Discover Why #Vanlife Is So Much More Than Just A Hashtag

If you think the ideals of the hippie era have been replaced by the consumerism of the 21st century, think again.

Australians are escaping the nine-to-five and joining the #vanlife bandwagon. But what is the #vanlife movement and should you be a part of it? Jennifer Ennion finds out.

The old-fashioned Aussie road trip is going through a transformation thanks to a cultural phenomenon sweeping the United States.

Vanlife is infiltrating our shores and attracting a diverse following Down Under. Elise Cook, 27, and her husband, Domenic Palumbo, 29, have spent the past eight months travelling Australia in their 1972 Volkswagen Westfalia. They’re not backpackers, but entrepreneurs, running their boutique company, Down the Rabbit Hole Wines, from the van.

Amber and Keenan Badger are a married couple in their early 40s who are part-time ‘vanlifers’, travelling in a Kombi with their two daughters. Like Cook, they’re working to fund a more simplistic, adventurous lifestyle.

Michael Brunell also doesn’t fit the road-tripper stereotype. He may be travelling solo, but he’s in his mid-30s and is a flight dispatcher, taking breaks in shift work to hit the road. These travellers share a passion to downscale and explore, and that is what #vanlife is about.

The movement

Although people have been living out of their home-on-wheels since the hippie trail heyday, when Europeans travelled overland to south Asia, vanlife is different. It has a bohemian appeal but is more than a movement for hippies and hipsters.

It started in the US not long after Instagram was launched in 2010, when Foster Huntington – who had given up his job and apartment in New York to move into a 1987 VW Syncro – began uploading photos and tagging them with the phrase #vanlife. The hashtag, which promoted an enviable, nomadic lifestyle, caught on and today more than two million posts have been tagged with it. Booming in North America, vanlife is still in its infancy in Australia.

explore adventure van life combi travel country road trip — The old-fashioned Aussie road trip has been reborn (photo: Elise Cook).

Cook explains the appeal: “We are so flooded with artificial light, constantly plugged in, bombarded with expectations of what success and adulthood should look like… that I think people are feeling a need to find a way to totally strip that back and reassess who they want to be and why. In our experience, vanlife allows that to happen, especially here."

Brunell, whose vehicle of choice is a 2009 VW Crafter, has noticed that van travel is no longer the domain of European backpackers travelling between Perth and Sydney, but more Australians are becoming vanlifers, and we’re taking a glamping approach.

The Vanlifers

It was six years ago that the Badgers unwittingly became vanlifers. The NSW-based couple had a regular van for weekends away but swapped it for a Kombi two years ago and began taking longer holidays. They’re currently on the road in Western Australia with their daughters Coco, 12, and Indigo, 10.

“Owning a Kombi has been a dream of ours for a very long time," Amber Badger explains. “It was something we put in the later-in-life basket… but we had a momentary lapse of rational thinking. One day we just thought ‘you know what, why wait?'"

As a self-employed leather worker, Badger can be flexible with her working hours, while her husband uses his long-service leave from his job as an electrician to travel. For them, vanlife is about slow travel and downscaling.

“It really strips us back to the core values," Badger says. “We drive slow. We’re sitting on 80 kilometres an hour. Everyone’s passing us by," she laughs.

Vanlife has a similar appeal for South Australians Cook and Palumbo, who purchased their VW for weekend jaunts. Their trips also grew longer and the pair eventually moved into the van full-time. They’re now embedded in the vanlife community.

“You sit around with people who are trying to live a little more consciously, people who are interested in really living this life we’ve been given, and you have the most incredible, life-changing conversations," Cook says.

Nostalgia plays a part in the attraction for Brunell, who recalls childhood caravanning holidays. Doing the “van thing", he says, is an extension of that. But he also wants to save on rent, as he already has a mortgage – and there’s the freedom.

“I look at people working nine to five, catching the same train every day and it just drives me insane," Brunell says.

How to make vanlife happen

– If you have children, consider home-schooling

– Test out vanlife on short trips

– If you’re a part-time vanlifer, create a packing list you can refer to

– Ensure the van is insulated so it’s comfortable in extreme heat and cold

– Sort out your power, solar or otherwise, so you can free camp

– Understand the mechanical basics of your vehicle and travel with a small toolbox

Located just an hour north-west of Melbourne, the largely undiscovered Macedon Ranges quietly pours some of Australia’s finest cool-climate wines and serves up some of Victoria’s best food.

Mention the Macedon Ranges and most people will think of day spas and mineral springs around Daylesford, cosy weekends away in the countryside or the famous Hanging Rock (of enigmatic picnic fame). Or they won’t have heard of the Macedon Ranges at all.

But this cool-climate destination has been inconspicuously building a profile as a high-quality food and wine region and is beginning to draw serious attention from oenophiles and epicureans alike.

The rise of Macedon Ranges wine

liquid gold barrels at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — Barrels of liquid gold at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

With elevations ranging from 300 to 800 metres, Macedon Ranges vineyards are among the highest in the country. This altitude, combined with significant day/night temperature swings, makes for a slow ripening season, in turn nurturing wines that embody elegance and structure. Think crisp chardonnays, subtle yet complex pinot noirs and delicate sparkling wines, along with niche varietals, such as gamay and nebbiolo.

Despite the region’s natural advantages – which vary from estate to estate, as each site embodies unique terroir depending on its position in relation to the Great Dividing Range, soil make-up and altitude – the Macedon Ranges has remained something of an insider’s secret. Unlike Victoria’s Yarra Valley or Mornington Peninsula, you won’t find large tour buses here and there’s no mass marketing drawing crowds.

Many of the 40-odd wineries are family-run operations with modest yields, meaning the wineries maintain a personal touch (if you visit a cellar door, you’ll likely chat to the owner or winemaker themselves) and a tight sales circle that often doesn’t go far beyond said cellar door. And that’s part of the charm.

Though wines from the Macedon Ranges are just starting to gain more widespread recognition in Australia, the first vines were planted in the 1860s, with a handful of operators then setting up business in the 1970s and ’80s. The industry surged again in the 1990s and early 2000s with the entry of wineries, such as Mount Towrong, which has an Italian slant in both its wine and food offering, and Curly Flat , now one of the largest estates.

Meet the new generation of local winemakers

the Clydesdale barn at Paramoor. — The Clydesdale barn at Paramoor. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Then, within the last 15 years, a new crop of vignerons like Andrew Wood at Kyneton Ridge Estate , whose vineyard in 2024 was the first in the Macedon Ranges to be certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Australia; Geoff Plahn and Samantha Reid at Paramoor , who have an impressive cellar door with a roaring fire and studded leather couches in an old Clydesdale barn; and Ollie Rapson and Renata Morello at Lyons Will , who rapidly expanded a small vineyard to focus on top-shelf riesling, gamay, pinot noir and chardonnay, have taken ownership of local estates.

Going back to the early days, Llew Knight’s family was one of the pioneers of the 1970s, replacing sheep with vines at Granite Hills when the wool industry dwindled. Knight is proud of the fact that all their wines are made with grapes from their estate, including a light, peppery shiraz (some Macedon wineries purchase fruit from nearby warmer areas, such as Heathcote, particularly to make shiraz) and a European-style grüner veltliner. And, as many other wineries in the region do, he relies on natural acid for balance, rather than an additive, which is often required in warmer regions. “It’s all about understanding and respecting your climate to get the best out of your wines,” he says.

farm animals atKyneton Ridge Estate — Curious residents at Kyneton Ridge Estate. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Throughout the Macedon Ranges, there’s a growing focus on sustainability and natural and low-intervention wines, with producers, such as Brian Martin at Hunter Gatherer making waves in regenerative viticulture. Martin previously worked in senior roles at Australia’s largest sparkling winemaking facility, and now applies that expertise and his own nous to natural, hands‑off, wild-fermented wines, including pét‑nat, riesling and pinot noir. “Wild fermentation brings more complexity,” he says. “Instead of introducing one species of yeast, you can have thousands and they add different characteristics to the wine.”

the vineyard at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — The estate’s vineyard, where cool-climate grapes are grown. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Most producers also focus on nurturing their grapes in-field and prune and pick by hand, thus avoiding the introduction of impurities and the need to meddle too much in the winery. “The better the quality of the fruit, the less you have to interfere with the natural winemaking process,” says Wood.

Given the small yields, there’s also little room for error, meaning producers place immense focus on quality. “You’re never going to compete in the middle [in a small region] – you’ve got to aim for the top,” says Curly Flat owner Jeni Kolkka. “Big wineries try to do things as fast as possible, but we’re in no rush,” adds Troy Walsh, owner and winemaker at Attwoods . “We don’t use commercial yeasts; everything is hand-harvested and everything is bottled here, so we bottle only when we’re ready, not when a big truck arrives.” That’s why, when you do see a Macedon Ranges product on a restaurant wine list, it’s usually towards the pointy end.

Come for the wine, stay for the food

pouring sauce onto a dish at Lake HouseDaylesford — Dining at Lake House Daylesford is a treat. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

If wine is the quiet achiever of the Macedon Ranges, then food is its not-so-secret weapon. In fact, the area has more hatted restaurants than any other region in Victoria. A pioneer of the area’s gourmet food movement is region cheerleader Alla Wolf-Tasker, culinary icon and founder of Daylesford’s Lake House.

For more than three decades, Wolf-Tasker has championed local producers and helped define what regional fine dining can look like in Australia. Her influence is palpable, not just in the two-hatted Lake House kitchen, but in the broader ethos of the region’s dining scene, as a wave of high-quality restaurants have followed her lead to become true destination diners.

the Midnight Starling restaurant in Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — The hatted Midnight Starling restaurant is located in Kyneton. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

It’s easy to eat well, whether at other hatted restaurants, such as Midnight Starling in the quaint town of Kyneton, or at the wineries themselves, like Le Bouchon at Attwoods, where Walsh is inspired by his time working in France in both his food offering and winemaking.

The beauty of dining and wine touring in the Macedon Ranges is that it feels intimate and unhurried. You’re likely to meet the winemaker, hear about the trials of the latest vintage firsthand, and taste wines that never make it to city shelves. And that’s worth getting out of the city for – even if it is just an hour down the road.

Delicate dishes on the menu at Midnight Starling. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

the accommodation at Cleveland Estate, Macedon Ranges — Stay at the Cleveland Estate. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Soak up vineyard views from Cleveland Estate near Lancefield , embrace retro charm at Kyneton Springs Motel or indulge in lakeside luxury at the Lake House .

Eating there

Enjoy a four-course menu at the one-hatted Surly Goat in Hepburn Springs, Japanese-inspired fare at Kuzu in Woodend or unpretentious fine dining at Mount Monument , which also has a sculpture park.

Drinking there

wine tasting at PassingClouds Winery, Macedon Ranges — A tasting at Passing Clouds Winery. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Settle in for a tasting at Boomtown in Castlemaine, sample local drops at the cosy Woodend Cellar & Bar or wine-hop around the many cellar doors, such as Passing Clouds .

the Boomtown Winery and Cellar Bar signage — Boomtown Winery and Cellar Bar. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Playing there

a scenic river in Castlemaine — Idyllic scenes at Castlemaine. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Wander through the seasonal splendour of Forest Glade Gardens , hike to the summit of Hanging Rock, or stroll around the tranquil Sanatorium Lake.

purple flowers hanging from a tree — Purple flowers hanging from a tree. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Discover why #Vanlife is so much more than just a hashtag