Opting for some southern comfort

South-by-southwest out of Brisbane, out the back way through Bourke, and onto Adelaide is a fair and rewarding drive.

It’s the scenery, the black and white history and the people. It’s the stories and big skies of wide-open countryside, grand old pubs and homesteads of stone. And then there’s the wines.

Writer Henry Lawson, exiled from Sydney town to dry out in the late 1800s, proclaimed: “If you know Bourke, you know Australia” and gathered much of his material for poems and yarns out  this way.

That Outback river port still holds a special place, and modern comforts, for the long-distance traveller.

A road expedition – with or without caravan – remains the best way to absorb this land.

It’s less onerous today than Lawson’s travels, with reasonable roads, decent motels and parks, plus, for the most part, half-decent coffee from the Queensland border to Adelaide.

It’s more absorbing than a plane ride; less constrained than a coach tour.

So, the old ute, filled with fuel and belongings, heads out through farmlands and cotton fields to St George, with a beer at the famed Hebel Hotel, and motors on to Lightning Ridge.

Accommodation is limited around here but there’s a decent motel among the options, black opal mines to explore and artesian baths to splash.

The next leg, around 475km, sees more scrub and mulga and emus and kangaroos and goats and goats and goats before running into Bourke on the drawling Darling River where wool was once shipped by paddle steamers.

The Bourke Centre is worth a look, with plenty of history to be digested and a magic, animated film of the area’s Dreamtime yarns. On to Cobar for some big, old lace-veranda pubs and a welcoming cabin at the taut-and-trim Cobar Caravan Park for the evening.

Diesel prices through this stretch of the Outback at this time are up and down a touch, but rarely above $2 a litre.

Meanwhile, the Mazda ute is averaging a tick over 9.5 litres per 100km – all good.

Accommodation prices also vary but $160 a night finds reasonable rooms. If chasing more authentic experiences out this way, check out outbackbeds.com.au.

From Cobar, it’s a four or five-hour hop west down the Barrier Highway to Broken Hill. Here, the country begins to open up into proper Outback and ‘Priscilla’ territory.

Broken Hill, birthplace of ‘The Big Australian’, hosts the Palace Hotel (famed for a starring cameo in the film Priscilla Queen of the Desert and for two-up games) in a central streetscape of beautiful old hotels and historic buildings. This was Australia’s first Heritage-Listed city. It’s home to the Pro Hart Gallery, the Jack Absalom Gallery and, maybe best of all, about 20km out of town is the old Silverton Hotel: seen in a host of commercials and films, plus the Mad Max 2 Museum, chock-full of film shorts, costumes and cars from that edition of Mad Max shot out in this red-dirt country.

Back to bitumen and it’s some 500 kilometres and vistas wide open to the edge of the Earth – from Broken Hill to Adelaide and the charms of Glenelg: a forever convivial seaside suburb.

Armed with a free Metro Card for seniors, Glenelg is 45 minutes by tram from Adelaide’s Rundle Mall and about 10 minutes’ drive from the airport.

Yet there’s little need to decamp from the suburb with a collection of eating places and more than 300 speciality shops down Jetty Road, a cinema,  fine dining by the sea, plus beach wanders and such. Or explore the area’s historic mansions with an information centre booklet.

Glenelg is an excellent base for ducking out to South Australia’s acclaimed wineries. It’s just over an hour to the Barossa Valley, 30 minutes to the Adelaide Hills or McLaren Vale and there’s out-of-town bus tours (saving drink-drive angst) to consider.

This time, the ute is steered east to the delights of McLaren Vale and a fine collection of wineries. Steadfast wine fans will need more than a day here, and vineyards such as Serafino offer handy accommodation. Be aware that some places may close up in cooler months and that restaurants may not open until late in the week.

One pub just south of here, and always open, is the Victory at Sellick’s Beach: a warm and welcoming hostelry with great views and good food, plus an amazing cellar of vintage wines.

Moving east, through the old-school charms of Victor Harbor, and the traveller comes to the classic old port of Goolwa and the sprawling mouth of the Murray River. A mighty fine sight to see.

On to Mount Gambier and here we turn north, cutting across some early morning fogged-in back country to Horsham, followed by a run to Swan Hill and paddle steamers and a small, yet absorbing, art gallery.

Just out of here is Lake Boga and the Catalina flying boat museum, dedicated to the World War II base and service crews, that is well worth a side trip.

Leaving Victoria, it’s over the Hay plains to Hay, and on through Forbes and Parkes – with the big astronomy telescope, the ‘Dish’ – and then to Dubbo for a ‘zoofari’ through the Western  Plains Zoo.

By now, home’s starting to call and it’s a couple of full days’ travel up the Newell, through Goondiwindi, onto the Toowoomba bypass and to Brisbane.

With more time to spend, swing east at Coonabarabran to the Oxley Highway and meander up through Tamworth, past the Big Guitar, and north through the genteel New England towns of Armidale and Tenterfield.

All this, over 5000 kilometres, takes  in a good slice of southeast Australia, the edges of the Outback, western sunsets and a great deal of Aussie history.

All of this without leaving the bitumen and without forsaking any modern-day comforts.

LONG-DISTANCE TRAVEL CHECKLIST:

• plan the route early for overnight stops
• service car and tyres
• carry a road atlas: old-school maps have more perspective, plus Google may show the quickest route, not necessarily the most interesting
• load up music playlists and/or podcasts: internet and phone coverage can be sketchy out west
• take a phone charger
• use a notebook to record a highlight, newfound fact, special (or ordinary) meal or fuel price, as memories can blur over two weeks or so
• pack a chamois: for wiping off early-morning fog
• mop up spills and dry rain-splattered faces with an old bath towel
• pack a roll of toilet paper: not found in all roadside facilities
• supply patience for dealing with fellow travellers, roadworks and co-drivers.