pub and caravan park, although Pinnaroo just before the border crossing has a wider range of accommodation on offer.

Adelaide to Gold Coast drive: The Mallee Highway in Victoria

The drive along the Mallee Highway in Victoria doesn’t get much more scintillating. Murrayville is the first settlement of any real size, and there are a few tracks to explore through the Murrayville Conservation Reserve.

The same applies with the reserves around Cowangie, Tutye and Boinka, a little further to the west.

The best place to branch off the Mallee Highway, however, is Linka. To the north lies Murray Sunset National Park, the largest national park in Victoria. Here, you can see plenty of wildlife – notably, it’s one of the few places in Australia that plays home to both red and grey kangaroos.

There are also several campgrounds, and a few pink lakes.

Otherwise, push through to crossroads town Ouyen, where the Mallee Highway and Calder Highway meet. Here, you can have a dip in the swimming lake, fill up on goodies at the Mallee Bakery or detour north to the wildlife-surrounded lakes of Hattah-Kulkyne National Park.

Continue along the Mallee Highway, however, and you reach Manangatang. There are a few places to eat here, plus a golf course, racecourse and public swimming pool. A detour to the south will bring you to Lake Tyrrell – one of Australia’s most impressive pink lakes.

Click through to the next section: Piangil to Balranald.