About Us

ExplorOz is Australia's favourite website for travellers with a sense of adventure. Whether you're a caravanner, camper, four-wheel driver, motorbike tourer, or fisherman, we have everything you need with loads of trip planning information in Articles, Trek Notes, Places, Camps & Caravan Park Finder, and Road Conditions, plus you can purchase maps, atlases, guides, and equipment from our online Shop.

You can also connect with other like-minded people to ask questions related to your vehicle, trip planning or on-the-road logistics or just share stories, ideas, get opinions. There is a strong community spirit on ExplorOz with site users enjoying the live, vibrant discussions in the Forum and many joining up for trips away together, coordinated in the Members Trips & Gatherings section.

ExplorOz is constructed so that you can freely access all pages of content on the site. Just use the blue menu at the top to find your way through the site. The unique aspect of ExplorOz is that the content evolves naturally through the collaborative efforts of an enthusiastic audience of real people. In fact, the information you'll find on ExplorOz is obtained from two different sources:

• Verified content by subject matter experts (Articles, Trek Notes), plus we selectively offer only reputable products and top brands in our Shop


• Live public contributions (Forum, Blogs, Classifieds, Road Conditions, Places, Events, User Treks, Members Trips & Gatherings, Members List, and feedback can also be submitted (and read) in Articles, or on individual item for sale pages in the Shop).

To stay up-to-date with the latest news, special discounts, competitions and see the latest product releases, you'll need to register to receive our newsletter. This is sent by email each fortnight.

To contribute, you only need to have a registered visitor profile as a minimum (free) and observe our site Terms of Use. Click Register at the top of the site to get started. We provide ways for you to contribute right across the site. We encourage you to help other people by sharing your knowledge, photos, stories and suggestions - however we urge you to place this information into the most appropriate part of the site (don't just dump it into the Forum please).

You can also opt to join our website as a Member. This is done by purchasing a 12 month subscription from our Shop for $49.95 (annual renewals are $29.95). There is a huge list of Member benefits, which you can view on the About Membership page.

In summary the key features of Membership are:

• discounted Members pricing on everything in our Shop
• you can contribute content to other areas of the site where non-members cannot
• access to contact other Members directly & privately
• automatic Member Footer added to your Forum posts
• access to use the best features of our service offering (Member Messaging, upload photos to Forum, create Blogs, and registration to EOTrackMe)
• free downloads of all GPS data from Places and Trek Notes, either as individual locations or as a batch download from My Plans (Places)
• your own Member Page that has features to help your friends/family stay in touch when you travel
• ability to use your Mobile phone to send instant updates to your Blogs and add photos of Places you visit from location (does not require a connection to the website)
• plus, your site contributions will be tagged to your Member Profile so others will know that you are a Member

Where to ask for help

If you're having troubles using the site, please feel welcome to send us an email. In the Contact section you'll find a form where you can send us feedback, or click here. We also take phone calls, so refer to our Contact Us page for the phone number. If our office is closed when you call, try looking at the Site Tips Blogs we've created to cover most the popular queries.

Although site registration is free, additional features are locked-out to free users. Getting the most from the site requires Membership (small annual fee). The reason for Membership, is to provide specific additional features/services on a user-pay basis. We see Membership as the life-blood of ExplorOz and put all our energies into developing new site features and services but we have kept it an optional subscription.

There have also been many people that have felt uncomfortable using our site for free and these people have chosen to pay for Membership, without ever using some of the features and services which are included with the subscription. Of course, we genuinely appreciate that and respect this is your donation to our ongoing survival in a sometimes very difficult marketplace.

Why can't Membership be free since you have so much advertising?

You would be surprised at how much infrastructure, development expertise, time and costs are associated with operating such a large, dynamic, complex website as ExplorOz.com. The advertising income we derive still only covers about 50% of our operation costs, with the remainder of the costs being covered through our online shop, ad sales in classifieds, and membership subscriptions. Whilst our operating costs are high, we work very hard to minimise our administration expenses and don't exhibit at shows, run print or tv advertising, or use fancy marketing. Staff resources are limited to just 3 people on payroll, with the remainder of work performed by volunteers.

ExplorOz is owned and published by Perth company I.T. Beyond Pty Ltd.
I.T. Beyond is a well established company with over 25 years experience in the I.T industry and has expertise in new and emerging technologies especially internet applications, web development and infrastructure design for small to medium business clients.

The company created ExplorOz.com in 2000 as a community and resource website for 4WD & RV enthusiasts. The site has never received any funding by Government or Tourism investment so all operating costs must be covered by its online operations. Being an online business entity we are proud that 12 years on, it is a successful subsidiary of I.T. Beyond.

This year, I.T. Beyond launched a second community and resource website but this time, we took the concept out to the Triathlon and Multisport industry. The new website is TriathlonOz.com , and is based on the same winning concept as ExplorOz.com

The desire to create ExplorOz evolved from the passion of the company's owners, David and Michelle Martin, who have been passionate outdoor enthusiasts all their lives.

When they made the decision to leave Sydney and travel around Australia in their early 30's, it was made with the ultimate goal to never go back to the life they left behind. To set the goal in action they had to review their financial situation and make some tough choices; they also had to plan their mode of accommodation and self-sufficiency, and of course decide and agree on where to go. The preparations involved extensive research, intensive conversations, endless leg-work visiting camping stores, 4WD shows, joining a 4WD club, undergoing driver training etc. But it also involved selling all their worldly possessions, not just their home but all the contents and clutter. What immediately struck them, was how difficult this trip was to plan. This was a time before the current caravanning boom - a decade before the baby boomers retired so outback tourism was not as popular as it is now, and the term grey nomad was not yet known. To plan their trip, they sought out information about visiting the iconic outback destiantions they had seen on 1970's television documentaries (think Bill Peach, Leyland Bros etc). They turned to the internet, but Google didn't exist back then and even government tourism websites lacked substance particuarly in providing information about the exciting places they had mapped out to visit. Furthermore, what they really wanted to hear was other people's stories - ideally from other young people with a similar outlook on life.

It is this first-hand experience, of struggling to gather information to plan a trip, that has forged the vision for what ExplorOz offers as an information service to the self-drive tourism market. It took almost 2 years of being on the road however before David and Michelle even recognised the need for the website and gathered the courage to put all their energies into building it into a business - but in January 2000 they settled in Perth, Western Australia. ExplorOz.com was officially launched in March of the same year and has now been in operation for 12 years.