Campervan supplies Melbourne: stock the van before the Big Lap begins

Melbourne has every supermarket you need, but the inner city was not designed by someone reversing a 7 m motorhome after a long-haul flight. For supermarkets Melbourne campervan stops, think outer suburbs and big-box retail strips rather than laneways, boom gates and underground car parks.

Most major supermarkets open around 7 am and close between 9 pm and 10 pm, with some inner stores later. Aldi is handy for dry goods, Coles and Woolworths for wider range, and markets are brilliant if you have time — just remember fresh fruit cannot always cross state quarantine lines once you head toward South Australia or the Riverland.

• Do: park on the outer edge of open-air car parks and take two nose-to-tail bays if marked length allows.
• Do: check height bars before committing; many campervans sit around 2.6–3.2 m high.
• Do: buy heavy items first: water, tinned food, long-life milk, toilet chemical, washing powder and fly spray.
• Don’t: follow sat nav into a multi-storey car park. That scraping noise is not part of the holiday package.

An lpg refill Melbourne stop is best sorted before you leave the suburbs, not at 7 pm in a coastal town where the only open shop sells bait, pies and regret. Many hire campers use a 4 kg or 9 kg gas bottle for cooking and hot water; swaps are common at larger servos and hardware-style outlets, while true refills are less universal.

Fuel stations Melbourne-wide are frequent, but the useful ones for a motorhome are the big servos on outbound roads: Western Freeway, Calder, Hume, Princes and EastLink/Monash approaches. A diesel camper doing roughly 10–14 L/100 km with a 70 L tank has a practical range of about 500–650 km, less with headwinds, hills and a heavy right foot.

• Do: leave Melbourne with a full tank even if the next town is only 75 km away; it buys options.
• Do: confirm whether your van takes diesel or petrol before the first fill. The wrong nozzle ruins more than a morning.
• Do: carry a 10 L drinking-water cask separate from the main tank.
• Don’t: store LPG bottles loose inside the living area; use the fitted locker and turn bottles off while driving.

Melbourne is a good place to start with clean tanks because once you are moving, water becomes a chore you plan around. A couple in a camper can easily use 30–60 L a day if showering on board; much less if using caravan park amenities. Drinking water is the non-negotiable bit: allow at least 4–5 L per person per day in hot weather.

For a dump point Melbourne start, the most reliable options are caravan parks, some council facilities and signed dump stations listed in camping apps or council pages. Never tip grey water or toilet waste into stormwater drains; councils do fine travellers, and fair enough — nobody wants eau de cassette in Port Phillip Bay.

• Do: empty the cassette before leaving town if it is more than half full; heat makes it memorable.
• Do: use potable-water taps only for filling fresh tanks, and keep a dedicated drinking-water hose.
• Do: check if your first campground has a dump point before assuming it does.
• Don’t: block a public tap for 25 minutes during peak beach-hour chaos; fill early or late.

A laundromat Melbourne stop is worth doing before the first proper leg, especially if you flew in with half a suitcase and a heroic optimism about hand-washing. Self-service laundromats in suburban strips usually handle large loads better than campground machines, and you can shop while the spin cycle does its thing.

This is also the moment to buy the unromantic bits: pegs, a small tub, coins or card for machines, rubbish bags, spare loo paper, mozzie repellent, sunscreen SPF50+, and a decent torch. If you are stocking the fridge, keep it road-real: eggs in a carton survive better than glass jars of fancy antipasto when a road train blows past near Nhill.

• Do: keep fridge food for 2–3 days, not 10; regional towns need your grocery dollars too.
• Do: pack a soft cooler bag for overflow on the first shop.
• Do: visit the bottle-o before heading into dry or restricted areas, and check local alcohol rules up north.
• Don’t: overfill cupboards. The first roundabout will audit your packing.

Melbourne tempts you to think Australia is neatly supplied every 20 minutes. It is not. Geelong is only about 75 km away, Ballarat 115 km, Bendigo 150 km and Warrnambool about 260 km, but the further you push — Mildura 540 km, Lakes Entrance 320 km, Albury 325 km — the more opening hours, fuel prices and weather start mattering.

Summer days west and north of Melbourne can sit above 35°C; winter in the High Country can mean black ice, chains rules for alpine areas and cold batteries. The wet is not the Top End wet, but low cloud, fog and wind across the Western District can still turn a neat plan into a slow trundle behind trucks.

• Great Ocean Road: top up fuel before Torquay or Geelong; coastal servos can be busy and dear in holidays.
• Grampians: carry groceries from Melbourne or Ballarat, then restock in Stawell or Halls Gap.
• High Country: fill diesel before Mansfield, Bright or Bairnsdale, and check sealed-road access if your hire contract bans dirt roads.
• Hume north: fuel is easy, fatigue is the trap; plan breaks every 2 hours and give B-doubles room.
• Mildura/Riverland: eat fruit before quarantine bins near state borders. They are not decorative.

Melbourne is not the place to casually free camp on a suburban street in a hired motorhome. Most councils restrict overnight sleeping in vehicles unless signed otherwise, and rangers know the classic foreshore pull-ins. Start tidy: a powered site gives you water, showers, a dump point, and a quiet hour to learn which cupboard latch rattles.

If you are collecting late, choose a first camp within 30–60 km of the depot or airport rather than trying to reach the Twelve Apostles in the dark. You can always do the cinematic bit tomorrow, after coffee and a less emotional reversing attempt.

• Do: book your first powered site online before pickup day, especially in school holidays.
• Do: check arrival cut-off times; some parks close reception around 6–7 pm.
• Do: keep your first night simple: plug in, fill water, cook something easy, sleep.
• Don’t: assume “rest area” means legal overnight camping. Read the sign, not the vibe.