Up front set-up costs

Vehicle Costs

• The difference in vehicle purchase price and resale.

• Stamp Duty 2-3% of the car’s purchase price

• Insurance allow say $300 pa and bring evidence of your claim history.

• Registration varies between states but can be up to A$700 for a 4WD – you should take this into account when negotiating the purchase price. This includes 3^rd party injury but not 3^rd property.

• Tyres for a 4WD will cost anything from A$200 up – much much more in the real bush. Again include the likelihood of needing replacements in up front cost negotiations.

• An older diesel engine requires servicing every A$5000 to A$6000km not the normal 10,000km recommended for petrol engines. The diesel service cost A$180-A$200 depending on what needed replacing such as oil and filters.

• The stuff that breaks. We ended up spending A$3,000 in repairs on a vehicle that cost us A$7,000. Mostly it was stuff that needed doing because we were using the vehicle off-road and remote. We replaced the battery twice because the first one wasn’t rated high enough, we replaced shocks and the front end bearings which were leaking. We deliberately replaced all hoses and belts near the start of the trip, as we didn’t know their history and didn’t want any of them breaking in the middle of nowhere.

Other Gear

We spent another A$1,500 on camping gear, spares for the vehicle and tools.

On the Road Costs

I break on-road costs down as following in order of importance:

Fuel: Our 1985 Landcruiser drank diesel at an average of 12-14 liter / 100 km – this a pretty good figure and you will use a lot more fuel if you are towing or running a petrol engine. Diesel and petrol cost approximately the same in the outback. We fuel ranged in price from $1.20 in Queensland coast (the state with the lowest fuel tax) up to $1.90 in remote areas. We spent on averaged A$35/day but it obviously varied widely!

Accommodation: we spent A$40 on average – this was probably on the high end because we stayed in cabins in the cold weather and stayed in hostels or similar in the cities – we’ve camped approximately 60% of the time.

Food: Including other consumables like beer and wine, shampoo, laundry powder. Also including eating out came to about A$51 /day. At the start of trip, out of habit, we tended to eat out for lunch, this was often $25/2. We later on realised that it was a lot cheaper and often better food if we made our own. We drink lightly and didn’t eat fish very often – only on the coast.

Miscellaneous: This included medical visits and prescription charges, clothing, cash which we forgot to account for, entrance fees (very little on average), National Park entry fees, souvenirs (very few), internet access fees, mobile phone recharges. This averaged A$35/day.

Do these costs sound about right to you? What is your experience of costs on the road?

Budget Camping Setup

The cheapest way to large amounts of money internationally is to pay a set fee per a transaction rather than paying a percentage of the cash transferred. Using an international credit or debit card means that you will be paying up to 2% on money received – that adds up to a lot. A better option is an international transfer which charges a one-off fee, but this will require you to have an Australian bank account to receive money into

Opening a Bank Account in Australia

Opening a bank account in Australia is straightforward and you can set it up before you leave home allowing you to transfer money before leaving home. For example this is Commonwealth Bank’s offering but all the major banks (ANZ, WestPac etc) offer something similar. You do however have to specify a branch so you need to sure of the city that you will start in. You will also not be able to withdraw money from the account until you are seen in person with your passport and collect your EFTPOS cards.

You will have to pay a flat few dollars a month fee but that includes all electronic transactions. So get cash out of your own bank’s ATM’s and use EFTPOS when possible with retailers and you will only pay the flat fee. To actually buy the vehicle, given the daily limit of around $800 per card per 24hour withdrawal limit you will probably have to get a bank check.

Money on the Road

Australia is very wired when it comes to paying for items. Its rare that you will need cash and the most common means of payment is EFTPOS where your card is used to direct debit a linked account. Often retailers will allow you to withdraw cash as well, usually up to a limit.

However a card will not get you anywhere and in outback areas you should probably always carry the equivalent of a 100 liters of fuel in cash for the rare occasion when a remote station supplying fuel doesn’t have EFTPOS or the telephone lines are down (which are required for the transaction to be authorized). A credit and/or debit card from your home country is a good idea as a totally separate way of paying in case anything goes wrong with the local account.