Highways & Tours
Located within this diverse Region are many must see's and do's.
Discover Rockhampton, a vibrant country city with a rich heritage and well known for its beef industry. It is also the gateway to the Capricorn Coast and the Central Highlands and Queensland's Outback. Visit the Capricorn Coast and discover the many unspoilt beaches and seaside villages; catch a passenger ferry to Great Keppel Island with its magnificent white sandy beaches and turquoise ocean. Our region also takes in the spectacular Sapphire Gemfields and Carnarvon Gorge - vastly different and fascinating beauties with colourful characters and adventures located in our Central Highlands area. The hinterland surrounding Rocky is a heartland of friendly towns and is known for its rugged natural beauty. Massive cattle stations, mining and delicate wildflowers are ready to be explored at your leisure.
All of the above can be accessed via highway routes with many points of interest and activities whether you are travelling from the north, south, east or west.
For a choice of drive itineraries, maps and road condition reports click through here to the Drive Qld web page
or you can download a few of these sample driving tours
Rockhampton Cultural Heritage Tour
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Rockhampton Natural Environment Tour
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Rockhampton to Emerald
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Rockhampton to Mt Morgan & Baralaba
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Rockhampton to Carnarvon Gorge
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Emerald to Sapphire Gemfields
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Rockhampton to Yeppoon and Byfield
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The most popular route for travelling along Australia's spectacular East coast is Highway 1, which is known in Queensland as the Bruce Highway. This Pacific Coast touring route between Brisbane and Cairns passes directly through Rockhampton, the regional capital of Central Queensland.
However, if an inland drive is a preferred option to the coastal route, then Central Queensland boasts three north—south route alternatives as well as two east—west routes.
The Burnett Highway (the A3) known as the Country Way themed tourism route begins at Tamworth, New South Wales and travels north through main towns including Armidale, Warwick, Gayndah and Monto to Thangool, Biloela, Jambin, Dululu, Mount Morgan and Bouldercombe. The Burnett Highway connects with the Bruce Highway just two kilometres south of Rockhampton. Discover our Rural Hinterland along the Burnett Highway. Experiences and attractions include Cania Gorge National Park, Kroombit Tops National Park, farmstays and many small friendly country towns.
The Leichhardt Highway (the A5) is the natural way north from the Newell Highway and begins at Goondoowindi, on the Queensland/New South Wales border. Enjoy country experiences in places such as Isla Gorge National Park, Theodore, Banana, Wowan and Dululu on your way to the Leichhardt Highway - Capricorn Highway junction just 5km west of Westwood. You can then follow the Capricorn Highway all the way to Yeppoon, on the Capricorn Coast. Just south of Yeppoon is Rosslyn Bay Harbour, where a 30 minute ferry ride to Great Keppel Island is possible. Drive a little further south and discover the growing township of Emu Park, the home of the Singing Ship memorial.
The Great Inland Way (the A7) is a 2,200 kilometre journey of discovery from Sydney, through Dubbo and Gilgandra in New South Wales and through six inland regions, including the large country towns of St George, Roma, Emerald, Charters Towers and Atherton, to Mareeba and Cairns in north Queensland. In our region the Great Inland Way delivers you to the start of the Carnarvon Gorge access road and brings you to the towns of Rolleston, Springsure, Emerald, Capella and Clermont in our Central Highlands area. Emerald is the largest town in the Central Highlands and is located 266 kilometres west of Rockhampton.
Within the Central Highlands is a vast array of experiences to discover including fossicking in the Sapphire Gemfields and exploring the many National Parks including Carnarvon Gorge, Snake Range, Peak Range and Blackdown Tableland. Enjoy watersports, fun and fishing on Lake Maraboon, Queensland's greatest man-made lake. Visit agricultural museums, farm tours and farmstays; tour art galleries and cultural centres and see a giant reproduction of Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" masterpiece; tour the region's many coalmines and visit the Blackwater International Coal Centre.
You can travel the Capricorn Highway (the A4) from Rockhampton to Blackwater , Emerald, the Sapphire Gemfields and Alpha before joining the Matilda Highway at Barcaldine in Outback Queensland. Along the way, discover the sights and sounds of our regions' industries or ponder the natural and constructed activities at a Gracemere Saleyards stud stock sale; Mt Hay Thundereggs diggings; Duaringa's Mackenzie Park; Dingo's annual Dingo Trap Throwing competition; the Blackdown Tableland National Park; Bluff's large coal train marshalling yards; Blackwater's Japanese Gardens; Comet's DIG tree; Emerald's Botanic Gardens; Anakie, Sapphire and Rubyvale's sapphire fossicking parks; Willows Gemfield's shallow digging sapphire fossicking area; Bogantungan's weed identification display; Alpha's 27 murals and the worlds smallest operational drive-in movie theatre at Jericho before the Australian Workers Heritage Centre at Barcaldine.
The Dawson Highway begins at Gladstone and crosses the Bruce Highway before delivering you into Calliope. It crosses the Country Way at Biloela and the Leichhardt Highway at Banana, then takes you through the coal mining town of Moura and the tiny hamlet of Bauhinia before meeting the Great Inland Way at Rolleston, entry to the amazing Carnarvon Gorge National Park. Don't miss the 'Purbrook' line hut in Beasley Park at Rolleston and the country hospitality of Springsure just to the north.
