Rob Catania talks about living in a bus full time
Free Range Camping helps bring campers and people needing odd jobs together, making a nomadic lifestyle sustainable
But one Sunshine Coast family did just that three ago and they haven’t looked back since, covering more than half of Australia and sharing incredible experiences together.
Rob and Michelle Catania were working seven days a week running their own kitchen and bathroom renovation business, and they barely had any time to spend with their children Jade, eight, and Henry, five.
Mr Catania said they had never been camping before but they read a story about another family living on the road and decided they could do it too.
‘We needed something big enough for two kids growing up, and for home schooling because we do a lot of schooling on the bus,’ he said.
'The big key was having the bus fully self-sufficient, so we made sure we had enough solar power we didn’t need electricity and it could carry enough water so we could stay out of town.
'We also built a fairly elaborate kitchen so we could cook every meal ourselves.'
Mr Catania said they funded the trip themselves using money they had saved from their business, money they made renting out their Sunshine Coast home and spare cash they earned working for locals as they travelled around.
‘The first year cost us the most because we were staying in caravan parks 90 per cent of the time, we were green and didn’t have a good handle on it. We spent between $30,000 and $40,000 on general overall expenses,’ he said.
‘As we met people we learnt more and started house sitting and spending a couple of months with farmers so by the second year we’d reduced costs down to about half of that.’
They started their trip by driving south from Queensland and catching the Spirit of Tasmania ferry from Victoria to Tasmania. They then came back to the mainland and drove to South Australia, then up to the Northern Territory, then across to Western Australia.
The family often park their bus on locals' properties in exchange for doing odd jobs, doing everything from fixing things for farmers to bus driving to managing reception desks at caravan parks.
‘There’s plenty of work if you want to work your way around,' Mr Catania said.
He added that they were some of the best times the family has had.
‘The experiences we’ve had travelling around and seeing things is great but sometimes you want more – we’ve got to know the locals, their circle of friends, the area and got a feel for the place,' he said.
'We've made some good connections and even the kids say "Can we go back?"'
Mr Catania said Henry and Jade thrive on the road, and they love learning and meeting new people.
‘The kids probably socialise better we find, we’ve met a lot of families on the road and they’ve formed great friendships,’ he said.
‘They are very confident kids, they’ve learnt to socialise with anyone from babies up to grandparents.’
Mr Catania and his wife both registered to home school their children and they do lessons four days a week.
‘We try to incorporate where we’re going into their schooling, for instance when we were in Tasmania we found a sea horse farm and made Jade do a project on sea horses,’ he said.
‘Going out to Uluru we got her to read a lot about Uluru and when we got there she saw it and it made so much sense.
‘Whenever we do maths or English we incorporate it into the environment. Using nature as your classroom you learn so much better.
'Just get her to multiply with shells on the beach and all of a sudden she gets it.’
Mr Catania added that watching Jade and Henry's relationship grow has been amazing to see.
'Probably one of the highlights for us, is the way they have bonded on the trip, they have become best friends,' he said.
'For us as parents watching the joy in their faces as they discover simple things such as an early morning sunrise are pretty special.'
About a year ago the couple launched the website Free Range Camping in the hopes of providing a directory for other campers to find cheap places to stay because they say the local help has allowed them to keep travelling for so long.
‘We self-funded the trip for the first two years, then we had to come up with something creative or back to full time work,’ he said.
Launched in May this year, the website has quickly risen in popularity gaining over 13,500 registered users and over 36,000 followers on Facebook.
Acting as a directory, the website aims to act as a one place stop for campers to find information related to camping, including
