ozzieeagle

LOL you sound like the young blokes from when I first arrived that used to boast about doing it direct in 23 hours in their hotted up 74 Ford Falcons and Toranas.

What was your last long direct drive.... Mine was circa 1200Ks... Melbourne to Port Macquarie in one hit, about 12 years back.... Took me 14 hours. Never ever again. I'm over that stuff now. Always used to drive to the Gold Coast direct before that 18 hours that used to take up the Newell in the 80's... Ford Falcons were the go for that kind of drive.


Got my Campervan now, it's a 84' Poptop Toyota in brilliant close to pristine condition, I aim to take about 3 weeks to get to Perth in that, if not more

Amazulu

1000 miles (1600kms) in the US - boom - one day. Easy peasy. We used to regularly do Johannesburg - Cape Town - 1400kms - in one hit - often in my Ford Escort. I love driving long-distance - changing scenery, good music, some decent snacks and drinks, alone with your thoughts - awesome. I find many Australians balk at long-distance driving for some odd reason. A girl in our office moved from Northern Qld to Perth and drove over - you should have heard the exclamations of horror when she told people. She got respect from me!

Seriously though, 3 days and 2 nights is more than enough for Perth-Melbourne

carcajou

Love the long drives. Australia is great for country driving. Drove to Karijini and Ningaloo last year - people thought we were crazy but loved every kilometer. I want to do Darwin to Perth (through Alice Springs and SA, not the Kimberley) next.

Economies are cyclical and Perth/Western Australia will have up days again, but not for a while, and a lot of people are going to get taken out (if not already) during this intermezzo. I live in Regional WA and shops that have been open for almost 40 years are closing down; a car dealer I know who has had his dealership almost as long as that, told me that business has NEVER been as slow as it is right now. Similarly, Melbourne is booming now but that will burst in time.

Part of the problem going forwards is going to be Millennial spending habits are quite different from Boomers; permanent jobs are rarities these days, contract positions and the need to shift locales frequently are what we are used to, and this has an ice-cold chilling effect on major purchases since it's hard to plan your income out even just 2 or 3 years into the future anymore. Those habits and constant uncertainty will be very hard to break.

What our pollies don't understand is that most people aren't as rich as they are, and if they lose their job, most people can't just call their bigwig friends in other industries and get a cush consulting gig to hold them over for a while, the way they can. The same politicians who are out imploring people to "have confidence" and spend to boost the economy, will be the same politicians who hector those who take their advice about "personal responsibility" if bankruptcies follow.

ozzieeagle

The longest regular drivers i know off are the people out of Townsville.....the tend to always drive to Brisbane in one go ....1400 ks

BadgeIsBack

Day cleaning the house : no wonder we're such slobs !
:-)