FREE TO ROAM
Travelling around Australia on a longterm adventure is a great dream. Imagine swapping your cares about work and commitments for the open road, a map and a sense of freedom.
It’s not a lifestyle to suit everyone, but increasing numbers of Australians are embracing flexible working conditions, the freelance economy is booming and the advent of platforms such as Airbnb allow for homes to be leased on short and long term conditions.
Aside from work and family obligations, the big question for anyone considering an open-ended sojourn is how can it be funded.
Retirees commonly take advantage of access to their superannuation to buy a rig and tow tug and head off into the sunset, but families are also adopting the nomadic lifestyle by selling or renting their homes, working as they go and schooling kids along the way.
Here, we chat with the Hunter family who are living on the road full time, and a couple who are in the midst of a six-month trip to get their top tips on setting budgets from the outset, making plans to be self-sufficient and how to not blow a massive hole in your wallet while on the road.
THE HUNTER FAMILY
Jo and Evan Hunter and their 12-year-old son Cooper have been travelling in their secondhand 6.5m (21ft 6in) Nova Family Escape van since 2017. Evan was offered a redundancy package from BlueScope Steel in
