Hi All,
We are looking for a bit of advice. Has anyone gone round the whole of Australia in a year in a camper van? We are starting in May/June 18 and going round the whole (we hope) of Australia. We want to know where the best place is to start in relation to the seasons. Also has anyone got ideas about the best months to be in the different territories. Anyone who has done this we are interested to hear from. Thanks in advance!
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I have driven a fair bit of Australia using caravans and campervans but not all around in one hit ( something yet to be done ) but to get best weather in May/June, I would start in Brisbane and head north, you able to get as far as Cooktown on sealed roads ( and if you are hiring, without a 4WD campervan, you will be restricted to sealed roads ). ---- change that to Darwin --- see below
So you keep heading anti-clockwise, popping down to Alice Springs and Uluru before a backtrack up to Darwin and then on around to Kununurra and Broome before heading down the west coast of WA as Spring is coming on.
Lots of wild flowers - http://www.rainbowcoast.com.au/areas/rainbowcoast/wildflowers.htm .
There are going to be lots of places where you will have restricted travel with a campervan and so in some places you might want to park it up and do a tour, that particularly for places like Kakadu in the NT, the NW of WA and Fraser Island.
Kakadu can dry out fairly quickly after a wet season and getting there even in July can find it a bit disappointing so just thinking on that score, an alternative to what I started you on would be to arrive in Darwn, explore locally to recover from jetlag and then take a tour to Kakadu before getting a campervan.
Head down to Alice Springs and Uluru before backtracking to head around into the NW of WA and you will find you are possibly even better off with wildflowers as you head south to Perth and beyond for September/October and starting the easterly trek with westerly winds pushing you.
With that timeframe, you will be arriving over east at a time when there are a lot of various festivals on so do a bit of research on that if of interest, The Melbourne Cup being on first Tuesday in November, it the 6th for 2018 and there is a whole Spring Racing Carnival spread over a few weeks.
It is also a time that flowers around all eastern cities will be blooming so a lovely time to be about generally.
Even though you can get Spring and Summer storms, you can kind of dodge those to some extent with weather forecasts if you are on the move and November to April is a great time for the south east and Tasmania.
In heading north towards Brisbane and Cairns in April to arrive up at Cairns/Cooktown a year from when you started, you will miss the cyclone season and worst of humidity.
There is not a great lot between Cairns and Darwin so if you elected to give that stretch a miss and end your journey in Cairns, you will have arguably had best travelling weather throughout the 12 months and missed what is arguably the least interesting bit to do.
I'd back up the weather remarks of of Trav. And add there is not a lot between Darwin and Perth, I love the state, but its mostly open desert. Maybe some tips on driving, don't drive at night in the bush as there is too much animal life (roo's, cattle, sheep, emu's, camels, wombats, etc) and almost all roads are not fenced. Once you get out of regional cities, you will not have phone coverage, except for maybe 15km either side of a town. As you're driving, fuel prices will rise as soon as you leave major cities, having said that thought, fuel is still cheaper than the UK. I think most towns have restrictions on free camping within about 20km of town. And of course Oz uses the metric system all over for everything.
Yes, fully agree that you ought to take it easy with the driving, not just because of four legged animals either for there are always the two legged ones behind the wheels of other vehicles and then there are road trains, something to be given a wide berth, especially on narrower roads - https://au.pinterest.com/1rachels/australian-road-trains/?lp=true - they are not too manouverable nor stop too quick.
Also, just to give you a bit more flexibility re where you can travel, for a year you could likely be in front re buying a campervan or even a 4WD, often quite a few on the market @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/backpackerjobsaustralia/ but you might need to vary where you start.
There's also the issue of which state a vehicle is registered in, ownership/registration change able to be done online in some situations and the word is that a WA registered vehicle is easier to change ownership/registration of but there are still likely criteria required re address etc. States of Victoria and Queensland require a RWC on transfer whereas NSW require one each year - links to all states @ http://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/transport-and-regional/registration-renewal .
But get a reasonable one at a reasonable enough price and you may not have too much difficulty selling it when ready to do so.
Re free camping areas, you will find overnight stops pretty much anywhere other than in peak tourism regions such as some sections of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria and often enough you can find places pretty close to towns if not right in them if being discreet. There is a book you can buy called Camps Australia and a great guide which includes reasonable maps.
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