Hello everyone who responded, firstly one thing I need to correct, despite what Paul Hogan may have told you, we don't have any 'shrimps' in Australia, we call them prawns, Hoges said shrimps so you drongos would know what he meant, the remaining part of Hogans ad is correct however, Australia is awaiting you, you will feel totally at home here, once you get used to driving on the correct side of the road and understand the language!
Ok, now, your questions. Caravanning in Australia is very, very popular, it does appear that our most popular sized caravans are somewhat smaller than yours, a typical Australian caravan will be around 18-20 ft in length, will have a shower and toilet and will weigh around 2 to 3 tonnes, a tonne is roughly the same as a ton. Also very common are smaller vans of around 16 ft with a single axle and weighing under 2 tonnes, in fact for many years the 16 footer was the staple caravan. Our typical tow vehicle will be a diesel powered Toyota Land Cruiser or a Nissan Patrol, common also are dual cab utilities (or utes) 4x4's, Nissan's, Mitsubishi's, much the same as you guys have, we also have a locally produced vehicle called a Holden, part of GM, most, if not all caravan tow vehicles are imported.
LPG conversions are common too, LPG or Autogas currently costs around $0.94 cents per litre but vehicles using it usually require some 20-30% more than if running on petrol.
A typical caravan park here will charge around $25 - $35 per night, for this you will get a place to park you caravan, your annexe and your car, side by side, you will connect to water, electricity (240 vac) and sullage. The park will probably have a camp kitchen which will be equipped with such things as bbq's, large TV screen, etc. Unfortunately we are exposed to some greed when park owners jack up their prices during school holidays etc, it is not uncommon for prices to jump 3 times during these times....for this reason, many people, especially 'grey nomads' who may be on a pension will seek out free of cheaper camping, fortunately many rural towns civic fathers recognize that caravan folk stopping in their town will spend money and they are encouraged to stay, we have a network of towns designated as 'RV Friendly' and provision is made for toilet dump points and, in many cases, a place to stay for one or two nights at reduced or no charge. National Parks are also a cheaper alternative.
I have added a link to a website of a local caravan manufacturer, Jayco, some 40% of the caravans on our roads are Jayco's.
http://www.jayco.com.au/
Cheers for now.
Paul and Pam
PS, Clutch, I will say g'day to Mad Max if I run into him but given that Brisbane has over 2 million people that is unlikely.