The Way to Delilah: The Dream on Wheels That Took Us Around Australia

Our beloved Delilah before she met us.

The van wasn’t much more than a vague idea at first, a half-formed dream. We’d already spent two years in Australia. Morgane was mostly working or bus-hopping from place to place. Andrew had taken his 4x4 up the east coast, only to end up working too much to really explore.

But still, we hadn’t scratched that classic Aussie itch: the open road, endless coastlines, red dust in the rearview mirror. Australia is made for road trips. Everyone talks about it. The freedom of van life, ever-changing landscapes, surf towns, desert crossings. We’d talked about it too. We just haven't done it. Yet.

Life Gave Us a Push.

Getting kicked out of our apartment in Sydney felt chaotic at the time. We scrambled to find a new place, but nothing stuck. So, one spontaneous decision changed everything: “Why not buy a van?” What started as a backup plan quickly turned into the best decision we’ve ever made.

Enter Delilah. Our trusty van, home, and adventure machine.

We thought we’d do a quick trip. Maybe a few months. What we didn’t expect was to live in Delilah for probably close to a year, exploring nearly every corner of Australia. From the remote coastlines of Western Australia to the dusty heart of the Northern Territory, Delilah is gonna carry us. Through thunderstorms, heatwaves, breakdowns, and some of the best days of our lives, she is more than just a vehicle. She is a vessel for freedom, spontaneity, and rediscovery.

Looking back, that rough exit from our Sydney apartment wasn’t the end, it was the beginning. Delilah started as a dream, and ends up being our ticket to the real Australia.

And what a ride it is.

Finding Our Van: From Chaos to Home

"I remember the first night we slept in the van. We had just bought the necessities; pillows, blankets, a cooker, and some basic cutlery. There we were, parked in some random lot, trying to cook with one pan and sleep among boxes, backpacks, a sink, and all sorts of other stuff. It was a mess, but a memorable one."

When we first started looking for vans, we didn’t really know what we were doing. I just knew one thing: I didn’t want to fold up my bed every single night. Andrew, on the other hand, was all about storage, he wanted space for everything. Together, we were chasing something that felt more like a home than a cramped getaway vehicle. We weren’t after a van just for a one-off road trip; we wanted something that could sustain us, long-term. Something we could live in, grow into, and make our own.

After looking at dozens of vans, Andrew finally found the one. She’s old, built in 1989, but there’s something undeniably special about her. She’s authentic, a little nostalgic, and pretty much the textbook definition of a backpacker van. She wasn’t perfect, not even close, but she was ours. And even though the interior lacked any real thought or love, we saw potential. We believed we could make her beautiful. Or at the very least, try.

This is how we got her: totally unfinished. The sink could compete with an elephant in a weight contest, the fridge couldn't compete with Cinderella, and the cupboards were almost impossible to open. The whole thing looked like it had been cobbled together in a hurry, not even functional in theory, clunky in reality, with zero aesthetic appeal.

So, naturally, we tore everything out and started from scratch.

For the next two weeks, we worked on her nonstop, squeezing in progress between work shifts and late-night planning sessions. It was rough. Every time we thought we’d completed something, another issue would pop up. More than once, we had to pull everything apart again and start over.

We had to be careful with the occasional public shower and we got used to answering a lot of questions from curious passersby. But honestly, what else would you expect when you’re building a home in the middle of a parking lot?

The Key to Success

A Little Help from the Marina Legends

We owe a huge part of our van build to the boys down at the marina. They were absolute legends, not just lending us equipment, but also offering the kind of logical thinking we definitely needed when things got tricky. Special shoutout to Ian, who truly went above and beyond. Not only did he help us sort out countless car-related issues, but he also basically planned our entire road trip. He became our unofficial guide to what I can only describe as Aussie Narnia.

These guys know their steel, no doubt about it.

As the build progressed, they became more than just helpful hands, they were genuinely invested. By the end, they were as curious as we were to see how it would all turn out.

We hit more than a few bumps along the way. One of the more memorable ones? Our battery setup. For a while, we were cooking dinner by candlelight, not exactly convenient, but honestly, kind of a vibe in the end. Meanwhile, Andrew spent hours diving into YouTube rabbit holes on “electricity for dummies.” And to his credit, it paid off.

Eventually, we had power. The fridge worked. The lights came on. And just like that, it felt like we had won the lottery, or at least, what I imagine winning the lottery must feel like (not speaking from experience, unfortunately).

How Delilah Shaped Us

Some mornings we would wake up by the ocean, make a hot choccie with one burner, and sit barefoot on the van floor watching the light change. Other mornings we would fight about space, about mess, about whether this was actually a good idea.

Both were part of the story.

No need to pack a bag to go camping when you take your home.

She has been a lifechanger, Delilah, our van. Living in a van completely reshapes how you view comfort, space, and even freedom. There’s something incredibly liberating about having your home with you wherever you go. Waking up in a new place with everything you need just an arm’s reach away. Of course, that same convenience can turn slightly frustrating when your partner takes your “home” with him to work, leaving you with no shelter for the day. But that’s part of the trade-off. This lifestyle shifts your relationship with space. It becomes a source of creativity. Materials lose their weight; they become temporary, replaceable. What you gain, though, is something far more lasting: freedom in its purest form. And that’s exactly what we craved.

She has become an extension of who we are. She’s filled with the small, meaningful things that make her ours, my hats and Andy’s skateboard doubling as wall art, plants nestled into corners, candles and incense wafting warmth through the space. Funky curtains give her personality, while photos of our family and friends from all over the world breathe life into the walls. Every goodbye gift we received before setting off is displayed proudly at the front, gently reminding us of the love and support that carried us into this new chapter.

And now, here we are, seconds before we set off on the biggest road trip of our lives, a lap nearly all the way around Australia. Delilah is more than just a van; she’s our home, our shelter, and our compass. She’ll carry us forward and keep us safe as the road unfolds ahead. So take a moment to look at what she’s become. Maybe this is your sign, too. The push you need to leap into the unknown. It won’t be easy. There will be challenges. But after every storm, there’s sunshine. And out here, that sunshine is something pretty damn beautiful.

written by Morgane Roggeman. Grammatically reviewed. My English isn't perfect.