Hi Ian and Margaret, firstly welcome to Australia and welcome to our forum.

In my opinion the choice is a personal one.  We started of with a petrol 4 x 4 and now have a diesel 4 x 4.  We find the diesel has more pulling power and consequently I feel the wear and stress on the motor is much less.

Not being a mechanic or mechanically minded (well not much anyhow) I will leave the nitty gritty information up to those with far more experience than I.

Feel free to put up any question that you can think of and you will certainly get some very informative answers.

There is someone on this forum that has been or done anything and everything that you can think of.

Cheers, and enjoy your time in our wonderful country.

Ma

Ian & Margaret, welcome from me too.

Your questions raise even more questions so, without further information and with not many days to debate the finer points, I'll just give you a broad personal opinion.

Buying a new van to use just for 3 months a year is probably not the best use of your funds. The capital depreciation is pretty horrendous regardless of the distance travelled.
May I suggest that, initially, you try to find a used car in reasonable condition.
One that you can afford to:
a. repair if something relatively simple breaks down and
b. donate to the wreckers yard if something major should fail.

Unlike in the UK, some of the older stock here can be in quite good and reliable condition as old as 20 - 25 years and certainly repairable. Usually at a much smaller cost than their current counterparts.
The newer machines are technologically quite complex, expensive to repair and, despite the extended warrantees, are prone to needing the attentions of highly equipped workshops, especially during their initial period on the road.

The depreciation on a new $60,000 vehicle in it's first year alone would be enough to by a reliable older one and to provide a reserve for maintenance contingencies.
The cost of comprehensive insurance on a new car needs to be considered too.

Remember, it's the money that you don't spend unnecessarily that will provide you with the greatest freedom and enjoyment.
There's nothing more comforting than having sufficient reserves of cash to be able to bail out if all goes pear shaped.

I feel, too, that the less you have to worry about keeping everything pristine and polished, the more you can enjoy using it.
A few minor dings and scratches on a low capital value item are not the same concern as they are on an expensive one.
The country beyond the suburban boundaries can be quite harsh on the cosmetics of a car if you really want to get the best out of it.

My suggestion to anyone experiencing touring in Australia for the first time is to get in cheap at the beginning; get some experience under your belt; discover for yourselves how you want to travel and to gather as much wisdom as you can from fellow 'nomads'.

If you want to get of the beaten track a bit, a good bush survival course and one in bush first aid are essentials.
But I'd leave the off-rod stuff until later when you've got a few kilometers under your belt.

Oh! And forget any preconceived ideas you've collected in your previous life;
this country has few parallels with the UK and Europe.
Trust me, I'm an immigrant with 45 years experience in this country and still learning new stuff every day.
So much to learn and enjoy and so little time.

Whatever you decide upon I wish you all the very best in your adventures; for adventures they will surely be.

Happy travels

Hi Ian, what do you call a camper, is it the toyota long wheel base type or are you talking perhaps a motorhome type one

as in my avatar you will see the toyota long wheel base model, this is available in diesel or petrol, I would choose diesel

larger motorhome types are nearly always diesel

choose low km secondhand diesel, get one where you dont have to make the bed everynight,

you dont need four wheel drive, it just gets you into more strife than you will know how to get out of

stick to "made roads" and there is plenty of them even in the outback, we regularly go "bush" in our two wheel drive, including the "desert" tracks which a lot of puddle jumpers frequent

Thanks for all the prompt replies. I found them very interesting reading. I think maybe I should give a little more information at this point.
I have been over here twice before this trip and we have family over here in Perth, so the camper will be used by the family as well, during the time we are not in Australia.
The vehicle we have seen is a custom built body on a small Ute, not as big as a Patrol. The ones we have seen are Mazda with a 2.8 engine.
We have looked at most of the options from the Toyota Hiace size to the smaller Winnebago and considered a price range of between $6k up to $80k (all secondhand). Many of these have odometer readings of around 200 - 300 thousand K.
What struck us with the model we have seen new is that it has exactly the configuration Margaret wanted, with the bed and table up all the time. It is just the right size, being not too big for her to drive as well as me. We hired a Mercedes Sprinter camper last year for 3 weeks and she thought it was too big. This one is smaller in length, but seems to have more room inside.
The other selling point for us was that the price is the same as many similar size second-hand models we were looking at with 200,000K on the clock. The peace of mind with reliability and warranty of a new vehicle is good.

I suppose I am saying that this model is exactly what we wanted.

As to the original question we raised, your comments about diesel have confirmed what I feel.
We will be able to save about $10k by going for 2WD rather than 4WD and I will probably go for 2WD.

Thanks very much for your informed opinions.

Ian and Margaret