By OLIVER BROWN

THEY say a picture tells 1000 words and for on-again off-again traveller Fred White, every time she looks at her van, she is reminded of the thousands of memories she has built up over many years on the road.

Ms White, a pensioner who lives in Mildura, Victoria, recently passed through Coonamble on her way to Lightning Ridge in her vehicle which is completely decked out with stickers, each representing a location she has visited.

She said the van had been completely white when she first bought it about six years ago, however this didn't last long.

"Because it's an old girl, she's 33 years old, she had some dings and a bit of rust here and there so I bought some band-aids from Super Cheap Auto to cover them up," Ms White said.

"But after I put those on, it looked really horrible so I replaced them with stickers which people gave me when I went somewhere and after five-and-a-half years, this is the end result."

Travelling whenever she can, Ms White has spent a lot of time on the road and has acquired around 400 stickers during that time, either gifted or purchased if she can afford it.

Due to the unique appearance of the van, she said she is often approached by locals and fellow travellers who want to get a closer look.

"Very often I get stopped by the cops and when I ask them why, they say 'we really shouldn't have but we wanted to check out your van'," she said with a laugh.

"It's not really meant to attract attention, it's really more about keeping the whole thing together.

"But I've actually made a lot of friends from people just coming up to take pictures and asking if I've been to certain places and I show them a sticker from there. It's a great conversation starter."

During her travels, Ms White said she has passed through Coonamble several times, the most recent being about two-and-a-half years ago.

She said she had at least a couple of stickers from the town somewhere on her van and whenever she saw them, was reminded of the resilience of the people from the area.

"It's interesting because you go through some of these towns you really wonder how people live in the middle of nowhere in towns with only 700-1000 people," she said.

"I think people have a lot of guts out here because they just keep going. I do like coming through here though, because it's not so packed up as some of the bigger places I've been to.

Occasionally the van will show signs of its age. Ms White said it broke down during a trip last year about 70 kilometres out of the tiny town of Boulia in outback Queensland.

"She hasn't been on the road since then, so my plan now is to finish the trip I started last year," she said.

"I was doing a round trip of all the places with dinosaurs, so Eromanga, Muttaburra, Winton, but there's plenty more to see.

"I was headed to Boulia because it's on the Simpson Desert and every July they have camel races. I'll be going again this year if I can pay for the fuel."

Ms White left Coonamble not long after the Coonamble Times spoke to her, with plans to camp along the Walgett Road on her way to Lightning Ridge.

She said she would definitely come back, likely with many more stickers and stories to share from her ongoing travels.