Coming to Oz from Arizona, USA
 

Hello fellow Jeepers of Australia!

My wife and I will be coming to Australia in May to begin our lap around the continent.
We are shipping our Jeep and Trailer over (porting from LA to Sydney) and will begin a counter-clockwise lap from there. We are planning for approximately 6 months to complete and ending back in Sydney around mid-Nov to early Dec at the latest.
Jeep and Trailer are shipping under a Carnet (CPD) which allows for temporary importation w/o duty.

The Jeep is a 2022 Wrangler Rubicon with the 3.0L Ecodiesel. It has aftermarket front and rear bumpers with swing out tire carrier from Letz Roll Offroad of Mesa, AZ, a 10,000lb Warn Xeon10S winch, 2.5" Metal Cloak lift with Fox Shocks, ASFIR Aluminum Skids plates, AEV Snorkel, custom Roof Rack and Carrier Racks with (2) 20L Jerry Cans. Tires are 315/70R17.

The trailer is a custom made by me Adventure trailer with ROAM RTT and 6.5' and 5' awnings, 100W solar panel, (2) 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries, 60L ARB Fridge, 150L freshwater tank and on-demand water heater, and 2 burner gas stove. Tire and wheels match the Jeep exactly (Patagonia MTR 315/70R17).

I have numerous questions for the forum ranging from comms to vehicle insurance, must see places and any other need to know that I don't know yet :o

Pics of the Jeep and Trailer follow:

Welcome! 6 months is not a lot of time! Many Australians work on a year for a big lap. Maybe you will end up doing 1/2 a lap.
Weather will have a major impact on where you go. You dont need to spend a day to move a mile!
Good Luck!

Make sure you leave the Big Island and pay Tasmania a visit, although you might not want to leave....

Friends of ours spent 9 months here and travelled 29,000km. :)

Cheers, Al.

You are probably aware we are RHD, and obviously your vehicle is LHD, do the research on what the various states authorities expect of you as requirement to use the modern LHD car here. Currently there are a lot of US import classic cars here but their age is fixed at no younger than 1989 year of manufacture. Getting car/liability Insurance maybe a show stopper??

Thank you all for the feedback.

Understand 6 months may not be considered enough time but it is the amount of time we have. On the long side we may be willing to stretch to 7-ish months but we definitely want to be back in the US by Christmas 2024. My wife has set her limit at home by American Thanksgiving (~3rd week of Nov). So her stated limit right now is 6 1/2 months.
We'll play that by ear somewhat but the 6-7 months is a hard limit.

Certainly aware that I will have a LHD vehicle in a RHD country.
I am putting some amount of trust in the Carnet CPD process that Australia is signatory to. I have received Concessional RAV entry and import Approval from the Dept. of Infrastructure and Transport for the trailer. Since I made the trailer myself, I was most concerned about getting that approval.
Interestingly, my application for the Jeep was refused but not for reasons of being LHD or any other mechanical issue. It was refused because I am not an Australian citizen or permanent resident and thus not eligible for import approvals.

We will be essentially trying our luck as we travel through states if their local restrictions do not allow our vehicle. I guess if that restricts our available travel ranges to just states that do allow the vehicle, then that is where we will be travelling to....

Getting insurance is a very current issue for me. Yesterday I contacted RACV by phone, who had told me via email that they would be able to assist me but I needed to call them on the phone, only to learn that they said they could not help me once I actually got on the phone with them :mad:
They did refer me to the Insurance Council of Australia who I also called and got numbers GSA and Eternity. GSA said they could not help and Eternity took down all my info and plans to call or email me back.
So I wait to resolve that right now too.

The challenge RACV had was that I would not have a residence address in Australia.
I do have a contact and friend of a friend that I met this past Dec whom lives in the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane. My last resort, if needed, is to ask her if I can use her address as my stated residence for the purpose of getting insurance.

Once you get approval in one state, you are good in any state. It is easiest to have an address somewhere. Dont know if you can drive on your USA registration in Australia. I have seen cars with USA registration on the road in Australia. Maybe the consulate can help. It is very important to get all the paperwork right for bringing the jeep in or risk having it tied up in bond for a long time. Dont worry too much about the LH-RH thing. Its more a problem for pedestrians when they cross the road!

You should be fine.. And I reckon plenty of folk here like myself would offer up their contact details for you to use as a home base address. However it would possibly make things easier if whatever address you use is based in your initial point of arrival (NSW or Victoria?).

Cheers, Al.