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==The Outback==

I don't know about others, but hitchhiking throughout the outback was easy. The people were friendly, especially the aboriginal folks who would have six people already jammed in a little car and still squeeze you in. I managed from Broome through to Kununurra, Katherine up to Darwin and down to Alice. The only time I had to wait more than a half-hour was when I was dropped off on the turn off to Batchelor, which while on the main highway, is a real bad spot with nothing and no one for a long ways. Anyway, give it a go. Watch where you swim and don't worry about the snakes. I never seen a single snake in three months of bush living and wwoofing in remote places. Definitely fill up a few litres of water when you have the chance. It is very easy to get dehydrated. If you can get decent water, all the better. Most bores were quite brackish tasting and all roadhouse taps were heavily chlorinated -- here's to a good litre of fresh rainwater on a sunny 45 degree day! (Amory Tarr)

When going to the outback go to truck stops and talk to them there, a lot of truck companies don't allow anyone but the drivers in their trucks but if you talk to the truckies at stops they are much more likely to wave that rule. The only time truckies truly cannot give you a lift is when they are operating under a dangerous goods license and then, by law they are not allowed to have another passenger in the vehicle. For example petrol tankers, transporting more than one trailer of gas, etc. Not all companies have rules against taking passengers. The truckies will take you long distances, from [[Port Augusta]] all the way to [[Darwin]] or [[Perth]], but if you want to get off the main road, then you'll have to wait awhile :)

My own experience does not quite agree with the above comment... Recent changes to Insurance costs throughout the western world, have meant that trucks face stricter and stricter insurance limitations, one of which is that they are commonly not allowed to have any unlisted passengers in their vehicles. These rules are normally enforced by larger companies, where all riders sign in at the depot prior to the trucks departure. If you personally know a driver it is often possible for them to sign you in and take you along to help keep them awake. These rules don't really apply to owner/operators, unless on long term contract to a particular company. Unfortunately it's hard for you to know which trucks it will or wont apply to, though you can be confident that the big name trucks like Australia Post, Woolworths etc this is absolutely the case. All of this does not mean you can't get a ride in a truck in Aus. What it does mean is that our global fear of strangers has gone up here as much as elsewhere, and the amount of trucks picking up 'strangers' is greatly diminished. I have had some great lifts with road trains, Australia Post trucks etc etc, though they seem less and less common. In fact my first go at driving a road train was on a hitch across the Nullabor Desert, a truly mad but memorable experience of driving 50tonnes of rolling monster across the midnight plains (Dave Hodgkin)

==Police==

:''Wait on gas stations or truck stops for a ride. This way you won't get into trouble with the police, can ask people for a lift and you're close to water, food and a toilet.''

Australia poses some interesting and unique challengers for hitchhikers, distances between populated areas can be vast, by far the majority of Australians live next to the sea, with the majority of those living in the state capital cities. Temperatures in inland Australia can exceed 50 degrees Celsius in summer and go well below freezing in winter. In many ways Australia is an extreme environment, with some pretty extreme pests, people and weather, when it rains it pours, when it blows up a gale, it howls. But in saying this when Australia or Australians smile on you, the heavens open up from above and you can find yourself, taken in, taken home and for all practical purposes adopted for life.

-Be very careful about not annoying your host, I've been thrown out of a truck by an irate driver, off his head on nodoze, for some quite harmless comment, 200k from the nearest town...

You know your off the tourist track when you get to a town with out a backpackers. Most small towns have a town pub that offers pretty cheap accommodation and many have a free campground on teh edge of town or a picnic spot beside a river

-Schoolyards, normally there is somewhere discrete under cover, in most small towns there is green grass, and even toilets and drinking water, just set your alarm early and get out before 7:30ish when cleaning staff etc may start to arrive. (The primary school on thee edge of My Isa has rescued me on more than one occasion

-Showgrounds on the edge of towns often have toilets water and a place undercover

Jumping railway cars is also still possible in Australia, though you did not here it from me

-The three day journey from Mt Isa to the coast on the coal trains (pick up a Beanbag a tarp and a shade cloth from the Op-shop in town, few things bet making love on a pile of coal at 20km/h under the desert stars :)

-The cargo train across the Nullabor, a trip of a lifetime, my mate Alex did it, certainly one of those life changing adventures

I have been helped out when stuck in a small town, by the Country Womens Association, best scones of my life, nothing beats hunger to increase the flavour of jam and cream

I've eaten my share of roadside fruits from passing orchards, and cooked my share of roadkill, the smell quickly gives away the freshness or otherwise.

Nothing beats the total delight of fresh billy tea boiled in a discarded coke can, fresh damper and road kill under a full moon beside the road...

If really stuck in the middle of nowhere, and yes it does happen and has happened to me! Remember to go into casual energy conservation mode, wander down the road till you find a nice shady spot not to far from the road edge and chill out, get up when you can hear a car approaching from either direction, and stand beside the road, looking clean presentable forlorn and lost... a "help" sign helps, but many people will slow down, look very innocent, look very unarmed etc, remember the primary aim at this point is to get out of wherever you are, which direction simply does not matter, just get to the nearest town. You can live for a month without food, but you will die without water in a few days

Some of my most amazing experiences have included a night wrapped in cardboard in abandoned wheat silo in the cold of winter, sharing a humpy with blackfellas in a town camp on the edge of tennant creek, waking up by bashing my head on the underside of a dodge van i had crawled under to avoid the rain to be offered a cupa tea by the occupants, digging my car out of a saltlake when we took a wrong turn with two English backpackers as rain clouds loomed... This to me is the real Australia (dave hodgkin)

* [[Adelaide]]

* [[Brisbane]]

* [[Melbourne]]

* [[Perth]]

* [[Sydney]]

* [[Bruce Highway]]

* [[Hume Highway]], from Sydney to Melbourne

* [[Pacific Motorway]], from Sydney to Brisbane

* [[Stuart Highway]], from Darwin to Adelaide

==Links==

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