G'Day Backpacker Jobs — Backpacker & Casual Work Australia

All road trips

QLD, NT

Townsville to Katherine — Sealed Inland Link

A practical sealed-highway link from coastal Queensland toward the Top End.

Build a day-by-day driving plan

Suggested days
8 suggested days · 6 as a shorter start
Vehicle
2WD on suitable sealed routes

Stops, in order

  1. 1Townsville
  2. 2Charters Towers
  3. 3Hughenden
  4. 4Richmond
  5. 5Cloncurry
  6. 6Mount Isa
  7. 7Camooweal
  8. 8Barkly Homestead
  9. 9Tennant Creek
  10. 10Daly Waters
  11. 11Mataranka
  12. 12Katherine

No driving time or distance is shown. A straight line on a map would be wrong for ferries, the Gulf, Cape York and the Kimberley.

Day by day

  1. Days 1–2

    Townsville → Charters Towers

    Townsville: The Strand waterfront and Reef HQ area context; Charters Towers: gold-rush heritage streets.

    Suggested overnight: Charters Towers

  2. Days 3–4

    Hughenden → Richmond

    Hughenden: dinosaur and fossil displays; Richmond: marine fossil heritage.

    Suggested overnight: Richmond

  3. Day 5

    Cloncurry → Mount Isa

    Cloncurry: mining heritage and outback landscapes; Mount Isa: mining city and surrounding outback.

    Suggested overnight: Mount Isa

  4. Day 6

    Camooweal → Barkly Homestead

    Camooweal: remote highway gateway; Barkly Homestead: remote highway rest/fuel checkpoint.

    Suggested overnight: Barkly Homestead

  5. Day 7

    Tennant Creek → Daly Waters

    Tennant Creek: Barkly heritage and overnight facilities; Daly Waters: historic outback pub stop.

    Suggested overnight: Daly Waters

  6. Day 8

    Mataranka → Katherine

    Mataranka: thermal pools where access permits; Katherine: river country and Nitmiluk access.

    Suggested overnight: Katherine

Things to do

Outback heritage tour; Katherine gorge cruise (after arrival).

Ideas only. There is no booking button, price or tour link until a real product is approved.

Find work near this route

These towns are editorial hubs. A regional town is not automatically 88-day eligible. That depends on your visa, the work, the postcode and current Home Affairs rules.

Each link opens the live job board. If nothing is listed, that search is empty. It is not a hidden vacancy.

Producer names from the directory

Matched by town name in the source file. Not checked as nearby by road, and not known to be hiring.

  • Red Diamond Beef Company (Dawson Vale/Charters Towers, QLD).

Open the farm directory — a list of places, not job ads. Sign in to view it.

Road, ferry and access

  • Remote driving, long fuel gaps and livestock: avoid rushed one-day transit stages.

Specified work rules: subclass 417 and subclass 462. This page is a travel guide, not migration advice.