Laundries are not only the place to find coin-op washers and driers, large sinks with hot water, ironing facilities and a good gossip. They also house the unofficial book, magazine and tourist info swap-shop. We've found some interesting reading matter there – not to mention the 'Australian Woman's Weekly' (which comes out monthly!) Most caravan parks also have electric or gas barbecues, or fireplaces if open fires are not banned. Many also have camp kitchens, where you can cook, eat and wash up. Some even offer games rooms with TV, table tennis, snooker, etc. Open-air swimming pools are common on non-coastal parks, and very welcome too! Reception ('the office') will generally offer a shop for basic items, a public phone, tourist info and gas bottle refills/exchange.

So, caravan parks here (and in New Zealand) are extremely well equipped, though there are some things they often don't have: dump points for toilet-emptying (though you might be directed to a waste transfer system  in the town), a licence (so you won't find a bar or restaurant) and internet/email facilities (at best, there might be a coin-op kiosk). But the friendly office will tell you where to find these things.

Unlike their counterparts throughout Europe, caravan parks in Australia stay open all year long and they always have inexpensive cabins (from air-conditioned en-suite to backpackers' bunkhouse) and 'on-site vans' (furnished caravans let by the night).

In regions where water is scarce, the drinking water is often rainwater, collected in tanks off roofs, and available only to fill a jug or kettle. The other taps will provide bore water, OK for washing but not such a good taste (though you'll be assured it is safe). In more fortunate areas, the tapwater will be fine, but never waste water on this dry continent, now in its 4^th year of drought (2005).

In the outback, roadhouses and free camping fill the gaps. Many of the 1,000 National Parks offer simple bush-camping with an honesty box, and little else. It is noticeable that many long-term Australian motorhomers rarely (or even never) use a caravan park – camping wherever there is a safe parking place (one advised us to overnight behind a pile of roadside gravel!) They use the many excellent public toilets and fill with water at service stations along with their fuel.

Climate: The golden rule is: Keep south in the summer (December to March) and head north for the winter (May to October). In between, visit the interior! Bec, who lives in Cairns, writes: 'Best not have a tight schedule if heading north in the Wet (December to April). It is quieter, cheaper and a pretty impressive time to visit, but air-con recommended'. Tasmania is always cooler, greener and wetter than the rest of Australia.

Currency: £1 was worth around A$2.4 during our visits and this figure seems to have a long-term stability. ATM's are widely available and UK credit and debit cards are accepted everywhere, including major supermarkets and fuel chains. Many shops operating EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale) offer cash-back at the same time.

Food: Expect a British diet plus many 'veggies'. Excellent supermarkets include Cole's, Woolworth's, Foodland and Aldi. Look for bargain meals open to all at Bowling and Golf Clubs and the RSL (Returned Servicemen's League). Fast food chains - McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Hungry Jack's (= Burger King), Red Rooster, Pizza Hut etc - are now present all over Australia.

Fuel: Petrol was usually around or just over A$1 (£0.40) per litre. For our visit in 2005, diesel averaged A$1.20 or £0.50. If you spend A$30 at Woolworth's or Cole's supermarkets, you get 4 cents a litre discount on their fuel. Fuel on desert crossings and at remote roadhouse can cost up to A$0.30 a litre extra – get local advice from Australian travellers on where the best prices are. For example, crossing the 800-mile wide Nullarbor Plain, roadhouses at Eucla and Mundrabilla offer by far the best prices.

Health Care: Many towns have a Medicare office, where you can register (free of charge) by showing your UK passport and your onward air ticket. With a Medicare number (one registration can cover a couple or a family), you will get cash back from Medicare when you have paid medical expenses – doctors' and hospital fees and clinical tests (but not prescriptions or dentists). This is under a reciprocal agreement with the UK government – Australian visitors get free treatment in the UK.

You don't get all the money back – probably around 75% of it – but it greatly reduces the overall cost. It only applies to medical problems arising in Australia and not necessarily for long-term chronic conditions. You can register before or after your first medical expenditure.

Internet: Even quite small towns have simple (and often very slow) facilities for internet/email. In some States, public libraries provide a free hour with better equipment. However, it isn't common for you to be able to use your own laptop, nor can you easily plug in a USB flash drive. This means that you may have to use CDs or 3½” floppies to transfer data to and from the internet centre. Most centres and libraries also have a printer, at 20 cents a page. Visitor Centres often have a terminal, maybe free for 15 minutes, and will direct you to other outlets.

Tasmania deserves special mention for its widespread Community Online Centres, staffed by volunteers and situated in schools and libraries. Terminals are available to visitors for around A$5 per hour.

Maps and Guides: For overall planning, we used GeoCenter's excellent 1:4 million map and most towns have a tourist office with plenty of free local maps, leaflets and advice. Take your UK AA/RAC card (or pay from £22 pa plus £14 joining fee in Queensland, for example - visit www.racq.com.au) to get a wide range of free or subsidised route, town and State maps (and a breakdown service). For desert crossings, maps show roadhouses and water supplies, but don't rely on the latter.

Each State produces a free directory of caravan parks in its region, and the chains have their own nation-wide guides. You will not lack information!

The Lonely Planet (on its home territory) or Rough Guide is an essential companion. Both are very thorough. Highwayman Productions publish useful guides to bush camps and rest areas around, across and throughout Australia, with plenty of blank space for you to fill in all the information they missed out! Buy them at book stores or camping shops.

Media: Radio stations on AM and FM are available except in the most remote locations. The excellent ABC is the equivalent of the BBC with local (state-wide), national and classical music channels. In larger towns, ABC stations are supplemented by local commercial stations on FM.

TV stations (ABC again, plus commercial stations such as channels 9 and 7) broadcast on UHF in or very near the larger towns. Caravan parks may have a cable or satellite link and provide a TV set in communal areas – typically the kitchen or games room.

Newspapers are excellent. Rupert Murdoch's 'The Australian' covers the country and each state has its own paper – eg 'The West Australian' in WA', 'The Advertiser' in SA, 'The Age' or 'Herald Sun' in Victoria, 'Advocate' in Tasmania and 'The Sydney Morning Herald' in NSW. Not least, we enjoyed the crossword puzzles and the opportunity to extend our Aussie vocabulary.

Post: Post Offices provide an excellent service for mail and for stationery, boxes, cards, printer cartridges, blank CDs – all kinds of stuff. Mail sent Poste Restante is held for up to a month and we haven't had to pay a fee on collection.

Roads: Interstate roads, even Highway 1, can be narrow and poorly surfaced and dual carriageways are a rarity away from the south-east corner of the country. Many outback roads are unsealed and would mean any or all of dust, floods, potholes and rocks. Off-road, ground clearance is often more important than four-wheel drive.

Red dust is a problem everywhere and will permeate every corner of the motorhome. All you can do is keep the windows closed.

Roadhouses: On average, there is a roadhouse every 100 miles on desert crossings. For example, there are 8 (and nothing else at all) on the road across the 800-mile-wide Nullarbor Plain. They offer food, drinks, fuel, rooms, camping (with electricity from their generator) and advice. The water is either pumped from a salty borehole (requiring special soap in showers) or collected in rainwater tubs, cloudy and jealously guarded. Don't expect to fill your tank!

Safety: It is a good idea to carry plenty of fuel, drinking water and food at all times. Off-road ('going bush'), tell someone your route and expected time of arrival. If you break down – stay with your vehicle! Emergency satellite beacons are available for hire – they send out a signal giving your position if you become lost in the outback.

On landline telephones, freecall '000' gets you emergency services. '112', the European standard, works on mobile phones. Long-term outback-travelling Australians fit their vehicles with short range UHF sets (there are repeater stations which broaden their scope) and/or longer range HF equipment.

Telephones: Mobile phone networks, including Vodafone (www.vodafone.com.au), operate around most towns and are being extended along major highways, but don't expect coverage in most of the countryside. An Australian pay-as-you-go SIM card can be bought for £12.50 and Telstra has by far the biggest network. Emergency radiophones are located at long intervals across the Nullarbor and other desert crossings.

Telephone Cards: Public telephones are operated by state-owned Telstra and take coins or cards. Phone boxes can always be found outside Post Offices and service stations. Cards can be bought from Post Offices, caravan parks, service stations, newsagents, supermarkets, etc, and can be used for local, national and international calls.

The prepaid Telstra card (minimum A$5) goes in a card-phone slot. Another kind ('Telstra PhoneAway' – minimum A$10) has a pin number to be dialled in, revealed by scratching the back. This can be used to pay for calls on any phone, public or private, and works out a little cheaper for long or international calls.

Local calls are untimed – a flat rate (40 cents on a card-phone) covers any length of call! Numbers starting 1800 are toll-free, while those starting 1300 are charged as a local call.

Visas: A 3-month electronic visa usually comes with the aeroplane ticket for a small fee. In 2002, for £27 each we obtained a 6-month tourist visa from the Australian High Commission in London. The latter requires a visit, or some delay posting your passport or the use of an agent who does it all for a fee.

For More Information, contact Australian Tourist Commission, Gemini House, 10-18 Putney Hill, Putney, London SW15 6AA – visit www.australia.com. Each State has its own tourist office in London.

www.campsaustraliawide.com is worth a visit for their publication 'Camps Australia Wide 3'. For less than $A50 you can get a comprehensive guide, with maps, to a wide range of free camping sites and low cost caravan parks, all over Australia. Among a number of other motorhome-relevant publications, the website offers: 'Around Australia' at $A40 paperback by Evon and Peter Anderson. This book gives a thorough account of the preparation and execution of a circuit of Australia by motorhome.

Many thanks to Bec and Kev in Queensland and Paul in NSW for their help in getting our Australian facts straight.