Victoria by the Numbers

Victoria is kinda hard to do, since we left in the middle of our stay to go to Tassie. And, we are going to be coming back when we ship our vehicle, but we will give a go at it anyway.



Here are some interesting statistics from our journey in Australia’s 2nd-smallest state.

• Time
  • Time zone: UTC+10:00; participates in Daylight Savings Time (while we were in VIC, DST began in the US and ended in VIC, but not on the same day)
  • Day entered 1: 16-Jan-2017
  • Day left 1: 29-Jan-2017
  • Day entered 1: 15-Mar-2017
  • Day left 1: 06-Apr-2017
  • Total # of days: 14+23=37
    • Nights slept in van: 37
    • Nights slept in tent: 0
    • Nights slept in hotel/etc.: 9 (these were all before we received the van from customs)
• Distance
  • Driven: ~3000 km (~1875 miles)
  • Average speed: 59.4 kph (36.9 mph)
  • Hiked: 41.4 km (25.9 miles)

    Date	Location	Description	Distance (km)	Distance (mi)
    1/19/2017	Beaconsfield Nature Conservation Reserve	Walk around reservoir	3	1.875
    1/27/2017	Point Nepean NP	Cheviot Hill	2.8	1.75
    3/24/2017	Wilsons Promontory NP	Mount Oberon Summit	6.8	4.25
    3/25/2017	Walhalla	Tramline Walkway	3	1.875
    3/27/2017	Alpine NP	Black Duck Hole	1.4	0.875
    3/28/2017	Alpine NP	Mount Cope Summit	3.4	2.125
    3/28/2017	Alpine NP	Fainter Falls	1.5	0.9375
    3/30/2017	Mount Buffalo NP	Horn Summit Lookout	3	1.875
    3/30/2017	Mount Buffalo NP	Old Galleries Track	1	0.625
    3/30/2017	Mount Buffalo NP	View Point Nature Walk	4.5	2.8125
    4/3/2017	Lorne	Erskine Falls	1.4	0.875
    4/3/2017	Lorne	Allenvale Mill Car Park to Phantom Falls & The Canyon	5.9	3.6875
    4/4/2017	Port Campbell NP	Loch Ard Gorge	3	1.875
    4/4/2017	Port Campbell NP	The Grotto	0.72	0.45

  • Fuel fill-ups: 7
• Money
  • Total spent: $3965 USD ($5370 AUD) 
    • Consists of the costs of traveling full time in Victoria, including TAC and insurance
    • Does not include gear or van conversion costs
    • More than 3/4 of it was spent in the first part of the VIC experience (14 days), with only less than 1/4 spent in the last 23 days.
  • Average cost per day: $107.18 USD ($145.17 AUD)
  • Average cost of diesel: $1.249 AUD per liter ($3.039 USD per gallon)
• National Parks visited: 8
  • Point Napean 
  • Port Philips Head
  • Wilsons Promontory
  • Alpine
  • Mount Buffalo
  • Great Otway
  • Mount Richmond
  • Lower Glenelg

Interesting observations about Victoria:

1. Australian Open (tennis) occurs here every year in January.
2. This state has “shires” instead of “counties”. (LOTR fans will love that!)
3. Melbourne and Sydney fought so viciously over being the national capital that neither one of them wore allowed to be the capital. However, VIC also required that the capital be no fewer than 1000km from Sydney.
4. Apparently VIC is just contentious as it also had an argument with South Australia over its border. For years, this contested border area was ignored by both states until it was finally settled in court, where Victoria won the land (even though the line had been surveyed incorrectly in the first place and belonged to SA per its state’s charter).
5. Victoria is very strict with its road rules. Most people report that if you go even 2 kph over the posted speed limit, you can expect a ticket, especially if caught on a speed camera. These cameras can be mobile as well, and aren't always in the same spot. They also post an abundance of signs in hopes that it will reduce traffic accidents.