All Around Oz Is Australia’s Number One Community For Caravan, Camping And Planning A Lap Of Australia

If you are a caravanner, camper or planning a lap of Australia and looking for practical, up-to-date information from people who are currently travelling Australia here doing it, then you are in the right place.

That’s because All Around Oz is about bringing you helpful information on planning a lap of Australia, caravanning, camping and road-tripping around Australia from a couple currently travelling full-time in a caravan.

Our mission is simple: to help you plan with more confidence, avoid some of the mistakes we have made and enjoy more of the road ahead. We share the planning decisions, road conditions, gear, camps, unexpected problems and places we discover along the way.

If this sounds good to you, then let me introduce myself. My name is Annette Jones, the owner of All Around Oz, and together with my partner Kev, I have been travelling Australia full-time since June 2023.

When we began planning our own lap, I found useful information scattered across websites, forums, Facebook groups and product pages. Much of it was outdated, difficult to compare or written without the context of actually living and travelling in a caravan.

I started Lappers Australia to organise the answers I was looking for and share them with other people planning the same kind of trip. A blogging friend, Melissa, later contacted me and offered me the opportunity to buy All Around Oz. It fitted perfectly with what I had set out to do, so I bought the website and brought the Lappers Australia information across.

Combining the two created one larger website and community. Since hitting the road, we have continued adding current planning information, honest gear advice and the places we have visited along the way.

The questions have changed since we first started planning. We now answer them from the road, with the benefit of thousands of kilometres, difficult tracks, changing weather, equipment failures, crowded caravan parks, remote camps and the many ordinary decisions that shape a long trip.

What Makes Our Advice Different

• We have travelled full-time since June 2023, rather than writing about a trip we hope to take one day.
• We use our caravan, tow vehicle, power system, communications gear and camping equipment in real Australian conditions.
• We update our recommendations when products disappear, links break or our experience changes our view.
• We separate what we have personally used from what we have researched or sourced from a qualified expert.
• We share failures as well as the good bits, including the decisions we would make differently now.

Our travels have taken us through the Top End, Cape York, the Gibb River Road, the Tanami Track, the Plenty Highway and many of the towns, camps and back roads between them. Those experiences now shape the way we explain route planning, timing, road conditions, caravan setup, power, connectivity and life on the road.

Useful Information You’ll Find on All Around Oz

• Planning information to help you work through your budget, timing, route, caravan setup and the many decisions involved in a Big Lap.
• Destination articles and videos from across Australia, including the well-known stops and the places that surprise us along the way.
• Caravan, 4WD and camping gear guides based on what we buy, use, test and research.
• Camp cooking, food on the road and the practical side of keeping a caravan kitchen working while travelling full-time.

We are also avid foodies. I love cooking, Kev loves eating what I cook, and we both enjoy finding a good local meal, winery or bottle to take back to camp. As far as we are concerned, a five o’clock sundowner is even better with a good drop, a view and a campfire.

We hope the information you find here and across our socials Facebook and Instagram is useful to help with your planning. Whether you are a complete newbie to 4wding and camping, or have a big lap or two already under your belt.

Helping You Plan Your Own Lap of Australia

Planning a Big Lap can feel like one enormous job. In reality, it is a series of decisions about timing, budget, route, rig, safety, communications, work, pets, health and what life will look like once you leave.

Our job is to help you make those decisions with more confidence. Across All Around Oz you can use:

• Practical planning articles and destination guides on the All Around Oz website.
• Our Facebook communities, where people planning and travelling Australia can ask questions and learn from shared experience.
• Planning A Lap Of Australia, our detailed Big Lap planning guide and supporting resources.
• TrackMate, AAO’s AI trip-planning platform for building and refining an Australian road-trip itinerary.
• Big Lap Chats, the podcast featuring useful information, expert conversations and honest stories from the road.
• Our YouTube channel and social pages, where we show the places, roads, gear and lessons that are easier to understand when you can see them.

Meet Annette

I am the writer, researcher, community builder and host of Big Lap Chats. Kev calls me the wordsmith, which still makes me laugh because I flunked English and Year 10.

What I am good at is asking the questions people need answered, finding the useful detail and turning it into information that makes the next decision easier. I can happily spend hours talking about planning a lap, caravans, camping gear, road conditions and the realities of travelling Australia.

Those who know me well know I love travelling, food, cooking, meeting new people and having a chat over a wine. It is even better when all of those things happen on the same day.

I also believe recommendations should be earned. I want you to know what we actually use, what failed, what held up and what we would spend our own money on now.

Meet Kev

Kev is the practical half of our life on the road. He drives, managers the caravan and vehicle setup, takes photos and video, troubleshoots problems and waits patiently when I say I only need one more shot.

His business experience and interest in share markets also make him a useful sounding board when I am working through a new AAO idea. He prefers the campfire to the computer, but much of the real-world detail behind our content comes from the way we solve problems together.

How We Review Gear and Work with Brands

Some pages on All Around Oz contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you buy (thank you!) through them. We may also work with selected brands on paid content or product collaborations.

A commercial relationship does not buy a positive verdict. We prioritise products that are relevant to caravanners and campers, explain whether we have personally used them and disclose commercial relationships. If something fails or does not suit the job, our audience needs to know that too.

Come Along for the Trip

Whether you are still wondering if a lap of Australia is possible, deep in the planning stage or already on the road, you are welcome here.

Start with our Big Lap planning hub, join the Planning A Lap of Australia community, listen to Big Lap Chats or follow our travels on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

We hope what we share helps you plan with more confidence, avoid a few expensive mistakes and enjoy more of the road ahead.

Annette and Kev

Contact Us

Want to say hello or have any questions? Please contact us here and let us know what you’d like us to focus on to answer any questions you may have.

Media

Click here to discover where we’ve been featured, interviewed, and celebrated as trusted voices in the caravanning and camping community.

A Short Note About Melissa and Brenden

Melissa and Brenden built the original All Around Oz website and shared years of camping and Australian travel stories. Melissa later offered me the opportunity to buy the website, and I did. We remain grateful for the work they put into the original community and are proud to continue building on that foundation.