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Contrary to popular belief, Queensland is far more than just one endless coastline. While the rest of the world pictures a state where everyone surfs before work, lives in swimmers and glows with a year-round tan, Queensland hides a massive, rugged interior where dust and dirt replace sea and sand. If you’ve never considered venturing west of the highway, this is your sign: Outback Queensland has just launched a brand-new road trip looping through three of its most charming inland towns.
True to its name, the Big Sky Drive is an epic 380-kilometre journey from Cloncurry to Mount Isa and Camooweal under some of Australia’s most expansive outback skies. This newly mapped route is designed to be covered over four nights, but can be easily extended to eight if you like to take it slow.
You can easily join the loop from the Northern Territory border at Camooweal via the Barkly Highway, or use Cloncurry as your gateway straight from Queensland’s Overlanders Way. Whichever direction you choose to tackle it, make sure to tune into the Big Sky Drive's immersive, geolocation audio guide. Offering more than three hours of local storytelling, history and insider tips that sync with your GPS coordinates, it’s the perfect way to break up your road trip playlist.
So, what does this road trip have in store? The Big Sky Drive kicks off in Cloncurry, or ‘The Curry’ to locals, which is a 2.5-hour flight from Brisbane. The first two days are packed with history and hidden gems: you can explore the birthplace of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, wander heritage trails and cool off in seasonal waterholes framed by rocky outcrops.
As you travel west toward Mount Isa, make sure to take a dip in Fountain Springs before checking out the historic town. It’s a choose-your-own adventure here: descend into the Hard Times Mine for an underground tour, discover Indigenous culture and ancient fossils at Outback at Isa, or take a trip to Lake Moondarra for water sports and barramundi fishing. Come nightfall, you can sleep under some of the darkest, most dazzling star-filled skies in Australia, thanks to a scattering of free camping spots along the route.
Your final leg of the road trip will guide you out of the rugged ranges around Cloncurry and Mount Isa to the wide-open plains of Camooweal. This is the gateway to the Northern Territory, where you can roll into your next great Aussie adventure! You can plan your journey here.