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When we decided to travel Australia with a 4 month old baby and two older children...I thought we were crazy! I can’t say that I really ever thought about travelling Australia until we were older, once our children had moved out of home. My husband really wanted to travel and needed the change for his mental health as he was struggling at the time. We decided to just do it! We bought a van, a car and packed up all of our things in 5 weeks. We were off! There was a lot to organise before we left as we had never owned a caravan or even a 4wd car. It was a huge learning curve but what better way to learn something then to just do it. We have now been on the road for over a year and we are still absolutely loving it.
Travelling with a baby is definitely hard work. When we left Ava was little and she couldn’t move around therefore that was much easier. Now she is 15 months old and it’s way more hectic! She is quick and we have to be careful that she doesn’t go near the roads. We like to do more free, beach, National park camping over caravan parks. If you are thinking of travelling Australia with a baby and think it isn’t a good idea or to hard, I would say go for it! Babies don’t need much and adapt to what you are doing.
When packing for our big trip we honestly didn’t have a idea of what we'd actually need and doing it so quickly, we definitely overpacked. We had a lot of things for Ava when we first took off as she was only 4 months old at the time but after a few weeks we did a huge cull of uneccessary products.
One thing we used from the very start and still use it now is our DockATot. We would bring the DockATot to the beach, parks, in the caravan and also when hanging out with other families so we knew Ava had a safe spot to lay.
We used a collapsible baby bath until Ava could sit up and then we changed to a flexi tub from Kmart. We use these tubs for so many different things beach toys, blankets/rugs, outside water play with animal figurines.
Ava has always been breastfeed so we haven’t needed to worry about bottles. When Ava started with solids we would make a big patch of food and just freeze it. We love our reusable bib from Ava to wear while eating. It’s the best as you can just wipe it and you don’t create more washing. Once Ava was ready for food we got a high chair from IKEA. It’s so easy to just wipe down and it is the perfect height so she can have meals with us all. You can take the legs off the high chair to travel with it but we store ours in our shower when we travel. It also fits perfectly under our inside table so if the weather isn’t great she can use it inside. We have a Subo Bottle that we make smoothies and Ava can now independently use that.
We bought a little rocker from big w with us it was great when she wanted to see what was going on. We also bought with us our big Uppababy Pram with the bassinet. We soon realised we didn’t need the bassinet part. We sold the pram when Ava was 7 months and got pram from Big W that took up less room. We still use our pram a lot and if we can’t take the pram we have a baby carrier.
If you are concerned with things like doctors, immunisations and check ups. You can go to any town and still do all these things. We have had one hospital visit with Ava. It was in the middle of nowhere but luckly the ambulance was fast to arrive and although the doctor wasn't the greatest, the nurses were amazing. We were in communication with the hospital in the next biggest town in the hopes to move us there as soon as possible. I learnt a valuable lesson from that experience: if one of our children was sick and in need of healthcare, we'd travel to a bigger town and stay put until they recovered.
Being on the road is the best! We have truly grown so much as a family and realised what is important in life. We are extremely happy with our life on the road and living in a caravan. There is still so much to explore and we can't see an end date yet. We are currently in Western Australia and have decided to head back up the coastline to do WA again as we loved it so much!
If you have any questions or would like to know more about a destination we have visited, feel free to send us a message on Instagram, @fivefreedomtravellers.
- New Parent Hacks: 10 Tips for Travelling with Baby
- One Family's Travel Adventures with the Grand DockATot
- 6 Fun and Simple Outdoor Play Ideas for Babies and Toddlers
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