How we’re planning trips around current conditions
We’re not pretending the situation doesn’t exist, and we’re not running our usual itineraries unchanged. The trips we’re recommending right now — including the ones featured in our Aussie Winter Wander Sale — have been deliberately shaped around current conditions.
Short legs
Our recommended itineraries cap daily drives at around two hours. Shorter legs mean fewer fuel decisions, more time to plan ahead, and a smaller total fuel footprint over the course of the trip. They also leave more capacity in your tank as a buffer if a station along your route is one of the ones currently flagged on the live map.
Major corridors
Each of our 13 branch itineraries stays on highways and routes with the densest fuel coverage in the country — the Pacific Highway, the M1, the Hume, the Captain Cook Highway, the Stuart Highway south of Darwin, the South Western Highway in WA. We’ve deliberately avoided routes that rely on remote single-station legs. The honest reason: these are the routes least exposed to the regional supply pinches the government has acknowledged.
Branch advice
Our branch teams know their regions. When you collect a vehicle, ask the team for the current fuel picture on the specific route you’re planning — they’ll have more up-to-date local information than any national page can offer, including which specific stations have been reliable in recent weeks.
Helping the supply go further
The federal government is currently running a national campaign — “Every Little Bit Helps” — asking Australians to voluntarily reduce fuel use where they can, so supply reaches essential services like emergency response, freight, farming and remote communities. We think this is worth mentioning directly rather than ignoring.
Touring by motorhome is a leisure activity, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. But a few choices on a trip can make it a more efficient one:
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Stick to the route. Plan ahead and avoid unnecessary detours.
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Travel at sensible speeds. Highway efficiency drops sharply above 100 km/h.
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Combine errands and supply runs into single trips out from your overnight base.
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Use shore power where you can. Plug in at caravan parks rather than running the vehicle’s engine for charging.
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Keep tyres properly inflated. Under-inflation increases consumption noticeably.
None of this is unusual advice for a road trip. It just matters a little more right now.
