Al, Jenna and their children Angus (three) and Matilda (nine months) had a beautiful house, stable jobs, friends, family – the lot. 

However, they’ve sold the Australian dream in pursuit of an even more Australian one – travelling the country in a caravan, without a plan or a care in the world. 

Everyone thought the Hattersleys had gone mad and kept asking them “why?” Their response? “Why not?”.

“We’d been toying with the idea for quite a while, one of those five-year plans or when we retired or when we had long-service leave,” Mr Hattersley said. 

Mrs Hattersley had been on maternity leave and realised she “wasn’t ready” to go back to work, and they realised selling their house and making the trip was a real possibility. 

“A heap of families are doing it and enjoying it, and we don’t have kids at school yet so it takes the pressure off,” Mr Hattersley said. 

“The plan is to go for 12 months – we’re both going to come back to work,” he said. 

He said the most nerve-wracking parts of the decision were getting the right car and caravan for a trip that will span tens of thousands of kilometres. 

“The exciting part is spending every day with Jenna and the kids,” he said.

“Every morning without fail Angus asks me if I have to go to work and I say ‘yes’ – and it’s not that he cries and gets upset but on the weekends he gets more excited because he knows I get to play with him.

“[Travelling] means we can watch them grow, it’s not putting them in childcare and going off to work to pay off a mortgage,” Mrs Hattersley added.  

The family will be leaving on March 1, and have mapped out their route until just after Easter, as it’s the busiest time of the year for caravan parks. 

“We’re trying to have the mentality of saying yes to any new experience,” Mr Hattersley said.

“If someone suggests here is a good fishing spot, we’ll give it a go. There’ll be YouTube tutorials for fishing.” 

He said a few people had made the joke he could end up like Glenn Robbins’ Russell Coight. 

“My brother sent me the DVDs saying ‘you always want to be like Russell Coight!’.”