Well folks, just 11 days after arriving in Perth (we were both sick for 7 of them) and we bought our camper van yesterday. We have to wait a day or so to transfer money from the UK and then we will be off on our first trip out. We had some good advice from the forum about what to buy and we can't wait to get on the road.

well done you pair, I hope you enjoy every highway and biway of our great country, a big welcome to the land down under from Dave & the dragon, currently in coober pedy heading for alice tomorow morning bound for Darwin

It looks good.

One caution, if it is a front wheel drive Ducato chassis as your avatar picture indicates, keep the loaded mass well forward.

On loose or slippery surfaces the front wheels are inclined to loose traction on uphill slopes.
They also have a slight tendency to over-heat on dirt roads due to the small amount of slippage that seems to occur.

Reliability is not normally a problem, but get the best roadside assistance package that you can as computer failures etc. usually require a well equipped workshop to resolve.
Long piggy-back journeys can be very expensive.

That said, you can expect a long and happy acquaintance with the Fiat if reputation is anything to go by.

Happy Travels.

Best of British to you both.Have a safe and happy journey.Cheers.Ibbo.

Great news Ian and Maggie, hope you have a great trip.

Here are a couple of links that may help;

http://www.westernaustralia.com/au/Pages/Welcome_to_Western_Australia.aspx

http://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/UsingRoads/TouringWAMaps/Pages/TouringWAMaps.aspx

http://www.exploroz.com/WA/Default.aspx  

Regards
Vic

-- Edited by Vic41 on Tuesday 15th of September 2009 05:44:54 PM

G'day and welcome to the site, my dad and i spent acouple months driving around the UK and now with our first motor home, its an interesting experiance

Thanks for the best wishes and the advice from Rollo. I will take on board the tips about the front wheel drive. We havn't actually picked it up yet, so I am reading up on the literature about it.

just brought one up to Darwin from adelaide, fantastic machine, no problem to drive at all, great on fuel, very comfy, quiet and plenty of grunt (for a large vehicle), doesnt like the wind much though and the road trains do tend to "suck" the top over a little so just give them a little more space. the swaying motion of the vehicle on these top end roads is very relaxing so it tends to lull you a little bit, watch out for droopy eye syndrome but you will have a ball with it, wished I had one sitting in the shed at home waiting for me be sure and pull over when the vehicles behind you have had enough of your dawdling (about ten minutes is as much as we can tease them with) 90 kms per hour seems to be the sweet spot with this vehicle, 100 kph and you can visibly watch the fuel gauge dropping we averaged roughly 11 ltrs per 100k's at 90 kph, I would be happy with that, very comfy to sleep in with plenty of well thought out space