About Me

Living in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and when I manage to escape it's in an '02 Nissan GU III Patrol Wagon that is pretty well fitted out with a few bits and pieces. I have always had a passion for exploring the outback probably fostered by my parents who dragged us off camping and travelling around Australia at every opportunity (picture three kids in the back of a 72 Belmont Panel van towing a 15' Viscount van around and thru Australia at a time when the bitumen ended at Port Augusta!).

I started my travels as a teenager on a pushbike with a waterbag strung from the cross frame, food in army surplass gas-mask bags and a rabbit trap strung to the handlebars. Many a great weekend was spent catching the late Friday train out to Hattah in the Mallee and riding 2 days home through the sunset and raak country. I bought my first ute at 18 and my first 4x4 ute at 20 and spent 5 years travelling the iconic outback tracks in the early 1980's. A hiatus of nearly 20 years and then back on the road again in 2005 rekindling the love affair with the remote outback. Age and an income mean a certain level of sophistication in camping equipment these days (Engel over esky, GPS over mudmap & compass, twine shower over dip in the dam, sat phone and HF over 27 meg CB & an occassional phone booth, etc etc) compared to my earliest trips and what was once "remote" is now considered pedestrian but there's still so much to see.

A vehicle description.........

Accessories

ARB steel bar with Ironman 9500lb winch
IPF Driving lights
Safari snorkel
Opposite Lock dual rear wheel carrier
ARB roof-rack with Gunya side awning and ARB ‘Pilbara’ roof top tent
Custom sliding rear HF areal mount (by Brown-Davis of Melbourne)

Underneath & Running Gear

2" OME suspension lift .
Ironman 22mm rear coils (Great value & good stuff)
4 x OME Nitro shocks
ATOC rear spring tower support kit
ROH alloys with Dick Cepek FC 2's (285/75R16)
Six 16x8 steelies with Cooper ST's for the rough stuff
Sensatyre pressure monitor system (on road wheels)
Tyre Dog tyre monitor (on off road wheels)

Engine

D-Tronic chip
3" Mandrell Bent exhaust
Turbo timer
EGT and Boost guages in dual A Pillar pod
Autron Cruise control
Enginesaver Low Coolant alarm

DC Power

ARB dual Battery system
2 x 90 A/H AGM aux batteries
18 A/H AGM in carry bag for tent lights
Power management system
300W pure sine wave inverter
6-16A 4 stage battery charger
Autron Digital Dual Battery monitor
100 Watt Bi-Fold Solar panels

Storage

Dual cargo barriers and clip on table.
Rear cages and crap shelf. Rear barn door drop table (Black Widow)
Full black widow drawer system with dual floor storage racks for rear passenger area.
Outback roof console

Fuel & Water

ARB Long Ranger 145 ltr rear tank
Brown Davis 80 ltr sub tank
50 litre water tank
Twin cannister water filtration system (.05 micron)

Communications

Barrett 950 HF
Barrett Auto tune Antena
GME TX 4400 UHF Radio
GME TX 3200 UHF Radio
Uniden handheld UHF radios (3)
GME EPIRB
Globalstar Satphone (Crappy)

Navigation

Panasonic Toughbook and GPS-mouse with Oziexplorer & Trackranger
Franson GPSgate
Asus EePC 1000. (for journal, photo's and redundant Nav programs & internet)
Custom vehicle laptop mount (Brown-Davis, Melb)
Garmin Vista HCx GPS unit


The Good Gear

Reversing camera
Twine shower
Cobb Oven
Pioneer DD stereo with 7" touch screen
Rear mounted work-light
Max Air compressor
Engel 40 litre and Waeco 50 litre fridges
Michellesacs seat covers, dash organiser and water bra
The usual recovery equipment
Bush welding kit
Bag "exhaust" jack
"Outback" canvas racsac
"In Front" Canvas spare tyre covers & heavy duty rear wheel bags
Ironman Led lights (tough) x 2
Versalite DC Fluro’s x 2
Couple of fire extinguishers
A bloody good alarm system
and a bloody partridge in a bloody pear tree!

For Remote Exploration

Arctic Cat 700cc Diesel ATV (Quad) – Accept no substitutes!
Custom made off-road trailer

Previously had a Nissan Navara STR Twin Cab ute and a fantastic Tambo Cooper camper with customised front storage unit which was hauled 40,000 km around Australia in 2006 (see the blog page). Now saving for a caravan but in the mean time living in canvas of varying descriptions from a Roof Top Taj to a well appointed swag.

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