Daniel on an Expedition Truck, a Yacht and Two Apprenticeships

Custom building the expedition truck

I travelled around Australia in a troop carrier for two years with my partner Louise. Living on the road traveling Australia is a really good way to live life. We wanted to keep doing it and living like that, but we wanted something more permanent that we could be more comfortable in. While we were travelling I’d seen all these other camping trucks driving around. Because of the trades I had learned, I thought I’d really like to buy a truck and build a camper on the back of it. 

So I sold the troopy and bought a truck. It’s an ex fire truck from rural Queensland. It’s a 4WD and it weighs close to 6 tonnes which is fairly big. Going into it, I’d never driven a truck before. So I went and got my truck license and we flew up to Toowoomba, then drove it all the way home to Victoria.

I’ve been working on it for three years now. I’m trying to make it a really clever build that uses a lot of engineering in the design so it’s all extendable and expandable. I’ve used electric actuators, and I’m eventually going to be able to hook it up to a computer that you can run it off, which then connects it to your phone as a controller. 

Restoring a yacht

When I first moved to Barwon Heads I needed a place to keep the truck after the first shed was no longer available. I was really stressed, I didn’t have a lot of money, and thought I was going to have to rent somewhere really expensive. I started driving around to properties near where I lived to see if people had any sheds they might want to rent. I was going door-to-door talking to people. 

I drove up to a guy’s house, Gary. He said ‘yeah maybe he might have a shed’. He called me back a few days later and said ‘we’ve got one in town you can use, but you’ll have to clean it out’. It was full of rubbish, and in a pretty bad way. 

I started to help Gary do stuff around his place, and we sort of became friends. It wasn’t long after we first moved the truck that he said don’t worry about paying rent for the shed, just give us a hand doing some odd jobs. He was telling me he had a boat, so I started helping him work on that. 

I had always fantasised about owning a yacht and learning how to sail, especially when I was younger. I told Gary and he said ‘why don’t you buy one of these boats?’. I started looking around at the boats there on the moor. I found one that was a really good boat back in its day. It was a $100, 000 boat. But it had been completely neglected. 

I started contacting the owner, and after a few phone calls he decided to sell the boat for $1000. I worked on the boat for five months straight, almost everyday. I was sleeping in my car at the boatyard so I could leave it tied up to work on it for days in a row. Since then, I’ve learned to sail, my partner has learned to sail. We’ve sailed the boat to Melbourne and now we’re talking about sailing it to the South Pacific. 

Cars, travel and sponsorship 

An advertising company who was working on behalf of Nissan, reached out to me via email offering to give me a car for up to two years, provided I take a certain amount of photos and videos that they could use. 

At first I thought it was a hoax, or someone trying to rip me off, but it turns out it was legitimate. We had the car for about 18 months. We also did a trip up to Queensland and they gave us another car up there to travel around Fraser Island. 

Turns out they just found me through instagram. It’s a good thing, not being afraid to put yourself out there on social media. I know people can get self conscious about it – but no one really cares what other people post. I’ve found there are some really good opportunities that can come for it if you’re interested in photography and videography! I’ve been making videos on instagram for the last two years, and I guess that’s what prompted them. 

Working to support my passions

Now I’m just trying to work for myself. My attitude to work has completely changed. Success can focus too much around money, assets or success in a career. I really try to work as little as possible, except for the work I do for myself. Doing handyman jobs and using the skills I learned from my trades, while I work on these projects. 

The biggest thing I would say is you’ve got to be open to other people and open to changes. Don’t label the things happening in your life as good or bad, it’s all leading you to the next thing. The only reason I’ve been able to do all this is because I’ve been open to things happening and changing. 

Don’t worry about what success is for other people. It comes in many different forms, so don’t let the pressure of society or your parents, or those around you, don’t let that affect your decisions in life. Life isn’t about that. A Lot of people let that idea of success take the shine off their life because they feel like they aren’t successful.