Hi,
Hope you have a good trip nothing better than hitting the road and enjoying the sights and meeting friendly people. I am trying to visualize how you would do your suggested trip via Bendigo and Ballarat. I would go through Mount Gambier, Portland, Port Campbell to Anglesea then up to Ballarat. That part of Victoria is fantastic. Have a safe trip and take your time and enjoy. Apollo Bay is one of my favorites just love that area.

G'day hawkie
We had a Chesney Mk. IV for about 15 years before upgrading to a new Caravan in 2002. Essentially the same as yours but the bottom was sheet aluminium, clad and lined with wood internally... After strengthening the light chassis and sitting the springs on top of the axle to raise the height, we took it everywhere...Fraser Island, numerous times, Cape York several times, Kakadu and heaps of other difficult to get to places. I can honestly say that we've never had as much enjoyment out of any of our vans. We paid $1,300. for it (a fair while ago) and, after replacing the canvas, gave it to our son and young family in 2002...they continue to happily go camping in it.
Couple of things I did....I made up a set of crossbars for the roof to carry our tinny and/or Kayaks. I made a large wooden storage box which sat across the front draw bar and I had made up for us a 400mm strip of heavy duty tarp material to slip around the edge of the bed ends then under the base..to stop water coming in due to the mattresses touching the canvas..(Didn't worry about it if rain was not imminent). Also screwed some sail track along the roof section above the door and had a heavy duty tarp awning made up to fit. Also made up an extra shelf which fitted above the fridge and on this we placed our old Chescold fridge freezer while we were camped.
Hope you have as much fun as we did.
Jock

Hawkie, Welcome. And make sure you stop by Warrnambool on your next adventure. I'll drop down for a cuppa.

Welcome Hawkie

And good luck and happy travels with the Chesney !