Driving along a random suburban road near a park in Knoxfield, Melbourne, I saw charging…

…spots in this car park. Two tesla chargers and a general EV charger, with clearly painted EV parking on the ground. However, upon closer inspection, the chargers are just cardboard facsimiles. What is going on? The sign is branded with “SJ Display Group. Innovative retail display solutions”. Weird. Charging: Free but takes forever 😉.

I charged up again using the JOLT Charge at Ferntree Gully Station, while doing some work…

…on my laptop. While there, a Nissan Leaf pulled up next to me. The driver, Tony, told me that he wanted to try out the Jolt charging for the first time. He bought his Nissan Leaf two years ago as a “grey” import for $18,000. It’s a 2014 model. It has a 24kWh battery but now only gets about 100km on a full charge. He also said that it doesn’t have great thermal management of the battery, so regular fast charging can be problematic. For comparison, our bottom range Tesla Model 3 has a 60kWh battery and gets 360 to 440km on a full charge. The technology has certainly come a long way since the original Nissan Leaf cars, but they paved the way. Charging: The Leaf uses the Chademo cable, whereas the Tesla (and most other EVs) use the CCS2 connector. But the charging station doesn’t allow us to connect both cables at the same time, since it has a total maximum draw of 25kW. I was happy to disconnect while he tried out the Chademo, and then reconnect after he’d finished. Neither of us were…

Yesterday: Lunch at The Hatter and the Hare in Bayswater, eastern Melbourne.

Beautiful food. Amazing cakes. Terrible parking. I asked if they had any black forest cake. They said they’re planning on adding it to the next three month cycle, which starts in a month. The chef is still perfecting it. I offered to beta test, but they didn’t ask for my details. Looking forward to it. The parking there is terrible. Small shared car park with other businesses. One of the “cafe” marked spots was blocked with a bollard and crate by another business. Charging: I ended up parking a block away, but then thought I might as well be charging while parked. So, I moved the car equally far away, and plugged into the JOLT Charge charger in Bayswater. It’s a slow DC 22kW charger, but it is a good match while parking anyway to have lunch. It took me three goes to get it to work – I don’t know why. We took 21kWh which cost $6.36. At Jolt chargers, the first 7kWh per day is free, then 45c/kWh. 21kWh gets us about 140km. So that’s about 4.5c per km. Not as cheap as the 1c per km when…

Popped in to Proserpina Bakehouse in the Dandenong Ranges to grab some lunch.

Beautiful place and food. Long line because it’s so popular. Charging: They have one Tesla destination charger, but it seems to be broken 😞. I tried reset, twice, but no luck. Reported it to staff who said that it has been working with non-Teslas, but recently not with Teslas. Go figure. Not a problem for us. We had plenty of charge. We were just checking out the facilities.

We helped our friends (and generous hosts) Tim and Krissy, move some of their belongings…

…into storage. Our Tesla Model 3 is a sleek sedan. It doesn’t have as much storage space as say the larger Model Y or X. But it still fits a fair amount of stuff, in the boot/trunk, sub-trunk, frunk (front trunk, since there’s no engine) and the back seat.

We did some shopping and grabbed some lunch at Eastland Shopping Centre, east of…

…Melbourne. In the car park, we noticed one of the other Teslas, in the valet parking area, with the license plate “OIL 404” (which means: oil not found)😆. You might be able to see it in the photo. Charging: We managed to get a free charging space, which is an added bonus while shopping. They often seem to be in use. Free Tesla destination chargers. We would normally just charge to 90% in a high use station like this, but we got back to the car just as it ticked over to 100%.

Charging using JOLT Charge at Ferntree Gully Station.

JOLT Charge has updated their app! I noticed some big improvements, including: 1. Seems to be a proper native iOS app. Previously seemed to be some hybrid white labeled thing with odd UI. 2. I can choose a charging cable at my location. No need to scan a QR code any more (which failed for me previously). 3. Clearer UI showing progression of dollars and energy.

We stopped at Euroa for a late lunch, on our way to Melbourne.

Beautiful park across the road from the Tesla superchargers, and some food outlets up the road. Charging: We drove from Gundagai to Euroa, arriving with 7% battery remaining. The Tesla had recommended charging in Wondonga, but we overrode it. We were happy with the 7% predicted arrival. 110 - 115 km/h most of the way, on Autopilot. By the time we had been to the toilet across the road, the car had already finished charging enough for us to continue our trip to Melbourne. But we let it charge more while we walked up the road to get some lunch.

Breakfast this morning at The Coffee Pedaler in Gundagai, before the final leg of our…

…drive to Melbourne.

On our way from the NSW Central Coast to Melbourne.

We’ve just arrived at Flash Jacks Boutique Hotel Gundagai. Thanks for the recommendation Hugh Sykes and Margaret McDonald. I think it’s a converted convent. Charging: We arrived with only 6% charge, as the Tesla navigation predicted. We previously fully charged in Campbelltown, while we had lunch. Flash Jacks has two Porsche branded destination chargers, which have the standard AC charging plug that most EVs use. It seems to be only single phase but is 16 amps, which works out to about 16A x 240V = 3.8kW. It will take about 14 hours for us to charge, which is fine, because we’re staying here about 18 hours, to eat, shower, sleep etc. If we were in a hurry, we’d just use the Tesla superchargers down the road, which would take less than 30 minutes.

We left the Central Coast this morning, dropped off one of our kids at Sydney airport…

…and kept driving south towards Melbourne. We stopped for our first time at the Tesla superchargers in Campbelltown (next to Campbeltown Catholic Club). There are several fast food outlets across the road, but we opted for the nearby Arts Center Cafe. Charging: It’s so simple that it’s hardly worth mentioning. We entered “Melbourne” into the car’s navigation and it added the charging stop in Campbelltown. The car preconditioned the battery for optimum charging as we approached. We parked, plugged in the cable and walked away to have lunch. It was the first time I’ve seen our car charge (briefly) at its maximum rate of 170kW. The Tesla app notified us when we had enough charge to keep driving, but we stayed and charged a bit longer to finish lunch.

May 2, 5, 9: While on the Central Coast, we visited Terrigal Beach a few times, for a…

…walk along the beach, the lagoon, the esplanade and boardwalk. Indian from Grand Pavillion Terrigal and dumplings from SeaBay Restaurant are our favourites. Charging: One of the few public charging options around is at the Terrigal Hotel. On the down side, it’s BYO cable. On the up side, it’s rarely in use, except by this ute, which was trying to identify as an EV.

Peaceful. Lots of bird life. Friendly staff. Short drive to beaches, walls, shops, cafes.

Great food and service. Close to the Tesla Superchargers.

A charging story, for those who might be interested.

It took a while to find a way to charge at The Palms at Avoca Beach. We had asked about charging when booking, and the friendly staff said that we could just plug the EV into the cabin. Attempt 1: Too cold When we arrived, since we were staying a couple of weeks, they had generously upgraded our cabin. But this one (number 20) is down a path from the parking. We managed to make our extension cord just reach along the path through the door to a power point. However, when switched it on, the Tesla UMC (universal mobile charger) showed a red light flashing twice. I checked on the screen in the Tesla and tapped on the warning. The table showed that this problem is due to insufficient grounding of the power point. Attempt 2: Too hot I asked the staff about other options. They were very helpful, suggesting one of the two larger cabins that have a power point on their balcony. Since they had no booking there, they said we could park there to charge. I tried the first cabin, which worked, but…

We’re staying a couple of weeks at The Palms at Avoca. I

n all the time that we lived in the Central Coast, we never knew this place existed. It’s kind of a cabin park, with pool, games room and so on. Very peaceful, with lots of birds. Short drive to beaches and shops. A couple of our kids visited to try out the games room.

Stopped for lunch in Goulburn at Cafe5911.

Great food and service. Only a 200m walk from the Tesla Superchargers, through Belmore Park. This is the first time we have taken our EV through Goulburn. Charging: These Tesla Superchargers are at the opposite end of town from the usual Big Merino servo and fast food stop, which I think has a charger from The NRMA. Of course the Tesla navigation led us here, so it was easy to find. As usual, it did everything for us: plotted the route; predicted how many chargers are available; preconditioned the battery for optimum charge; automated payment without needing an app or credit card; warned us via the mobile app when charging was nearly done. We just arrived, plugged in and walked away. By the time we used the toilets in the adjacent tourist information centre, we had enough charge to continue our trip. But we decided to explore a bit and grab some extra charge. I had just enough time to order lunch before the car was fully charged and needed to be moved. The Tesla charging system is…

Morning caffeination at The Coffee Pedaler in Gundagai.

Then stopped down the road at Dog On The Tuckerbox. Years ago, we stopped here at Oliver's Real Food and for the first time saw the Tesla Superchargers at the back. That’s probably what started us mulling over the idea of buying an electric vehicle some day. Now we’ve come full circle. Charging: There seems to be a bit of work going on at the chargers. I decided to give The NRMA / Chargefox chargers a go. These ones aren’t free. I used the faster charger and got the same speed that I think I would have got from the Tesla supercharger, since our car takes a maximum of 170kW. We get 20% discount, since I am an NRMA member.

We stayed overnight at Hillview Farmstay in Mount Adrah, just south of Gundagai.

Great place to stop halfway between Melbourne and Sydney. Lots of goats, sheep and an alpaca to pat or join for their daily feeding. Charging: What a bonus! This place has two Tesla destination chargers. They are capable of 11kW, but the sign requested that we use only 4kW (5A x 3 phase x 240V), and only at certain times. So, we couldn’t quite get a full charge overnight. But very thankful.

We stopped in Holbrook to have the obligatory photo with the submarine and a couple of…

…pies. We chatted with one guy who was driving his Tesla and daughters from Adelaide to Sydney. Also chatted with Kate and Karen in their Kona 😊 (pictured). They’ve only had it a few weeks and this was their first big trip. Lovely to chat with them. We talked about the Kona. I mentioned that we had chatted with Margaret McDonald about her pioneering trip in the Kona a few years back. Karen said she knew Margaret and Hugh Sykes through her work at the Central Coast ABC (if I recall correctly). Margaret and Hugh are EV celebrities that inspire many 🤩. Charging story: When entering the trip into the navigation in Melbourne, I had only set our destination as our first stop, in Thurgoona (to visit some old friends), so the Tesla didn’t have the chance to tell me I needed another charge after Yea to get to our next stop at Gundagai. As you can see from the screen, it starts to freak out if there are no Tesla branded chargers around 😆. No dramas though. There’s The NRMA charger in Holbrook.…

We are constantly impressed by how easy the Tesla Superchargers are to use.

We enter our destination into the car’s navigation. The car adds the needed supercharger stops. We arrive, plug it in, walk away to the toilet or cafe. The app tells us that it’s nearly finished charging and we should get back to move the car. So easy, right? Well, except, as you might have noticed in these photos, it seems that I can’t manage to actually park on the correct side of the chargers 🤦. Where possible, we have aimed to instead use other types of chargers, just to familiarise ourselves with them (and to make some content for these posts). But, if you have a Tesla, the superchargers are the simplest and quickest way to go.

Headed off once again from Melbourne towards the NSW Central Coast.

We left early enough to spot some hot air balloons over Yarra Glen. This will be the first time that we’ve done this trip fairly directly, mostly along the Hume Freeway, unlike our previous long routes along the coast or further inland.

Mobile office at Jells Park. #digitalnomad

The observant among you will notice that the car seats are black. This is actually a loan car from Tesla while they fired our car with a PWS (pedestrian warning system) aka “boom box”, and fixed a mysterious rattling noise.

Mobile office this afternoon at the Tim Neville Arboretum. #digitalnomad

My second attempt at using a JOLT Charge station was at Ferntree Gully Station.

This location was much better (than Bayswater station, mentioned in my earlier post). It’s in a carpark, where you can come and go easily. Still no “EV charging only” sign, which is needed. When I used this charger a week later, there was a ute (of course) parked in the spot. I waved politely to the driver who obligingly moved to another car spot so I could use the charger. I already had the JOLT Charge app installed, with my credit card details entered. I tried using the app’s QR code scanner, but it repeatedly failed. So, I entered the charging station’s ID number and, after a few seconds wait, it started charging. It is a DC charger (with a built in cable). It charges at 22kW, which is slower than the typical 50 to 350kW DC charger, but still faster than the 7 to 11kW max we can get out of an AC charger. I expect that a typical top up of half a battery would take about 90 minutes, which is probably a good fit during an outing to the shops or a cafe. JOLT Charge has an interesting…

This was my first chance to try out a JOLT Charge charger, next to Bayswater Station.

Unfortunately, this one was “ICEd” by a van. Not their fault, though, because there is no “EV charging only“ sign here. I expect that makes it really difficult to use. In addition, there’s no way to come back to park here, except by going around a very large block. So, if you park further down to wait, then see a car leave, you’re unlikely to be able to move your car to the charger before another car parks there after turning off the main road. So, this time, I gave up and moved on to another charger. See my next post about Jolt charging at Ferntree Gully Station.

Tesla is running an #EarthDay competition for customers to submit photos of Tesla…

…products. The limit is four photos. We picked these ones from our Tesla Tripping adventures.

Walk around Jell’s Park, east of Melbourne.

Lunch at Songbird Cafe & Larder in King Lake, followed by a bit of a walk through the…

…autumn leaves, and view of Melbourne city from Frank Thompson Reserve - Lookout. Topped up the battery, while we ate lunch, at the free EV Up charger behind the King Lake police station, but it took a bit of time to find the right app to make it start charging.

Brunch at The Somers General cafe, overlooking old petrol bowsers that now only serve as…

…decorative relics from a hopefully fading era. It would be great to see EV chargers replace them here.

Stopped at Rye Front Beach for a veggie paneer tikka kebab from DD,S KEbab & Burgers, and…

…to do some work on my laptop.

Car camping at Point Leo Reserve, on the south coast of Victoria.

I checked with the ranger/reception about plugging in an EV at the powered site, and mentioned that I was car camping. I chose a powered site ($10 extra), which is only slightly more than it would have cost me to top up the charge at home. I set the Tesla to “camp mode” which keeps the accessories on. Air con (with no engine running) kept me comfy all night. I used a folded over yoga mat for a bit of extra padding under the hips under the Tessories Australia foam mattress. But I should have levelled out the car a bit more to alleviate the gradual sliding down into the boot during the night. Thermos of tea, fireplace on the Tesla screen, glass roof to watch the sunrise in the morning, and a USB powered mozzie zapper from KILOS GEAR, just in case.

Set up camp at Point Leo Foreshore Reserve. So many rabbits!

KILOS GEAR chairs and foot rest. Suction cup and line from Bunnings.

We stayed a few nights in the Dandenong Ranges, at Mural House Olinda.

It’s a B&B run by our friends Suzanne and Ron. Beautiful place, with birds visiting at the large lounge room window while I worked on my laptop. When I looked on PlugShare, there aren’t any EV chargers listed in Mount Dandenong area, other than at Proserpina Bakehouse, and King Henry Cafe, only for customers. I asked our hosts (MHO) about providing EV charging for guests. TT: Is it okay for guests to plug in our EV while we’re here? MHO: Yes. There’s a power point near the car port. TT: Thanks. It was an about 2m too far for our mobile charging cable, so we added our extension cord. MHO: We will make an extension cord available for others who might need one. TT: What do you pay for electricity? MHO: 20c/kWh of peak and 40c/kWh peak. We also have a 5kW solar system, for which we get 10c/kWh for any exported. TT: So, if someone charges their EV here at 2kW for 10 hours overnight, that would cost you about 2 x 10 x 0.20 = $4. Or if charging during the day from solar, you would lose…

Arrived in Daylesford. We skipped Ballarat, mainly because I messed up on a roundabout at…

…the exit ramp. The Tesla has many km of bug carnage, mainly from millions of locusts and other bugs on the road through the farmlands to the east of Ararat (see previous posts). The wasps descended on the car as soon as we stopped in Daylesford, for a free meal of bug guts. Charging story: We plugged into the 22kW Chargefox driven DC charger in town while we had a pub dinner at The Royal Daylesford. Before we got out of the car, a couple started asking us “how long does it take to charge”, which is the common first question. “As long as it takes to eat dinner” for this charger, would have been the most accurate response. But I said I prefer to just plug it in each night where I’m staying, so I don’t even have to think about it.

Chatted to some of the local sheep about the giant wind turbines.

They said they much prefer them to sharing the land with coal mines. We came across some of the crop chaff burning. Quite spectacular, but I wouldn’t like to live downwind of it.

We searched the top of Mount Ararat (One Tree Hill, in Ararat, Victoria) for Noah’s ark…

…with no luck. But we did find hundreds of wind turbines along the horizon. More electron mining! The only emissions were from many crop burn offs (which is, of course, also renewable). Close up photos to follow. Charging story: We had to spend an hour or so catching up on emails and such, so we plugged into the free Tesla destination charger at the Ararat RSL. It looked like the cable has been damaged and replaced or similar. It was so short. I had to back up over the gutter to reach it. Just as we were about to leave, another Tesla Model 3 arrived. They were worried that their Tesla was predicting only 5% charge when reaching their destination in Ballarat. I suggested that they just trust the prediction and drive to the fast charger there. But we left anyway, so they could top up slowly.

Stopped in Moyston for lunch and a cuppa.

It claims to be the birthplace of AFL, which I believe is some kind of Victorian sport!

At The Elephant Hide and Chatauqua Peak, in The Grampians.

We hired some electric bikes to ride through Halls Gap.

After a fun and informative set of instructions from Stuart, we headed off along the extensive bike path. Many kangaroos and emus along the way. There was something slightly wrong with Fran’s bike controls, making stop and start a bit jerky. This, and her self confessed “unco” led to her coming off in dramatic and painful fashion while crossing an intersection. Fortunately, Tom had a supply of napkins (that he routinely stocks from each visited cafe). Adding some water, we managed to clean the wound fairly well. And later added some Savlon. Fran was a trooper, and kept riding, this time with a more predictable bike. These e-bikes don’t require any peddling, which we think is unusual, perhaps not legal in NSW? They are like little motorbikes, with very comfy seats. Stuart has been running this business for over a decade. He used to hire out horses. He said he wondered why the service station next door didn’t add a few EV car chargers when it removed a couple of bowsers recently.

Beautiful start to the day in The Grampians.

Cereal in our accommodation The Lodges, Halls Gap, looking out at the kangaroos. Scones and thermos tea while watching more kangaroos and a family of emus stroll by, at Brambuk National Park And Cultural Centre. Charging: The EV fully charged (from 50% start) from plugging it in overnight to a normal power point, after checking with our host.

We arrived in Halls Gap, in The Grampians.

Quick stop at the local service station to confuse passers by and to wipe the bugs from the windscreen. Lots of kangaroos near the road, which is both good and bad. Dinner at Paper Scissors Rock Brew Co.

We decided to head directly north to The Grampians, from Port Fairy, Victoria, and not…

…visit Mount Gambier is South Australia, this trip. We stopped on the south edge of The Grampians in Dunkeld. Note Francis’s stylish socks and thongs. Charging: We popped into the car park at The Royal Mail Hotel, since PlugShare and others mentioned that it has destination chargers. We found two Porsche and two Tesla chargers, all of which, I think, are set to work for any EV. One of the Tesla chargers had no power. All the bays were initially taken by ICE cars. After a few minutes, staff appeared near a parked van, looking at us. I hopped out of the car. They asked if I was wanting to use the chargers. I asked if it was available, (since I didn’t know if they are reserved for hotel guests). They said yes, and moved the van. Very kind. We were at 50% charge. The destination charger was giving 11kW, so the estimate to fill was about three hours. We we’re only staying less than an hour to have a toilet break and get our bearings, but it was enough to get us to 62% and for the Tesla to…

Stopped by Harman’s Valley Lava Flow, near Hamilton.

Charging story

We arrived in Warrnambool and started charging at the Tesla superchargers. So simple and fast. We just plug in, the car and charger talk, already know who we are and what credit card to use. 250kW but our Tesla Model 3 RWD accepts a max of 170kW. Even at an average of 100kW, it would charge our 50kWh battery in half an hour, more like 15 minutes in reality because we are unlikely to have zero charge to start, or need more that 90% to go. Speaking of zero charge, while we were there, a guy dropped by with zero charge showing on his Ionic 5 EV. He had driven from Tasmania (on the ferry, presumably). It was his first long trip (I think with family too) and he hadn’t factored in the charging correctly. He said he had “only a handful of km to go” to get to his B&B which included a power point for charging. He asked if these Tesla chargers are for Tesla only, or compatible with other EVs. I said that I had only come across a few open Tesla chargers, such as those in Bathurst, but they had…

We stopped for a late lunch (or was it an early dinner) at Port Campbell, along the Great…

…Ocean Road, before Warrnambool. Lifeguards still operating at the beach – brrr.

Date night.

Netflix? ✅ Surround sound? ✅ Air con heating (with no engine running)? ✅ Popcorn and chocolate? ✅ Stars through the roof above? ✅ Reclining seats? ✅

We stopped in Lorne to buy a few groceries, post a parcel and grab a coffee.

Since we had to be there a couple of hours anyway, we connected to the slowish 7kW RACV destination charger at Lorne Visitor Information Centre. They handle queuing in a way I haven’t seen before. We had to ask in the center to borrow a permit to display on the car while charging. They also asked us to write our details in their log, so they could call us if we stayed more than two hours and someone else was waiting. Very proactive approach. We also looked through the visitor center media displays to learn how the hard work was done in the 1920s to build The Great Ocean Road, mostly by returned soldiers with picks. Amazing.

We stayed last night at Sunnymead Hotel in Aireys Inlet.

Beautiful decor. Dinner just across the road at Airey's Pub.

First stop on The Great Ocean Road at the RACV Resort Chargefox chargers in Torquay.

Seemed quite popular, with a couple of EV Volvos pulling up next to us. Looks like even more bays under construction. Just enough charging time to eat a burger. Then we were off again, towards Aireys Inlet.