While I can't offer you a ride (because I am not going), I can report on the most recent road conditions. I drove to Brisbane this last Saturday and back down yesterday, both ways on the coast road. It was great in some sections and terrible in others. I would suggest anyone thinking of the trip have a look at this map that shows what is going on (note only the Green sections can be considered finished):
http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/...status-map.pdf
The good news is that the Ballina By-pass is finished. However, the section around Byron Bay is pretty bad at the moment, they are cutting a tunnels through the hill there (obviously to eliminate that long slow hill descent to the Byron turn-off (when your heading north). Above Port Macquarie your basically running from good completed sections to bad sections until your past the Byron work. In many places there are long sections (20km+) where they have marked the speed down to 80kmph for road construction but there is actually no construction taking place in that area. There are sections where it is marked down to 60kmph where you will be stopped by construction traffic lights for long periods (10 minutes was usual).
Either way takes about the same amount of time, I left Brisbane at 6:30am yesterday and got home to Lake Macquarie at 5:30pm (11 hours to drive 812kms, so an average speed of 73.8 kmph). I drove at the speed limit on all sections where I could get to the posted speed. I only stopped for five minutes a few times.
Even though the trip is longer in kilometres, I'd suggest the inland route (the New England Highway) - at least you can keep moving and don't have as many caravaners hopping from coastal holiday stop to the next.
PS, don't buy fuel at the Port Macquarie Service Centre. They were selling diesel for $146.9 compared to $138.9 in most other service centres along that route.
Good luck
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