Campervans in Australia

Back to blog list  February 27, 2011

Campervans in Australia

There aren't a lot of VW campervans in Australia if the truth be told. Unsurprisingly Japanese pop top campervan conversions are popular, some of which I like, others I don't and there are plenty of regular motorhomes too. There's a huge camping culture on this great continent and whilst travelling out here for a wedding dictates the type of activities one can undertake, a return trip with outbacking in mind is certainly on the cards. It's such a massive country and you would need a good few months of travelling before you have even scratched the surface, Australia's culture is reminiscent of Britain's but with the proviso that just over yonder hill, the veneer of civilisation falls away and a whole continent awaits discovery. It's wild and largely untrod, amazing to think really. Many a traveller is unprepared for the type of terrain that they may encounter and is often unprepared for what awaits.

I am currently on the train to Ballarat from Melbourne and this is the view out of the window, as I write this latest Camperbug blog. This photo taken from iPhone doesn't do it any justice at all. It's so infinitely massive, wild and beautiful that the mind just reels from the enormity.

A View From the Train to Ballarat from Melbourne

Looking out at this huge beautiful sunny country, I feel envious of all the Australians I know in Europe who have this huge wilderness to return to at any time they wish, Well I guess I can too! And the next time I return I plan to do so for a couple of months and travel all over. Driving along the Great Ocean Road this week has really given me a taste for doing some more travelling in Australia. I'm going to a separate blog of the pictures I took on the Great Ocean Road next.

It's not always been sunny. After a week the weather has certainly started to warm up but it's been distinctly English for a number of days. But whilst the Melbournians are donning warmer clothes, we are in contrast enjoying a day that is still warmer and less windy than one in England.

A visit to the craft fair that takes place on the esplanade in St Kilda every Sunday revealed three out of the five vw campervans that I have seen in the week that we have been here. The vans were owned by the stall holders who generally use them as beasts of burden to transport their goods from and to the market.

I took the following pictures with my increasingly annoying iPhone 3GS which works wonderfully well as a pocket computer, calculator, organiser and camera but more and more poorly as a phone but I digress... So these pictures are a little grey and underexposed but you'll hopefully get the idea from them. So I saw a T1, T2 and T3 on the esplanade which was very fortunate and I also saw a T4 but didn't take any shots of it because quite frankly it was pretty ugly and the urge never took me to shoot it.

So if I start with the T2, the poor thing was very much a work horse and used to carry goods all over the various craft fairs around Victoria.

T2 on St Kilda Esplanade

Here you can see the poor thing, all loaded up with goods and carrying out the purpose for which she was built at the factory - manual labour !

T2 with Door Open on St Kilda Esplanade

Here is the T3 that I spied slightly parked slightly forlornly on the road at St Kilda Esplanade. As you can see the folks of Australia don't seem to view these great machines with the same respect that people in Europe might, although this may be a completely incorrect assumption on my part.

T3 on St Kilda Esplanade

The Belle of the Ball had to be this pale blue Split Screen that was parked proudly on the side of the street.

T1 on St Kilda Esplanade

Her owner informed me that he had possessed her for twenty years. She was a direct Australian import and had left the factory in 1958 making her 53 years old. Quite a remarkable thought really,

St Kilda Esplande and Pale Blue Split Screen Van

Some more shots of the 1958 Australian imported VW split screen van. She was a lovely van and received a lot of attention from the public strolling along the strip.

Profile Shot of Blue Split Screen VW Van

On the way to the train station I spied this orange T3 at the traffic lights.

Orange T3 VW in Melbourne Traffic

It caught up with us, as we slowed down to get out at the train station and as it sped past, I caught this cheeky side on shot out of the window of my taxi.

Side shot of Moving Orange T3 VW Campervan in Melbourne

And one last picture as it zoomed away from us.

Escaping Orange T3

There's one last set of pictures to come of a T2 that I shot on the Great Ocean Road but will post these shots in the next blog post.