Australia December 2013 - Trip planning & Advice

[Scott]

Following on from our 105’s build thread (http://www.landcruiserclub.net/forums/showthread.php/50024-Wanda-FZJ105RV-(pic-heavy)) I thought that now would be a good time to share our trip outline with you guys, and to seek advice from the many on here that have experience of traveling Australia.

Steph and I get married on the 14 of December, and fly to Australia on the 16th for 7.5 weeks. We’ll arrive in Adelaide on the 18th and plan to spend a couple of days, acclimatising, getting the truck sorted, camping and cooking gear arranged and everything ready to hit the road.

We haven’t planned every minute of every day, instead we’ve got a rough outline, some ideas and some great Hema map / route books with loads of tracks to drive. We plan to travel at our own pace, and not feel that we have to keep pushing on to keep to a schedule. If we like an area and want to spend sometime there, we will. We hope that this will be first of several trips to Oz, so what we don’t do this time, will be covered on a return trip.

Our first destination is Brisbane, to spend Christmas and New Year with good friends of ours who emigrated in 2009. The intended route is: Adelaide - Peterborough - Broken Hill - Wilcannia (been advised that Wilcannia is not a place to hang around), from Wilcannia - Bourke we plan to take the dirt tracks that follow the Darling River, then on to Brewarrina.

If we’re making good time we’ll take to the dirt tracks again, this time following the Bokhara River to Hebel (just north of Lightening Ridge) from there it’ll be mostly a highway run towards Toowoomba and then our destination Dayboro. We hope to arrive on Christmas Eve.

After a great time with our friends we plan to hit the road again on the 2nd of Jan, and will have 5 weeks to tour South Queensland, NSW and the VIC High Country (Ben’s stomping ground), before returning to Adelaide around the 6 / 7th of February.

Consulting the books and chatting to people, we have compiled a list of areas of interest to visit, and nice tracks to drive as we pass through:

Lamington National Park
Yuraygir National Park
Coffs Harbour Hinterland
Barrington Tops
Stockton Beach (subject to access)
Watagans
Blue Rag Range
Craigs Hut

I’m not sure if we’ll have time to visit Tasmania as well, if we do we’ll keep to the west coast where the best 4x4 routes are.

There are loads more places to see and tracks to drive, so please feel free to throw in your suggestions, any advice will be much appreciated.

While in VIC we plan to tie up with Ben (and possibly Paul), so that he can show us some of his amazing new play ground! It’ll be great to see LJ in action down under. We may also drop into visit some family friends in Canberra enroute to VIC. Lots to do in 5 weeks!!

This will be our first time traveling in Australia, so any suggestions or advice from our more experienced members would be of great help. We have sorted an Australian blue tick mobile, on a Telstra contract. My best mate has lent me his sat phone, so I’m busy getting that set up for Oz.

I’m don’t really want to use my UK bank card due to the charges, so have been looking at other options. Some friends advised opening an Australian bank account and transferring funds across, others use pre paid Travelex cards (not sure that these would be excepted everywhere?), or to use one of the favorable travel credit cards (Halifax Clarity). I was also told that you can get up to $500 cash back when buying groceries, so you minimise cash withdrawals from ATMs this way. What has worked best for you guys?

I need to sort the travel insurance and vehicle insurance as well. The travel insurance needs to cover us when traveling in more remote areas, and the vehicle insurance seems a tricky one with us being UK citizens. Also, I haven’t got any breakdown cover arranged yet, any recommendations?

We’ll be using the iPad with the Hema maps app, plus a X500 series VMS in dash unit for navigation, with our Hema map books for back up.

Not long now till we’ll be swapping winter in the UK, for a summer of touring down under.

 

[Paul]

No worries mate, look forward to meeting up when you get here

 

[Ben]

Very exciting!

Look forward to showing you some of the amazing places to go 4wding that are right on my door step!

Within an hours drive of me there must be 20+ state forests and national parks all crammed full of 4wd tracks and camp sites. Victoria has access to more 4wd tracks than any other state, due to the hard work that 4wd Victoria has done over the past 40+ years.

The only thing I can advise you about regarding your questions above is the breakdown cover. I'm with RACV (each state has their own one) mine costs me less than $200 for the highest cover they offer. If I break down thousands of k's away in Cape York for example they will put me up in a hotel, fly me home and arrange for my vehicle to be transported all the way back to Melbourne. They also cover me in any other vehicle, not just the one I took the cover out on.

I look forward to seeing you both down here soon.

 

[Paddler Ed]

We haven’t planned every minute of every day, instead we’ve got a rough outline, some ideas and some great Hema map / route books with loads of tracks to drive. We plan to travel at our own pace, and not feel that we have to keep pushing on to keep to a schedule. If we like an area and want to spend sometime there, we will. We hope that this will be first of several trips to Oz, so what we don’t do this time, will be covered on a return trip.

Get hold of Memory on an Android phone/tablet and download the 1:250k Australia maps for free, it's what I'm running at the moment on my phone and laptop; I can plan on the laptop and then swap the waypoints onto the phone. OK it doesn't do turn by turn directions, but is still good.

Also Bing maps are better than Google for road names and detail... I only discovered this this week!

After a great time with our friends we plan to hit the road again on the 2nd of Jan, and will have 5 weeks to tour South Queensland, NSW and the VIC High Country (Ben’s stomping ground), before returning to Adelaide around the 6 / 7th of February.

Consulting the books and chatting to people, we have compiled a list of areas of interest to visit, and nice tracks to drive as we pass through:

Lamington National Park
Yuraygir National Park
Coffs Harbour Hinterland
Barrington Tops
Stockton Beach (subject to access)
Watagans
Blue Rag Range
Craigs Hut

That's quite a tight timescale actually; I think we did 5 weeks from Sydney to Sydney, via the Snowy's, Regional VIC, Mt Gambier, GOR, Melbourne, and then the coast back to Sydney, then Coffs and back to Sydney.

Let me know for the Coffs Hinterland, I'm 2 1/2 hrs from Coffs. Also know some of the tracks in the Watagans.

If you're heading to Lamington National Park, stay at the QLD National Park campsite at O'Reillys, it'll be about $5 pppn, compared to $200+ for O'Reillys. Good hot showers etc at the campsite, and level tent or car spots if car camping.

This will be our first time traveling in Australia, so any suggestions or advice from our more experienced members would be of great help. We have sorted an Australian blue tick mobile, on a Telstra contract. My best mate has lent me his sat phone, so I’m busy getting that set up for Oz.

I’m don’t really want to use my UK bank card due to the charges, so have been looking at other options. Some friends advised opening an Australian bank account and transferring funds across, others use pre paid Travelex cards (not sure that these would be excepted everywhere?), or to use one of the favorable travel credit cards (Halifax Clarity). I was also told that you can get up to $500 cash back when buying groceries, so you minimise cash withdrawals from ATMs this way. What has worked best for you guys?

Personally I wouldn't have gone for Telstra contract; I use Boost.com.au which is $40 per month, unlimited texts and calls, and 3GB of data. It's topup rather than contract, but all the supermarkets carry it, as do a lot of the servo's. It runs on Telstra, so you get the same coverage; my Sony Android handset cost me $100, so I don't mind if I drop it/trash it, and it has a plastic screen not a glass one so is harder to break. So far I've not really found any black holes that my old Sony-Ericsson Blue Tick did work in, but this one doesn't. Make sure if you do BYOD that it runs on 850mhz

Money... Commbank have a UK office, and they are able to open an Australian bank account for you, and to arrange the transfer across of funds. The big benefit of Commbank is that you can withdraw money at any Post Office (which I've done when I've needed cash in Whoop Whoop) but I think that the others are starting to do that more now. Alternatively, I have a Commbank account and use a little company in High Wycombe to do spot transfers

I need to sort the travel insurance and vehicle insurance as well. The travel insurance needs to cover us when traveling in more remote areas, and the vehicle insurance seems a tricky one with us being UK citizens. Also, I haven’t got any breakdown cover arranged yet, any recommendations?

You can get reciprocal healthcare cover from Medicare, as you are UK Citizen. All you need is your passport and visa and they will issue you there and then with a paper chit, with a hard copy card in the post. That is valid for the period of your visa (so 3 months if you're on a standard tourist visa) and covers you for doctors and hospital visits, but not an ambulance ride.

I've got NRMA, about the same level as Ben, but I can choose where mine gets taken to (so I have a couple of places that I trust). Again, this NSW NRMA, so check what the SA equivalent is.

We’ll be using the iPad with the Hema maps app, plus a X500 series VMS in dash unit for navigation, with our Hema map books for back up.

I've been reading that they've been messing around with the VMS stuff with regards to maps, but I don't know much. I stick to what I know and that is Memory Map. Also try to get the most detailed maps you can; when you're right out west in NSW the best you'll get electronically is about 1:1,000,000, possibly 1:250k compared to 1:25,000 on the coast.

Also get Camps 7, it's $70 or so, but it'll save you that in a couple of nights! When we're touring we tend to freecamp 1 or 2 nights, and then into a Showground for the next night; showgrounds are typically $15-20 per night, including electric, so much cheaper than the campsites.

Let us know if you have any other questions, I'm based in Northern NSW, around Armidale, so have the Oxley's on my doorstep, and a run down to the coast, either Coffs or the Central Coast (Watagan's/Stockton) isn't out of the question for us depending on work and fuel funds! I'm on Uni holidays till the end of Feb, so anything is possible,

 

[Ben]

Ambulance cover is worth getting, mine was less than $50 a year.

Hate to think how much you'd get billed otherwise if you need air lifting out of some remote place.

 

[Scott]

No worries mate, look forward to meeting up when you get here

Cheers Paul

Very exciting!

Look forward to showing you some of the amazing places to go 4wding that are right on my door step!

Within an hours drive of me there must be 20+ state forests and national parks all crammed full of 4wd tracks and camp sites. Victoria has access to more 4wd tracks than any other state, due to the hard work that 4wd Victoria has done over the past 40+ years.

The only thing I can advise you about regarding your questions above is the breakdown cover. I'm with RACV (each state has their own one) mine costs me less than $200 for the highest cover they offer. If I break down thousands of k's away in Cape York for example they will put me up in a hotel, fly me home and arrange for my vehicle to be transported all the way back to Melbourne. They also cover me in any other vehicle, not just the one I took the cover out on.

I look forward to seeing you both down here soon.

Cheers Ben We're really looking forward meeting up with you and to seeing what VIC has to offer, the Blue Rag Range track looks good.

I have looked up the RAASA and their 'Premium' service looks like it has a similar level of cover for $174, I shall look into getting this.

That's quite a tight timescale actually; I think we did 5 weeks from Sydney to Sydney, via the Snowy's, Regional VIC, Mt Gambier, GOR, Melbourne, and then the coast back to Sydney, then Coffs and back to Sydney.

Thanks Ed, its good to get an idea of whats achievable. Theres plenty on the list, we won't necessarily manage it all, but hopefully we'll have a great time trying!! Been looking through the map books today and theres so many tracks

Let me know for the Coffs Hinterland, I'm 2 1/2 hrs from Coffs. Also know some of the tracks in the Watagans.

Thanks Ed, it would be good to meet up if our schedules allow.

If you're heading to Lamington National Park, stay at the QLD National Park campsite at O'Reillys, it'll be about $5 pppn, compared to $200+ for O'Reillys. Good hot showers etc at the campsite, and level tent or car spots if car camping.

A great tip, thanks

Personally I wouldn't have gone for Telstra contract; I use Boost.com.au which is $40 per month, unlimited texts and calls, and 3GB of data. It's topup rather than contract, but all the supermarkets carry it, as do a lot of the servo's. It runs on Telstra, so you get the same coverage; my Sony Android handset cost me $100, so I don't mind if I drop it/trash it, and it has a plastic screen not a glass one so is harder to break. So far I've not really found any black holes that my old Sony-Ericsson Blue Tick did work in, but this one doesn't. Make sure if you do BYOD that it runs on 850mhz

Interesting, I hadn't heard of them. The Telstra phone is on an existing contract and phone, we'll just be borrowing it for the duration of the trip and then paying the bill for our usage. Simples. I shall keep your suggestion in mind if we need to by a phone in the future. Cheers.

Money... Commbank have a UK office, and they are able to open an Australian bank account for you, and to arrange the transfer across of funds. The big benefit of Commbank is that you can withdraw money at any Post Office (which I've done when I've needed cash in Whoop Whoop) but I think that the others are starting to do that more now. Alternatively, I have a Commbank account and use a little company in High Wycombe to do spot transfers

Thanks, I shall look into them. Are there plenty of post offices around to withdraw money from?

You can get reciprocal healthcare cover from Medicare, as you are UK Citizen. All you need is your passport and visa and they will issue you there and then with a paper chit, with a hard copy card in the post. That is valid for the period of your visa (so 3 months if you're on a standard tourist visa) and covers you for doctors and hospital visits, but not an ambulance ride.

Sounds good. Is it best to do this as well as travel insurance? I take it that Medicare are like the NHS over here, do you go to the hospital to get the paper chit?

Also get Camps 7, it's $70 or so, but it'll save you that in a couple of nights! When we're touring we tend to freecamp 1 or 2 nights, and then into a Showground for the next night; showgrounds are typically $15-20 per night, including electric, so much cheaper than the campsites.

I have Camps 6, so hopefully that'll be up to date enough. Freecamp, is that free campsites? Camping at show grounds, I hadn't heard of that before.

Let us know if you have any other questions, I'm based in Northern NSW, around Armidale, so have the Oxley's on my doorstep, and a run down to the coast, either Coffs or the Central Coast (Watagan's/Stockton) isn't out of the question for us depending on work and fuel funds! I'm on Uni holidays till the end of Feb, so anything is possible,

Thanks very much for the advice Ed, hopefully we'll met up when we're in your area

Ambulance cover is worth getting, mine was less than $50 a year.

Hate to think how much you'd get billed otherwise if you need air lifting out of some remote place.

Handy to know. Do you get this at the Medicare centre when sorting the paper chit?

 

[Ben]

I just did it online.

http://www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/Membership/Join.html?gclid=COu9wrmI27oCFUUwpAodfCUAJA

I'm not sure if SA has a similar scheme, I guess it must. But it covers you anywhere in Australia anyway.

EDIT: Just spotted this-

By becoming an Ambulance Victoria member, you and your family will be 100% covered for emergency and medically approved non-emergency ambulance treatment and transport across Australia. Whilst you must live in Victoria to be eligible to apply for Ambulance Victoria membership, members are covered for the same benefits interstate that they would have received had they been in Victoria.

It must be possible to get cover though, you might just have to do some research.

It might be you don't need it if you have travel insurance that covers ambulance travel.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Hi Scott,

I've broken the answers down again, and put one bit together (probably because of how I answered it late last night)

Thanks Ed, its good to get an idea of whats achievable. Theres plenty on the list, we won't necessarily manage it all, but hopefully we'll have a great time trying!! Been looking through the map books today and theres so many tracks

Thanks Ed, it would be good to meet up if our schedules allow.

There's another book that's quite good as well, and allows you to link up routes. https://www.boilingbilly.net.au/ these guys do a book of treks around Melbourne and one for Sydney; the one for Sydney has treks in the Barrington's, Watagan's and Stockton, plus I have a route around Sydney if you're interested that joins a load of their routes up, with some good campsites and bits that take you out to places like the Blue Mountains and the caves to the South.

Interesting, I hadn't heard of them. The Telstra phone is on an existing contract and phone, we'll just be borrowing it for the duration of the trip and then paying the bill for our usage. Simples. I shall keep your suggestion in mind if we need to by a phone in the future. Cheers.

Ah, if you're grabbing someone else's phone then that's easiest. The only benefit I would see with having the Boost SIM is that you get the decent lump of data which means that things like accessing here and emails is a bit easier. McDonalds do free wi-fi and you can often get it in the carpark, so you don't need to go in

Thanks, I shall look into them. Are there plenty of post offices around to withdraw money from?

They've not started to close them yet here... although with Abbot anything is possible... Nearly every town will have one, I found towns would have a post office, but might not have any banks (or your own bank)

Most of the banks will charge you to use someone else's ATM, so the best bet is to either use the post office, or get cashout at the bigger supermarkets. But if there is a supermarket then there is probably a bank with an ATM.

Sounds good. Is it best to do this as well as travel insurance? I take it that Medicare are like the NHS over here, do you go to the hospital to get the paper chit?

Handy to know. Do you get this at the Medicare centre when sorting the paper chit?

Medicare is like the NHS, and you get the chit from the Medicare/Centrelink office; again just about every town has one of these, so that makes it easier to sort out.

I have Camps 6, so hopefully that'll be up to date enough. Freecamp, is that free campsites? Camping at show grounds, I hadn't heard of that before.

The showground camping is a fantastic trick; we tended to use them instead of the commercial sites because we felt that keeping the showgrounds going was more important than lining a commercial operators pocket for the community. We used the Mudgee Showground or Mt Gambier Showground for example, on our trip; they don't allow more than 15 units so it's not busy. Free camp is the free campsites that are at the side of the road, or in the middle of the national parks/state forests. In NSW the free campsites are often either road side, or in the State Forests. They're very rarely in the National Parks. For example we went to Oxley Rivers/New England National Park, and the NP campsite was empty, but the state forest one 2km away had people staying on it... one was $7pppn, the other was free.

Commercial campsites often have camp kitchens, which can be used by everyone on the site, so are a good way of meeting other travellers. Some of the commercial sites out West will do camp dinners for about $10 pp, which are also good especially if you can't be bothered to cook every night. Get talking to the Grey Nomads, and they'll tell you where the good dinners are!

Thanks very much for the advice Ed, hopefully we'll met up when we're in your area

Would be good to meet people!

There was something else... but I've forgotten it...











now remembered it... bring a UK extension plank with you if a lot of your devices are UK plugs, and then just fit an Aussie plug to the end, it's much easier than faffing with an adapter all the time! I have one here, and I've seen other poms do the same, as the UK plugs are more robust than the Aussie ones are... I've bent a couple of plugs in the past.... I've got a 4 plug one; that lets me charge one UK laptop, one camera battery and a phone or 2. The small inverters (can sized) can do that load fine, which is all we used for the first 18months until we sold our backpacker van.

Also pick up a 20m electric cable from Bunnings or similar, just get a yellow and red one, and you can get some electricity at a campsite.

Right, slightly more coherent ramblings this morning...

Hope that helps,

Ed

 

[grantw]

I'd definitely get travel insurance on top of the reciprocal agreement between NHS/Medicare. For around £100 you can get long term travel insurance which will also cover getting you back to the UK if something does go really wrong. It also probably covers you for an ambulance ... but triple check the paperwork. I use one called Flexicover that is quite comprehensive.

When travelling up through Broken Hill/Wilcania way be very careful at night and especially dawn/dusk the roads through here are the worst I've ever seen for kangaroos on the road. The big ones will actively jump in front of your car so it can lead what it perceives a threat to it's group away. It was sound advice to not hang around in Wilcania very long (or at all)

 

[Paddler Ed]

Grant,

How did you find the whistler's worked? We've run them in the past on vehicles and felt they made a difference. Only $6 or so, but anything that might make difference is worth a shot.

 

[grantw]

Have always heard good things about them. I know trucking companies were running them with good success (i.e fewer roo repairs to the trucks). So definitely worth a shot.

It's actually something I had forgotten about ... have been out of oz now for 8 years.

 

[Paddler Ed]

For those who are wondering what Grant and I are on about, it's these

There are also expensive electric ones, like the ShuRoo which work in a similar way.

Personally I ran the Haigh's on my van and my 'Cruiser, but haven't got round to fitting any to the 4Runner yet, but I'm not doing as much evening rural driving at the moment.

 

[Chas]

Are they inaudible by the driver?

 

[Paddler Ed]

Yep, inaudible to the driver. You see the birds (eagles esp) lift off from the road kill, so they do make a difference to them and a lot of drivers out west run them or the electric ones. I see the $5 ones as cheap insurance, if they do work, then it's great, if they don't it's only $5.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Just a quick one on money Scott,

I've just transferred some money from the UK to me in Aus using Pure FX. I rang them at about 9.45am UK time, and fixed my currency rate (1.692) and then waited for the transaction confirmation to come through. Replied to that, and transferred money from my account to their account. It left my account last night at 21.33 AEDST (so 10.30am UK time), and at about 2am AEDST I got an email saying that they'd transferred the money to me in Australia and I've just checked my account in Australia and it's here; I was expecting a couple of days time, so that was a bit of a bonus.

That transaction cost me £15, so on the amount I did it was 1.5% cost, but it's always £15 no matter how much you do, so the more you transfer, the lower the %age is.

Hope that helps,

Ed

 

[Scott]

Thanks so much for all the advice guys, very helpful indeed. Apologises for my delay in replying, its been a manic week.

There's another book that's quite good as well, and allows you to link up routes. https://www.boilingbilly.net.au/ these guys do a book of treks around Melbourne and one for Sydney; the one for Sydney has treks in the Barrington's, Watagan's and Stockton, plus I have a route around Sydney if you're interested that joins a load of their routes up, with some good campsites and bits that take you out to places like the Blue Mountains and the caves to the South.

I have seen these advertised, but haven't bought any yet. I shall have a look at them while in Oz. The route sounds interesting, I may tap you up for that if we find ourselves with some time to spare whilst in the area.

Ah, if you're grabbing someone else's phone then that's easiest. The only benefit I would see with having the Boost SIM is that you get the decent lump of data which means that things like accessing here and emails is a bit easier. McDonalds do free wi-fi and you can often get it in the carpark, so you don't need to go in

The Boost sim is still in the running, due to the large data allocation. Might get one of them and stick it in the iPhone that we've been offered.

They've not started to close them yet here... although with Abbot anything is possible... Nearly every town will have one, I found towns would have a post office, but might not have any banks (or your own bank)

Most of the banks will charge you to use someone else's ATM, so the best bet is to either use the post office, or get cashout at the bigger supermarkets. But if there is a supermarket then there is probably a bank with an ATM.

Handy to know.

Medicare is like the NHS, and you get the chit from the Medicare/Centrelink office; again just about every town has one of these, so that makes it easier to sort out.

Excellent.

The showground camping is a fantastic trick; we tended to use them instead of the commercial sites because we felt that keeping the showgrounds going was more important than lining a commercial operators pocket for the community. We used the Mudgee Showground or Mt Gambier Showground for example, on our trip; they don't allow more than 15 units so it's not busy. Free camp is the free campsites that are at the side of the road, or in the middle of the national parks/state forests. In NSW the free campsites are often either road side, or in the State Forests. They're very rarely in the National Parks. For example we went to Oxley Rivers/New England National Park, and the NP campsite was empty, but the state forest one 2km away had people staying on it... one was $7pppn, the other was free.

Commercial campsites often have camp kitchens, which can be used by everyone on the site, so are a good way of meeting other travellers. Some of the commercial sites out West will do camp dinners for about $10 pp, which are also good especially if you can't be bothered to cook every night. Get talking to the Grey Nomads, and they'll tell you where the good dinners are!

Thanks for the explanation, we'll keep an eye out for the different options. I hope to camp at sites with others, for security, to socialise and pick up on any tips or advice from people travelling from where we are headed.

bring a UK extension plank with you if a lot of your devices are UK plugs, and then just fit an Aussie plug to the end, it's much easier than faffing with an adapter all the time! I have one here, and I've seen other poms do the same, as the UK plugs are more robust than the Aussie ones are... I've bent a couple of plugs in the past.... I've got a 4 plug one; that lets me charge one UK laptop, one camera battery and a phone or 2. The small inverters (can sized) can do that load fine, which is all we used for the first 18months until we sold our backpacker van.

Also pick up a 20m electric cable from Bunnings or similar, just get a yellow and red one, and you can get some electricity at a campsite.

Right, slightly more coherent ramblings this morning...

Hope that helps,

Ed

Its all a great help Ed, many thanks. I guess by "plank" you mean an extension lead? Up until recently when we started taking the Mac with us, we haven't ran anything that needed 240v, everything is 12v and I do have a 12v charger for the Mac, I just haven't tried it yet. It is good to take advantage of the site electric hook up when available to fully charge the Mac, so we'll pick one up in Bunnings.

I'd definitely get travel insurance on top of the reciprocal agreement between NHS/Medicare. For around £100 you can get long term travel insurance which will also cover getting you back to the UK if something does go really wrong. It also probably covers you for an ambulance ... but triple check the paperwork. I use one called Flexicover that is quite comprehensive.

Cheers, Grant. I was always intending to get travel insurance (be mad not to), I shall check out your recommendation.

When travelling up through Broken Hill/Wilcania way be very careful at night and especially dawn/dusk the roads through here are the worst I've ever seen for kangaroos on the road. The big ones will actively jump in front of your car so it can lead what it perceives a threat to it's group away. It was sound advice to not hang around in Wilcania very long (or at all)

A handy warning about the roos on the route, thanks. We hope not to travel at dawn or dusk, but you never know how the days going to go.

For those who are wondering what Grant and I are on about, it's these

There are also expensive electric ones, like the ShuRoo which work in a similar way.

Personally I ran the Haigh's on my van and my 'Cruiser, but haven't got round to fitting any to the 4Runner yet, but I'm not doing as much evening rural driving at the moment.

Fortunately Wanda came fitted with a pair of the whistles and a ShuRoo. We suspect that Wanda was originally equipped for 24hr outback healthcare duties, as she had the 50L aux tank, a second spare, HiLift jack, shovel, load guard, UHF radio, Roo bar, Warn winch, suspension lift, all terrain tyres, ShuRoo and 2 huge LightForce 240 spotties.

Just a quick one on money Scott,

I've just transferred some money from the UK to me in Aus using Pure FX. I rang them at about 9.45am UK time, and fixed my currency rate (1.692) and then waited for the transaction confirmation to come through. Replied to that, and transferred money from my account to their account. It left my account last night at 21.33 AEDST (so 10.30am UK time), and at about 2am AEDST I got an email saying that they'd transferred the money to me in Australia and I've just checked my account in Australia and it's here; I was expecting a couple of days time, so that was a bit of a bonus.

That transaction cost me £15, so on the amount I did it was 1.5% cost, but it's always £15 no matter how much you do, so the more you transfer, the lower the %age is.

Hope that helps,

Ed

Thanks for the update Ed. I'm still considering my options for the money. Might do part bank account, part cash and part Halifax Clarity credit card.

Been busy trying to sort the car insurance with TCIS this week, I have a quote, just need to sort the finer details. I gave this a go a while back and ran up against the issue of not being an Aussie resident, fortunately TCIS seem to be able to cope with this. Got my fingers crossed I can get this sorted.

 

[Ben]

Just a quick one on money Scott,

I've just transferred some money from the UK to me in Aus using Pure FX. I rang them at about 9.45am UK time, and fixed my currency rate (1.692) and then waited for the transaction confirmation to come through. Replied to that, and transferred money from my account to their account. It left my account last night at 21.33 AEDST (so 10.30am UK time), and at about 2am AEDST I got an email saying that they'd transferred the money to me in Australia and I've just checked my account in Australia and it's here; I was expecting a couple of days time, so that was a bit of a bonus.

That transaction cost me £15, so on the amount I did it was 1.5% cost, but it's always £15 no matter how much you do, so the more you transfer, the lower the %age is.

Hope that helps,

Ed

I just log onto my UK bank account online and put in the details of my OZ account and do a money transfer that way. Always works fine and doesn't cost me £15. I've also noticed they give me a pretty good exchange rate.

 

[Leigh]

Australia and the UK have reciprocal health care (e.g., NHS) but you need to register with Medicare when you arrive in Australia to get a Medicare number (you then just present this number when you need a doctor / hospital / medication etc.). Here's the info:

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/medicare/reciprocal-health-care-agreements

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/cus...eements/health-care-for-visitors-to-australia

 

[Scott]

Cheers Leigh

 

[Paul]

I use HSBC as their international services work really well for me.