Rich and Willow’s Van Cat Meow Journey Around Australia

A campervan doorway and a cat looking out at the day make a quieter travel picture than a race through famous sights. In Richard East’s Van Cat Meow photographs, Willow gives a changing Australian landscape a recurring companion. The van is both the way to get somewhere and the familiar setting that ties the images together.

The project is Van Cat Meow. It began with Richard and Willow leaving Hobart, Tasmania, in 2015, and grew into an Australian travel story followed by people far beyond the campervan window.

Richard East and Willow’s dated travel story

The early feature on this site described the pair’s first years of travel. Later, a 2023 account on the project’s own website described more than 100,000 kilometres of Australian journeys and Richard’s life with Steph and Willow.

Keeping those dates attached is useful. A distance, an age or a “three years ago” headline belongs to the moment it was written, not every future reader’s present. For the continuing story, start with Van Cat Meow itself.

The familiar moments between destinations

The most engaging pet-travel photographs often show something ordinary: an animal finding a comfortable spot, watching the world from a doorway or resting beside its person. The landscape adds variety, but the relationship gives the images continuity.

That is a useful way to think about any extended journey. What stays familiar when the surroundings change? A meal routine, a comfortable place to sleep and enough downtime can matter more than adding another stop.

Planning around an individual animal’s needs

Different animals respond differently to transport and unfamiliar settings. A relaxed moment in someone else’s photograph does not tell you how your own cat would cope. Discuss a proposed trip with a veterinarian and test short journeys before making a larger commitment.

Check transport, accommodation and local animal-access rules for the route. In Australia, restrictions can be especially important around protected areas and wildlife. A tracking device can help locate an animal, but it does not prevent injury, escape or harm to wildlife; it should not be treated as permission for unsupervised roaming.

Care as part of the route

Plan where feeding, rest and secure stops will happen before adding scenic detours. Keep identification and care information available, and decide what you would do if the animal needed attention in a less familiar place.

If you enjoy stories about unusual travelling companions, meet Charlie Hammerton and Bandit the ferret. Their journeys differ, but both are richer when the animal’s needs remain part of the story.

The charm of Van Cat Meow is not a challenge to cover a particular distance. It is the reminder that a journey can be shaped by the company you keep.

Hobart, the campervan and the early journey

The early account places their departure from Hobart in May 2015 and records a South Australia milestone in February 2017. It reported more than 50,000 kilometres by the period covered in that story. Read those details as chapters in a journey rather than numbers that automatically update with the page. The project’s own dated accounts are the place to follow later developments, while these photographs preserve the character of the earlier travels.

The ordinary interior pictures are as important as the scenic ones. A resting place inside the van says something about how a long journey is lived between destinations, while an outdoor photograph supplies the changing view. Together they give the story a rhythm of movement and return. That is a useful idea for making a personal travel album: include the place you come back to each evening, the routines and the quiet company, not only the stops that would make a conventional sightseeing list.