Caravan camper's $600 mistake prompts simple Starlink warning to Aussie travellers

Yahoo

16-07-2025

With more and more Australians taking life and work on the road, it's easy to make a simple mistake when moving between locations. One Aussie traveller has learned that lesson the hard way.
Like countless others, he relies on Starlink for high-speed internet access while in remote campgrounds around the country. The service provides blanket coverage via low-Earth orbit satellites which beam down to a customer's small receiver dish. As such, those with caravans and motorhomes often attach the dish to their vehicle or fix it to a pole on the van to perch it above any pesky trees which might obstruct the signal.
It sounds obvious, but the only catch is you have to remember to pack it away before heading to your next spot.
"A bit of a long shot, but if anybody is at Cleaverville Campground WA and has found a Starlink mini, can they let us know and if it's salvageable," the traveller wrote last week after accidentally driving off with the dish still sticking off their van.
Seeking help, he posted in a Facebook group of dedicated 'grey nomads' (a moniker proudly adopted by retired Aussies who caravan around the country), asking if anyone still in the area could track it down. While one fellow traveller retraced his tracks out of the WA campground, they were unable to locate the dish, which cost $600 in Australia.
The camper, who wished to remain anonymous, told Yahoo he had "no luck" tracking it down and has reached out to Starlink for help. He had been driving for some time with it attached to the van before realising, he explained.
With portable Starlink dishes increasingly popping up in campgrounds around the country and the smaller 'Mini' version launching in Australia last year, many simply responded to his call for help with the tricks they use to make sure they remember to collect their dish, such as leaving a sign on the steering wheel until it's packed away.
Aussie couple Dan and Amanda were among the very first adopters of Starlink, even before the service was activated in much of the country.
"We strongly believe in not mounting it and just using it on its stand in the best position," Amanda told Yahoo News this week.
The couple spent more than two years moving around Australia in their caravan and run an online business while on the road, and are now travelling throughout Europe, where they still rely on the Starlink service for all their connectivity needs.
"We did in Australia occasionally put it on the top of a mast to elevate it, which was mounted to the rear bar of our caravan, but that is a big pole, so hard to forget," she joked.
"[Currently], we have it on our cab parcel shelf and it occasionally gets put up through the roof hatch onto the roof."
The 'incredible' device taking over campsites, caravans and 4WDs
Huge change for mobile users as new Space X teams up with Telstra
'Do what he wants': Australia warned on Elon Musk
Amanda said they've heard of mishaps happening with Starlink dishes along their travels, and nearly suffered a similar fate recently.
"We have definitely heard of others driving over them on the ground when moving vehicles around in caravan parks or free camps," she said.
"We did, however, forget our dishy ('dishy' is the official name the company gives them) once when we were in Norway last year. We put it on the roof... and it was snowing so all the hatches and windows were closed. We drove off about 20 metres from our parking spot and then suddenly remembered it, thankfully. We stopped and grabbed it down, changed our routine to have Dan do a dishy check on every move."
She suggests users intentionally leave the power cord in a highly visible place so it's not missed when packing up, and have one camper as the dedicated person to remember the dish.
Starlink, owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX, is a private company and doesn't disclose detailed numbers about its business, but has previously said it has about 200,000 customers, a vast majority of whom would have the dish attached to their house for residential service, as opposed to the portable, roaming plan.
A Facebook group, Starlink Users Australia, now has nearly 140,000 members, while YouTube is flooded with caravan and camping influencers offering advice on everything from how to mount it to the best power equipment to support it.
It has become increasingly vital for those in regional Australia as it outperforms the NBN offering when it comes to speed and performance, as well as for nomadic Australians who have little alternative for a reliable internet connection.
However, that is slated to change soon with Amazon launching its first satellites this year for a planned rival service. Another launch this week is set to take Amazon's 'Project Kuiper' to a total of 78 satellites in orbit (Starlink reportedly has about 8,000 satellites in its network). While Australia is said to be a priority market when it does begin offering the service, it remains to be seen when that becomes a viable alternative for Australian customers.
Do you have a story tip? Email: [e-mail].
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.