GO ON. Admit it. You've dreamed about chucking in the job, packing up the house, buying a motorhome, loading up the family and heading off to explore Australia.
Oddly enough I never had, until I became an Accidental Grey Nomad.

About eight years ago, my father (then in his early 70s), was living alone in a too-big house and depressed about what the future held. I was in the happy position of earning good money as a morning radio presenter, so I bought him a motorhome a lumbering beast with a shower, toilet, microwave, DVD player - all the bells and whistles.

Something I thought I'd never be seen dead in.

It turned out to be the best money I ever spent. Better than a beach house, a fancy car, an investment property, a new kitchen or even a term deposit to save for a "good school" for the kids.

Dad and his best mate, Meggsy, took off and we didn't hear from them for about five years, except for the odd postcard from an outback town we'd never heard of
Like so many of his generation, Dad hadn't travelled. He'd barely been out of Victoria. That he managed to drive the van out of the suburbs of Sydney he still declares "a miracle". He nominates the highlights as seeing sugarcane fields, the ancient forests of Tasmania and chasing the mythical Min Min Light in the Channel Country a phenomenon of dancing luminescence said to date back to the Dreamtime.

My father had only two accidents: one when a road train ripped off the annex on the Bruce Highway, and the other when he ran up the arse of Parkinson's disease.

That was when the truck came back to me.

My first inclination was to sell the great white behemoth but, my husband insisted, not until we'd at least taken a trip in it. So we loaded the motorised block of flats onto the ferry and blarted off to Tassie.

That was it. I was hooked.

Everything you've heard about life on the road in a motorhome is true, only better. Last New Year's Eve we parked on the banks of the Snowy River and sat around the table in the van playing Pictionary with the kids. When they'd flaked out, the bubbles in our champagne were outnumbered only by the stars.

It was a magical night.

No wonder some 800 people a week are joining the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA). At any one time some 80,000 vehicles are on the road doing their impersonation of Hume and Hovell. Every one of us is an explorer in our own country as Tim Flannery explains so well in his magnificent book The Explorers, a truly wonderful travelling companion.

And as baby boomers hit the tarmac, the industry is only going to get bigger.

"Whether you like it or not, we're coming," CMCA spokesman Phil Berry says.

The industry is now worth $8 billion a year to our economy, he says, making it one of the biggest industries in Australia. The average spend is $527 a week for domestic travellers and twice that for international tourists.

Motorhome enthusiasts not only spend their money on food, fuel and clothing (all the stuff that keeps rural communities afloat) but they are also volunteering in community projects and taking jobs as seasonal workers.

Not only do they bring their own accommodation, they also take home cartons of wine from local vineyards and those awful sculptures of outback pubs you find at craft markets that most people can't fit into their cars.

However, there's a turf war out there in the backblocks that you may be only dimly aware of. In essence, it's the caravan park industry v the motorhome industry.

Tragically, Australia is losing 50 caravan parks a year to developers. The latest is a rumoured $13 million paid for a caravan park at The Entrance, sold for multi-storey development. Sites for tents, motorhomes and caravans are rapidly being converted to "luxury cabins" with all the facilities you can get in a room ... at your place.

Caravan parks are increasingly offering swimming pools, spas, water slides and spiffy BBQ areas at big prices. But do we really want that?

I reckon most of us would rather a space under a tree and a place to chuck in a fishing line.

"It's the last frontier of the Aussie way of life and fast disappearing, just as a new generation is rediscovering it," Phil Berry says.

So you've paid big bucks for your recreational vehicle that promises all that, now where to park?

"It's the biggest issue in tourism right now," Berry says.

Europe, the US and New Zealand are all way ahead of us in welcoming RVs. Motorhomes suffer from a poor image but, fact is, they're environmentally friendly.

I've ducked under the dashboard as we've wheeled into a remote campsite and been sniffed at by "eco-campers" as a redneck in a Big Rig (admittedly the shonky cowboy hat's not helping), then watched in horror as the tent-dwellers chop down trees for the camp fire and dig holes in the ground for bush dunnies.

Meanwhile, in our discreet motorhome, we cook over the gas stove and the water we use to wash dishes, shower and flush our on-board loo has been hauled from Sydney.

NZ now has a network of dump points for "blackwater" waste in service stations across the country.

It's something we don't have here and should. Especially since the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service has been cut to the bone and can't cope with maintaining waste at camp sites. There will always be the ratbag element who don't play by the rules, but like most responsible motorhomers we're careful to leave only tyre tracks after our adventures.

Look, you can tell I'm just getting started on this one, but I'm a convert.

I understand caravan parks feel threatened, but there's an opportunity here for Australia, the largest, most spectacular island on the planet, to become a paradise for road adventurers.

Besides, all RV owners spend every other night in a caravan park, unless they are booked out. And all too often, they are.

Who knows? Maybe sales of hideous pub sculptures to grey nomads may just save our economy when our natural resources boom goes bust.

Wendy Harmer is an author, a broadcaster and a mother

Just how we feel, You're spot on.

Ditto here as well...

Gary & Sheree

Could not agree more, brilliant.
Greg n Jen.

What a life us lucky people living in the lucky country Australia!!! Me and my hubby don't have a motor home, but an older caravan, outside ensuite tent and a dog who brings his house along with us!!!!! We love it - enjoy it very much and not giving it up till we gotta!!! Mind you, we will go down kicking and screaming, can of beer in one hand !!!!!!

Greetings Susan (or is it Frank?)
Your article was really interesting but, Am I right in concluding that it was indeed written by Wendy Harmer?
If so - and others may correct me here - you could be contravening copyright regs. by re-publishing something without the approval of the original author or Publishers...or even properly acknowledging the origin.
Not trying to start an argument here but just possibly saving you some strife. Maybe others, more familiar with the rules, eg the administrators, can enlighten us.
Jock

Jock is absolutely right Frank and Susan.

Because this was actually an article written by Wendy Harmer for the Sunday Telegraph, Nov 14th, you need to acknowledge this in your post or it could be regarded as a breach of copyright. Improbable, but also possible.

diesel