Sleeping
Hotels, Motels, Hostels
In the large cities of Australia there is like in Austria each kind of accomodation from the campsite up to the 5 stars luxury hotel.The so-called Backpacker Hostels are particularly popular to young travellers. There are a lot of them in the bigger cities. The accomodation is - similar to youth hostels - in dormitories. For unaccompanied travellers this kind of accomodation is the cheapest or at least as favourable as a campsite (camping mostly costs for one person as much as for two). Another advantage is that you have the chance to meet a lot of people with the same interests. Sometimes you can get free breakfast, free buses or other extras. Most hostels have a kitchen, a lounge, a pool, an internet connection, etc.
Everybody who wants to sleep in hotels or hostels should get a guide book, because there the most are stated with address, price and telephone number.
Camping
Especially outside of the large cities many people spend their nights on campsites , which often have a kitchen or BBQ-place and a pool. We noticed prices between 5 and 25 dollars/night for 2 persons and a tent.
A secure place for camping
At the beginning of our journey we sometimes spent our nights at campsites. Soon we decided to camp wildly. First reason was that we saved a lot of money. In addition we didn't have to cover a fixed distance to reach the next campsite. We simply camped where we liked to. And we almost always found a really nice place. Since it is quite simple to hide with a bike, we even camped wildly in the big cities (was mostly easier than in small towns). It was a great fun and we made a competition out of it not to be caught. For example, we striked our tent for one week in immediate vicinity to the famous and well guarded Harbour Bridge in Sydney, and nobody detected us except some dogs of stroller and they didn't bark.
In the sugar cane field you are undisturbed too
It is no big problem to get a shower when you camp wild, because at almost every roadhouse or city there is a free shower available (at beaches, in parks, near sport fields, at swimming pools, ...) and otherwise we had a solarshower in our luggage.
A cold shower is available nearly everywhere
In the catchment area of cities and in the surrounding of campsites wild camping is not allowed. If you get caught, you have to pay 100 dollars as penalty. However, as long as you do not camp next to a prohibition sign or a touristic place like a popular beach (parks are not recommended due to sprinkler systems -and they are installed in nearly every beautiful juicy-green park in Australia), the chance of being caught is relatively small since they do not control it very often.
Sleeping under the free sky, Perth