My names Brent and i am in the early stage of planning a ride from Sydney to Melbourne for a bit of an adventure. My first goal is to enjoy the experience and create some good memories but secondly to raise a good amount of money for charity. I am a beginner rider who bought a bike at the start of the year and have thoroughly enjoyed getting out on weekends and have been riding distance upto 100km (which i was pretty proud of until i read posts in this forum

I have been surfing the net and found many blogs etc of people who have done the route but i do have some questions and i was hoping that i could take advantage of all of the experience i have read across other posts, so here goes:
I plan on taking the coastal route purely because it seems like the scenic route. What maps/resources are best to plan a route an get an idea of how mountainous it is (so i can plan for climbs)? Or does anyone have a route they can recommend?
I only have basic knowledge about bikes and tyres etc and want to learn so i choose the right gear and can handle any maintenance issues . Are there any resources/short courses or anything you can recommend for me to look into to build knowledge?
And finally what are the must see's and do's along the way. I want to have fun and see the sites!
Thanks in advance and i look forward to hearing from you.