Sydney to Brisbane by car

There are two primary routes between Sydney and Brisbane.

The Pacific Highway (A1) and Pacific Motorway (M1) is a primary highway 800 km long, running between the Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane, up the north coast of New South Wales. It forms a key segment of Highway 1, which runs around the length of Australia. The Pacific Highway connects many of the state's major cities and towns, and is the obvious choice if speed or access to the coastal beaches are your primary deciding factors.

The primary alternative is the New England Highway (A15), which starts at Newcastle around an hour north of Sydney and detours inland via the Hunter Valley, Tamworth and Armidale. Largely agricultural, this route consists mostly of two-lane rural highways and adds around 200 km and at least 3 hours to the trip.

You can also mix and match the two, with the Waterfall Way (B78) between Coffs Harbour (Pacific Hwy) and Armidale (New England Hwy) considered one of the most scenic drives in the country.

You can start from either end of the road, or from many points along its length. To the south, Sydney is a major gateway, and to the north Brisbane and the Gold Coast both have many transport options. You can hire a car at either end, shop around for a good one way deal if you need one.

When planning a trip up the Pacific Highway, the major consideration is holidays. The Pacific Highway links several large Australian cities and also passes through major beach holiday areas close to Sydney. Thus traffic is absolutely nightmarish at either end of a holiday period; it's not unheard of for trip times to be four times as long. The worst times to be traveling north are the afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve (or of the day before if Christmas Eve is a Sunday), the afternoon and evening of the day before the Good Friday holiday and the night before and morning of the first day of any long weekend. When traveling south, the end of holiday periods are the peak time. Since Australians take summer holidays in January, you will also want to avoid traveling north on the Friday or Saturday of any weekend in January, and likewise avoid traveling south on Sundays in January.

While the New England Highway is much less likely to get crowded, when coming from Sydney you'll still need to drive through the Sydney-Newcastle section of the Pacific Hwy to get there, and around the holidays this can get quite jammed. The only remotely viable bypass, Putty Road from Wilberforce in northwestern Sydney to Singleton in the Hunter Valley, is very narrow and winding and takes at least an hour longer.

As both the Pacific and New England Highways are major roads passing through populated areas, there's no need to take special precautions; this is emphatically not the Outback. It might be a good idea, as with all car trips, to make sure that you have food, water and warm enough clothing so that having to sleep in the car for a night wouldn't be a disaster. However, you will have ample opportunity to purchase all food and drink along the way.

See also: Tips for road trips and Driving in Australia.

Main article: Highway 15 (Australia)

• 🌍 Hunter Valley, the top wine region in New South Wales, with plenty of green rolling hills, cellar doors and boutique accommodation
• 🌍 Tamworth, the home of Australian country music
• 🌍 Armidale
• 🌍 Glen Innes
• 🌍 Warwick

Go along M1/A1 Bruce Highway