Thread: Caravanning in Australia

Gday Mark, well if you would like to see what goes into one of those heavy vans go to Spinifex caravans and have a look at some of the pics on the custom vans section. We build the vans to cope with our road conditions, in some parts of the country you can do 5 to 600 KLM's and really bad corrigated road with bull dust upto 1ft deep, even some of our HWY's are unbelievable, when we did our trip from Brisbane to Winton last year, every stopwe did we had to put the mattress back onto the bed and the road is all bitumen .

Ok questions you have to ask is are you free camping or mostly staying in caravan parks and some free camping.

If Free camping: look at vans with full ensuites, 5 water tanks (2 drinking & 3 shower/toilet) and 2 way hot water system these van weight more and can vary from 2000kg to 3500kg. Van of this config would best be in the size from 18ft6 to the max 21FT (internal).
If staying caravan parks mostly: i would look at a van 16FT6 up about 18FT6 (internal). with and external ensuite shower and porter potty, 4 water tanks, 2 drinking/2 shower and 2 way hot water system.

I have a little info on my website you may find helpfull or a link or 2 to site that may help and that is caravanninginaus - Welcome** Caravanning in Australia ENTER HERE.

I hope some of this helps and iam sure someone will find negatives with what i have said but thats great it can give a different light on things and be constructive.

Hope to run into you on the road when you come out to do your travels

Originally Posted by Heggs

thats a bit harsh I lived in a caravan in the Pilbara for a year and loved it,

For a while I was a Social Security Field Officer. My colleagues and I spent a lot of time in caravan parks. I write not of tourst/holiday parks or those that take only age pensioners in their own relocatable units, but the common urban park that takes all comers, customers vans, investors rental vans, park owned vans. Go and have a look around a few and you will see what I mean. This would be an eye opener for those who have not before seen the sloppy end of our society. Some of these parks are absolutely third world conditions.

during my touring on the Riverina few years ago we have very bad experiences in Waga, Albury and Shepperton.
On the ones in Shepperton the police used to come every hour or so
We lasted only 2 days there

Originally Posted by Heggs

thats a bit harsh I lived in a caravan in the Pilbara for a year and loved it,

LOL if you lived in the Pilbara in a caravan park for a year you probably spent more than most people earn in a year on rent

Thanks everyone for your answers, there is some great info here and please keep it coming it is making an interesting thread.
Caravanning is certainly different in Oz than the UK.

Originally Posted by Chucaro

during my touring on the Riverina few years ago we have very bad experiences in Waga, Albury and Shepperton.
On the ones in Shepperton the police used to come every hour or so
We lasted only 2 days there

My wife and I were touring and in Griffith the council officer asked us if we were fruit pickers or tourists when we went in to book a camp site. On being told we were tourists she said that she would put us in the downtown park near the shopping centre on an irrigation canal, not the one at the showgrounds which "was full of pickers and pretty rough". Went up and had a look, it was bloody rough, and as Chucaro wrote, seemed to have constant police visitations.

Originally Posted by Heggs

thats a bit harsh I lived in a caravan in the Pilbara for a year and loved it,

the parks in wa are way different to those in qld

This is a very usefull book to get Free and Budget Top Camp Sites, Best Camping Grounds and Caravan Tourist Holiday Parks Australia and this site to check on nearly all caravan parks, iam not sure if they list free camp sites but certainly wont hurt to check Australian Caravan Park Reports, Caravanning and 4WD. Yes there are certainly bad parks around and iam sure you could tell stories about some over in the UK. We have never stayed in a caravan park like some have mentioned and we have stayed in a few over the last 7 years.
This is something i did when i had spare time and can be good to give an idea on where the caravan parks actually are http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=1142268 - Google Maps