After watching "Two Men in a Tinnie" on ABC TV ther seems to be many places of interest along that route.  Just make sure you don't camp within 5kms of Wilcannia. I don't want to offend the law obiding citizens of the town ( I'm sure there must be a few) but after stopping there for fuel a few years ago we were absolutely shocked at the vandalism, truancy and  lack of respect shown by some of the young indigenous population. 

For such a historical town / port on the Darling, beautiful old buildings that once stood with pride when riverboats were the main form of transport, were in disrepair. Any windows that weren't broken were boarded up.

Maybe it's wrong to focus too much on negative things on any trip or to judge a place or its whole population the personal experience of one visit in a lifetime but it's hard to get bad experiences out your head. 

So please don't be put off by our little 'glitch' in one little place out of a hundred on the journey, I'm sure you'll find the whole "Darling River Run" an exhilarating challenge and an awesome experience.

Hi Tony
I have owned my Hilux for about 3 years and wouldn't buy anything else.  It's the best vehicle for the job, plus I fitted a DP chip.  With the power and torque, one has to be careful not to spin the back wheels when starting off, even with the van attached.  It is a 3 ltr, 4WD, turbo diesel, single rail, twin cab, and no canopy.  I also have an ARB bullbar, and a 9,000lb Warn winch as insurance, just in cases.  I found that I don't need a canopy.  The ute is great for the firewood, spares, jerry cans, chainsaw and all the other not so clean things.  You still have inside the cab for those items you want to keep dust free.  I leave the rear seat out permanently so the extra room comes in handy.
The ute tray is NOT dust free, in fact, it's terrible.  There are no rubber seals whatsoever and even though I put duct tape on the inside where the tailgate meets the body, dust still enters even though I have a tight fitting torneau cover.  If you were intending to sleep in the back, you would certainly need to do something about the dust problem.  For me, a bit of dust doesn't matter on the things that I carry in the back.
As a matter of interest, I towed a Jayco camper almost 15,000 kms earlier this year and averaged just on 15 ltrs/100 kms.

Hi Captain,
Thanks for that info on the Hilux. The dust matter is something I had not thought of, but obviously would need to consider.
Like me, the Hilux seems a bit thirsty (though I appreciate you were towing a van).
After the silly season is well and truly over, I'll hit the car yards and see what's on offer. Cheers, Tony

Did that run back in the 70s, the Menindee lakes were full then, and the river was actually running, the only problem we had was a flipped trailer, got into a bulldust hole, and before you could yell bugger it was head over turkey, gotta be worse now with the drought, another thing to watch for is the jump ups, a slab of concrete over a creek running in to the river, the wind and weather washes the dirt away from the edge and its a bugger on tyres, and any low prt of the vehicle 
At the time we was in a ford wagon XP and we were doing the flange gasket on the exhaust all the time ,  probably dont apply to today gear, but as Davo says be prepared