maclulich.com / homefield note 01 / plannedSydney, Australia

four days / three camps / one old Macintosh

Sydney to Melbournein the B8.

The first proper test of a simple idea: a big PHEV can be the transport, the battery, the office and the bedroom—without turning the trip into an endurance event.

Denza B8 6SSeptember 2026camping in-car

the intended line

A loop with somewhere to be.

The destination is an old computer. The point is everything around it: forests, smaller towns and learning how much freedom the B8 actually buys.

Planned Sydney to Melbourne road tripA schematic map showing the outbound route from Sydney through Goulburn and Barnawartha to Bull Creek and Melbourne, then the return through Mount Disappointment, Oxley, Albury and Goulburn.SydneyGoulburnAlbury / BarnawarthaBull CreekMelbourneMt DisappointmentOxleyTasman SeaSCHEMATIC / NOT FOR NAVIGATION
outbound return northtwo charging breaks each long-haul day

one line at a time

The four-day shape.

  1. 01

    Sydney → Bull Creek

    Get south, then disappear into the trees.

    Two deliberate charging breaks split the long Hume run. Bull Creek is the landing: river, forest, a seven-dollar permit and no hotel check-in.

    Goulburn / Barnawartha / Murrindindi
  2. 02

    Murrindindi → Melbourne → Mt Disappointment

    A forest morning and an old Mac rescue.

    Walk before packing up, collect a Macintosh SE/30 in Melbourne, recharge in South Yarra, then leave the city again for a free night at Number One Camp.

    Bull Creek / Balaclava / Number One Camp
  3. 03

    Mt Disappointment → Oxley

    Turn north without rushing home.

    A short forest walk, then a slow run toward the King River. Oxley earns its twenty dollars with a hot shower, room to reset and a quiet place to open the laptop.

    Mount Disappointment / Oxley
  4. 04

    Oxley → Sydney

    Two charges, one long road home.

    Albury and Goulburn break the return into manageable pieces. The battery does what it can; the petrol engine removes the need to make charging into a crisis.

    Albury / Goulburn / Camperdown

the little autonomy stack

Why this works now.

None of the pieces is heroic. Together they make remote nights feel ordinary enough to actually do.

38 kWh

B8 battery

Use the electric range first; keep petrol as the calm fallback.

Starlink

work signal

For remote work when mobile coverage fades—not as emergency equipment.

PLB

last resort

Registered and kept within reach if the trip leaves the coverage map.

$27

three camps

Bull Creek, Number One and Oxley instead of three hotel rooms.

to be collected

The photos come from the road.

This is the plan. Once the B8 has actually slept under the trees, the placeholders become the real field note—mud, mistakes and all.

01

B8 at Bull Creek

02

The sleep setup

03

SE/30 coming home