Road Trip - Melbourne to Sydney

It was a long trip with massive planning by so many of my friends. There was total of 4 Mini buses - 12 seaters and a car travelling to and back from Sydney. A total of 53 people including children. So much planning and hard work that was needed to be done.

For, starters I have never driven a 12 seater and thinking about driving made me feel nervous. But, what gave me confidence was that one with a full Car licence was permitted to drive it. Which means, it should be manageable? It hardly took me 2 to 3 mins to get used to the Big Vehicle and within 5 minutes, I was cruising on the highway and fully enjoying the drive. Thankfully, the driving was shared by two of my friends. We took turns in driving with a gap of 3 to 4 hrs.

Driving to Sydney, we have decided that Hume Freeway/Hwy is the best and the shortest option. It was a Drive 872 km drive, and took us nearly 12 hrs with number of stops for petrol, recreation, breakfast and lunch breaks. The speed limit  on the freeway is 110 kph; on non freeway sections it is mostly 100 kph except for towns and road works. The road is called the Hume Freeway in Victoria, the Hume Motorway between Prestons and Berrima, New South Wales. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and Canberra.

We started about 7:30AM in the morning and by the time we reached our destination, it was 7:45 PM. considering all the breaks we had, it was not bad.

A special caution about Speed Cameras - Especially after You cross the border between Victoria and NSW at the River Murray between Wodonga and Albury, watch out for speed cameras at very regular intervals especially for the first 30 or 40 km.I was also told that there are also time over distance cameras as far as Broadford and on the NSW sections of the Highway, that do not just measure your speed at the cameras but also time your vehicle from camera to camera to determine average speed of the vehicle. Which means, slowing down just near the cameras won't work if you speed too much in between.

On the trip from Melbourne to Sydney there are mostly no towns as the Freeway/ Highway bypasses all of them. There are number of rest stops with toilet facilities and quite a few roadside service centres where food is available.

The road is mostly good and if you have right company of friends,it a pleasure to drive.

We got on to Hume Freeway from Cooper St, Epping and followed Hume Freeway to Lincoln Causeway in Wodonga. Took the exit toward C315/Albury from Hume Freeway.We entered New South Wales by Merging onto Lincoln Causeway.Before you get to Albury, there are service centres with food outlets and a petrol station on both sides of the freeway at Glenrowan.

We took at break by Turning left onto the Hume Highway/A31 ramp to Gundagai and following Hume Hwy to Sheridan St in Gundagai. Took the exit toward Gundagai/Junee from Hume Hwy.

We had our lunch break (lunch break) at Gundagai Anzac Park approximately 2hrs journey from Albury.Gundagai is a beautiful, sleepy little town and on the board at the entrance it was displayed that the population of the place is 3000 people. Gundagai it seems - means the quite one. The park was nice and kids had some fun playing cricket and football.Our next break was at Goulburn approximately 2hrs journey from Gundagai.

After the break we continued towards Goulburn and to Sydney.

From the Hume Highway a number of Wind turbines are visible which are part of the Gunning Wind Farm project. This is a wind farm development in the Cullerin Range, north-east of Gunning, in New South Wales.The wind farm is capable of producing 46.5MW of clean, renewable energy a year. Each of the 1.5MW turbines at the Gunning Wind Farm can provide sufficient renewable energy to power approximately 750 homes and save more than 5,250 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. The 31 turbines can power 23,250 homes and save more than 162,750 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year.(This is one side of the story) The other side is that it causes too much noise, effects can be felt for residents living away 2Kms etc.

The final sections of the freeway into Sydney consisted of Tollways and miraculously from the Google maps navigation on the Samsung mobile, we got a freeway without tolls to our destination.Maybe, because we did not get into Sydney at all.

We have returned exactly the same way we went except, for lunch break we stopped at Holbrook which is a small town in Southern New South Wales. It is on the Hume Highway, 356 km North-East of Melbourne and 491 km south-west of Sydney between Tarcutta and Albury.The landmark and attraction of the town is the HMAS Otway submarine.The Holbrook council acquired a portion of the hull of HMAS Otway, an Oberon class submarine, after it was decommissioned by the Royal Australian Navy in 1995. The Navy gifted the fin from the submarine to the town.This part of the Otway is now displayed in Germanton Park in the heart of Holbrook.

Finally, it was a enjoyable and amazing road trip.Everything went well and had a positive experience at all the places we stopped and visited. The people were friendly and travelling with family and kids, I felt safe and no concerns. And, as one of my Colleagues at work told me "Once you actually drive from here to Sydney, I am sure that you will appreciate how big Australia is", and that was indeed true.