The Ultimate East Coast Australia Road Trip

An East Coast of Australia road trip offers the traveller stunning scenery, from sandy beaches and coral reefs, to rainforests and waterfalls. With wildlife opportunities including kangaroos, crocodiles, and the endangered cassowary, be sure to take plenty of memory cards for your camera! A fly drive in Australia is a holiday of a lifetime, but where should you point the car once you hit the road?

Cairns to Airlie Beach

If you are starting your trip in Cairns, the city itself offers plenty to do. The intrepid traveller can go hot air ballooning, sky-diving or bungee jumping, while the less adventurous will find plenty to entertain themselves in the bars, shops and restaurants of the Esplanade.

Between Cairns and Mission Beach, take a detour to the Atherton Tablelands to see this tropical plateau with its rainforest, waterfalls (including the stunning Millaa Millaa Falls) and lakes. For a scenic view of the rainforest, take the Mamu Rainforest Canopy Walkway.

Heading south, you’ll stop off at Mission Beach–four villages connected by palm-fringed beaches. It’s a good place from which to take a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. The boat trip will take you about an hour, and you can swim, snorkel, or scuba dive at this World Heritage site. From Mission Beach, you can enjoy fishing expeditions, rainforest hikes and crocodile spotting. There’s even white-water rafting on the Tully River.

At Townsville, you can enjoy the old colonial buildings and relics of the area’s maritime history. Just outside the town you’ll find the Billabong Sanctuary. On this former cattle ranch, you can encounter a variety of wildlife, including saltwater crocodiles, wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and cassowaries.

Further south, at Airlie Beach, you can sample the waterfront restaurants and bars, and take a catamaran across to the nearby Whitsunday Islands to enjoy the 7 kilometre long Whitehaven Beach.

Mackay to Brisbane

The town of Mackay, like the rest of the Queensland coast, offers the traveller beaches galore. Both saltwater and freshwater fishing are popular here. You can easily make this a worthwhile trip by preparing equipment for carp fishing with Total Fishing Tackle. You’ll also find water sports including water skiing, kite boarding and paddle boarding, with tuition available if you need it.

Continuing south, we reach Rockhampton, the ‘beef capital’ of Australia. Langmorn cattle station offers visitors a glimpse of cattle ranching, with the chance to try your hand at lassoing and whip cracking. You can join a horseback goat muster, or go for a quad bike ride.

Along the coast, there’s the historic town of Seventeen Seventy, which was the site of Captain Cook’s second landing. The wildlife and vegetation around here has been preserved, and there are some lovely walks in the area. For the surfer, the beaches here offer some fine surfing opportunities.

From Hervey Bay, you can take a whale-watching trip, go fishing, or take a glass-bottomed boat tour out to see the coral reefs. It’s just a short ferry ride from here to Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world and a World Heritage site. Relax on the white sand beach of Lake McKenzie, or take a 4WD adventure safari through the sand dunes and rainforests.

At Noosa, a trendy beach resort town, you can take a boat through the everglades. Watch out for the wildlife as you ride through the wetlands and mangroves of the Headland National Park.

On your way down towards Brisbane stop off at Australia Zoo, made famous by Steve Irwin. With an emphasis on conservation, Australia Zoo is justly famous for its Crocoseum, but has many other exhibits beyond the reptiles for which it is most widely known. Check out the tigers, elephants, rainforest aviary, and the African safari exhibit, which mimics the Serengeti ecosystem.

Brisbane itself has everything you would expect from a modern, vibrant city. Take in its art galleries and museums, and sample the culture at its opera, ballet and orchestra performances.

Come and visit Queensland!

The Queensland Coast has enough to keep even the most demanding traveller happy. Plan a holiday here and enjoy the contrasts of this fascinating part of the world.

Brad Riley is a freelance travel writer whose mission it is to go on road trips in every country of the world.