Roadtrip: East cost to Alice Springs to Melbourne

pete4130

Hope the Forester serves you well. Keep an eye on coolant as its an early model. Was that the one with the roof box?

An stag could be a good idea. It means you don't have to remember to call up/go online for any tolls. You've only 3 days to pay the tolls too. If you don't pay them, they charge an admin fee and a late fee so it works out about $15 for each toll. If you are on the road you won't get the late notices and they build and build in cost and they can suspend your license if they aren't paid.

See what camping stuff is going on Gumtree that other people are selling cheap that you might need.

From my experience if you are going off the beaten track the priorities are extra fuel (10L should be plenty, even a small 5L jerry can would get you an extra 50km or so). A small shovel, even a folding one if you get stuck in soft sand/mud to dig out the wheels and put some logs under for traction.

For cooking, It's hard to beat a "Jetboil" stove. Small, compact, cooks fast. There are different versions. Get one that has a built in sparker for the gas. The downsides to them are they are a bit expensive and it's only 1 ring/burner. Great for saving space though. Don't use it in the car/enclosed spaces…carbon monoxide poisoning risk. Outdoor use only.

Get a tyre plugging kit (about $5-$10 in super cheap auto). You can self repair small punctures/nails in tyres if you need to. Very small item as well.

UHF radios can come in handy. I got a pair of tiny GME TX655's for $115. Not necessary but I've found them useful when wandering away from the car on sand dunes etc... and disappearing out of site.

If you are going to encounter soft sand/beaches you'll probably need to let air out your tyres for better traction. A small, cheap tyre pressure gauge is super handy. As little as $4 in Super Cheap Auto. 12psi should be good for the beach/sand. Do NOT drive about 40kmh on tarmac roads with low pressure, your sidewalls will flex, heat up and weaken and could fail. Which brings me to mention a small 12v air compressor. Kmart do small ones for about $25. They should be ok for a car tyres like a Forester. Remember they have a limited amount of working time before they get too hot. For my Landcruiser with bigger wheels I went all out and paid $230 for a heavy duty compressor.


A small 3 way fridge perhaps? I know Waeco do the CA-35 fridge that can run on mains, gas or 12v. It's about $400 but ca be got for about $240 in some places. It's a lot of money and can take up some space in the car but a fridge is really handy. The CA-35 will only work to 25c below ambient temperature though, so if your aircon fails and its 40c out, the fridge will be at 15c. Not likely to happen but good to know its limitations. I bought a heavy duty 40L fridge freezer for my truck and its been great. I cook everything before I go away on trips, ziplock each meal (in special bags that can be boiled) and freeze it. Then take it out and boil it in the bag to have a home cooked meal and no cleaning of pots to do Obviously don't run it on gas inside the car!

Torches….torches and torches. Get a few headlamps. They are invaluable. I keep a couple in the glove box, some in the back of my truck so they are always at arms reach. Kmart do great small torches that sit into the cigarette lighter socket in the car to charge, small and bright. Get a "Dolphin" too if you can and a spare battery. Good beam, floats, waterproof and tough.
I also have a 4 way lantern from Anaconda camping store. I got it on sale but they are about $70 normally. It charges from the mains, 12v in the car, solar panel on top to charge in daylight AND a winding handle underneath so you are never without decent light.

A small axe or Machete. Good for chopping up wood etc and easy to store. Some comfort in knowing its there too


Jumper leads! You'll need them or meet somebody who needs them. Kmart do a decent 400amp set for about $25.

Citronella candles. Keeps the insects away!

Small square piece of ply wood about 6"x6" in case you need to jack the car up on soft ground. Use that as a base for the jack.


An inverter. Try to get a decent one if you can. There are cheap ones that can only handle low wattage. Good one's aren't cheap.

I've got a cigarette lighter adapter that allows you to plug 2 items into it and has 2 USB slots to charge phones. About $20 from Anaconda and really useful.

A multi tool/leatherman type tool. Handy for cutting and gripping.

Some ratchet straps for holding stuff down! And bungee cords.

Some of the stuff I've mentioned is for more for going off the beaten track.

Fol20

Iv been working a lot the past week and havent had time to go on boards.

Id say before we go, i will get the e tag, I hope i can just call into the car office to pick one up as we wont have an address.

When we bought the car, we actually got a lot of camping gear and the usual backpacker extras. I think we wont have to buy much. Maybe just some earplugs and a light/torch.

We got a Jerry can( cant remember the size but i think its a 10l or 15l. Will this not make the car stink if we put it in there?

We actually got a portable gas stove with gas cans so hopefully this will do the job.

They gave us a tyre plugging tool as well .

Im not sure about the psi unit. We will mainly stay on road/dirt roads so hopefully we wont need to do this. Who knows though. Do you think the forester would be capable of doing frasier Island. Thats one spot im not sure of.

We have candles and i hope we can use someone else jumper leads if we do run into a problem.

The couple we bought it off of gave us an inverter as well. I just need to get a euro to oz adapter for it.

We were also given a small toolbox. Leathermans are very expensive. Some guys in work have paid a few hundred each for them. They are fairly useful though.

Cant wait to get on the road now. Were leaving on the 1/2nd of June

pete4130

If you have a jerry can in the car it will have a slight whiff of petrol but you don't notice it after a few minutes.

The Forester probably wouldn't be able for Fraser Island. Anything you read up on Fraser states that they don't recommend AWD vehicles (Forester, Toyota Kluger etc). as the sand can be really soft and you'll be bogged to your chassis before you know it. Being an Automatic, you won't have the lower ranger gearing the manuals have either. Thats just my opinion about the Forester and Fraser. IF you get up to Stockton Beach near Anna Bay about 50km north of Newcastle you can get some experience of sand/beach driving (make sure you get a permit for Stockton Beach too). You do need to drop your tyre pressures to about 12-14psi or as low as 8psi for really really soft sand. There are garages either end of Stockton Beach with air compressors to re-inflate once you come off the beach.


I'd fully recommend a set of jumper cables. For the cost and how small they are, they could come in handy. You'd be surprised how many other people don't have jumper cables! You can't push start an automatic either like a manual so if your battery did go flat you might wish you had a set.

I'm off to Fraser in a month in my Landcruiser and I know I'll be stuck at some point but I've got recovery gear so I'm not too worried.
If you do get onto Fraser get a list of tide times and go just before or after high tide so the sand is wet/more compact and less chances of getting stuck. It's more the inland muddy/sandy tracks you'd have difficulty on. There are 4wd tours there every day I think so thats always an option for you you.

Fol20

We have finally finished our road trip and have arrived in melbourne. We have a nsw reg.Do you know if we have to change the reg to victoria even if its just change of ownership that would like to do at the moment? We have 2/3 months rego left as well.

massdebater

You can live in Vic for 3 months before you are supposed to change the plates over. I have a van that's registered in WA and have it in Vic for over a year but haven't changed it over yet. I've only been quizzed about it once and I told the cops I was travelling around the country (I'm not). I've kept it registered in WA because it's cheaper rego but might be a good idea for you to change it over if you're gonna be here more than 3 months as NSW and VIC rego prices are similar.

Fol20

Were trying to sell the car now as we will cycle around Melbourne. If we call to a car tax office with new owners to transfer ownership do they have to register it for victoria or can they still use it with the nsw reg until the rego expires?

massdebater

Fol20 wrote: »

Were trying to sell the car now as we will cycle around Melbourne. If we call to a car tax office with new owners to transfer ownership do they have to register it for victoria or can they still use it with the nsw reg until the rego expires?

You can sell it without the plates if you want i.e. unregistered. Might be easier in your case. I'm not sure about being able to go into vicroads with the new owner