Powering across australia
Images and Story by Emily Power
My boyfriend James hands me the heavy porta-a-loo and makes a teapot motion.
“You tip it,” he says, “like this.”
We were six months into our relationship, standing at the dump point on the edge of a marina in Victoria’s Gippsland, where he was showing me how to empty the potty we’d been using over a camping weekend.
For anyone with a new partner, this would be a hellish scenario. For me, it was a critical test. If I passed, I could call myself a dyed-in-the-wool camper. We’d discussed it one day becoming our lifestyle – a never-ending road trip. But I had a lot to learn and fast.
I tucked my nose into the neck of my t-shirt and poured. A gust of wind, at the moment I decanted the horrid contents into the refuse pipe, achieved a level of intimate knowledge between us I never thought possible.
I’ve come a long way since, as a person and in this partnership. And I can use a dump point now like a pro.
Today, James and I are living in a campervan and working on the road, travelling Australia, with no fixed return date. I packed up and hit the road.
James, who quotes Russell Coight with a twinkle in his eye, started planning the trip years before we met in early 2023. As we fell in love, we realised we had the same ambition – to make all of Australia our big backyard.
I was happy in my journalism career, but I knew something was missing from my real-world experience. I hardly knew how other Australians lived. Here was my opportunity.
It was a “test” when James introduced me to camping with long weekends in caravan parks. Next came national parks with drop toilets and soon, we were going off-grid, but no matter how remote we were, he’d always set up the potty in a bush and hang a torch from a branch above, for my comfort.
We were ready in February this year. I resigned from my job, leased out my apartment, sold my car and threw some clothes into a delivery van James had decked out, officially setting off from Brisbane.
This year has not all been late-night campfire conversations, romantic stargazing and morning beach walks.
Our plans were upended when ex-tropical cyclone Alfred flooded parts of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast in March.
We’d been lounging poolside at the Big4 Caloundra when the evacuation order came. We went north to Hervey Bay, where we thought we’d be safe, but the town was inundated.
We got out undamaged, but had to sleep in supermarket carparks until the caravan parks reopened. It was less than a month into our new life, hunkered down beside trolley bays in hammering rain. It was not the bohemian fantasy I’d pictured.
The chaos was all the more testing because the van is our first experience living together. We have done everything in front of each other in that vehicle we call home. It is our bathroom, study, kitchen and bedroom in one, but we are as happy as ever.
We have stayed mostly around southeast Queensland this year, venturing as high as Seventeen Seventy, at the gateway to the southern Great Barrier Reef.
This has been a strategic decision, so that we are close to shops and tradies, while we build our dream 4WD motorhome. Yes, not a typo. Build. This will replace the van.
By travelling slowly, we’ve been able to put down short-term roots in the towns we’ve loved most.
Amamoor in the Mary Valley hinterland, Rainbow Beach near K’Gari, Bribie Island in Moreton Bay and Mudjimba on the Sunshine Coast have been among our favourites.
Mudjimba coffee rivals Melbourne (drop into The Island Surf & Espresso), Bribie Island wins our best fish ‘n’ chips (Savige’s Seafood in Bongaree)and Rainbow Beach has a colossal dune, Carlo Sand Blow, for watching perfect sunsets.
Amamoor was a base for exploring the nearby Noosa region. We discovered five-star food and gin at the Pomona Distilling Co and providore, shopped at the famous Eumundi Markets, and whale watched in Castaways Beach.
We did a six-week farm sit at the Brumby Project in Amamoor, where owners Anna Uhrig and Josh Paynter train wild brumbies for adoption. The experience showed me how content I could be on acreage. Years ago, I chose a city apartment over a country house, even though they cost about the same, because I doubted I’d enjoy a rural lifestyle. Amamoor proved me wrong.
I’d once been the fashion editor of one of Australia’s highest-selling daily newspapers, working Logies’ red carpets, shimmying through the Birdcage at Flemington Racecourse, organising shoots with supermodel Miranda Kerr and sitting front row at fashion runways. Now I was happily shovelling horse manure at the brumby farm in a pair of second-hand boots I’d bought at an op shop.
Our new motorhome will carry us south to Melbourne for Christmas. Bryon Bay, Newcastle and the Hunter Valley are in our sights. We expect to cross into South Australia in January, but have yet to plan that far ahead. The thrill of the unknown is part of the adventure.
If you want us to stop somewhere for a visit on our journey, hit us up at hello@australianlifemagazine.com.au
