Regional road trips are a staple of the Aussie weekend. There is something uniquely satisfying about pointing a car down a highway, finding a quiet corner of Victoria, and taking in local attractions.
On a recent weekend, I took a drive out to Brookfield Maze. It makes for an excellent road trip, featuring a fantastic maze to lose yourself in and a great café for lunch.
What caught my attention, however, was how they are leveraging EV infrastructure. Brookfield Maze is part of a growing cohort of regional businesses installing EV charging to attract customers.
It is a clever commercial strategy, and I can confirm it worked on me.
Spotting the charger at the maze
Tucked away adjacent to the maze at the main residence, the venue has installed a Delta AC Max charger.
The Delta AC Max is a neat, wall-mounted unit that fits in well with commercial and semi-residential setups. It supports both single-phase and three-phase power, delivering up to 22 kW of AC charging depending on the site’s electrical grid.
This specific unit comes fitted with an integrated 5-metre charging cable ending in a standard Type 2 connector. Having a tethered cable is always a welcome sight on a road trip, as it means you do not have to drag your own muddy cable out of the boot.
The unit is IP55 weather-rated with IK09 impact resistance, making it tough enough to handle regional Victorian elements under a shelter. It also features a multi-coloured LED status bar at the top and an RFID card tap area right in the center for user access control.
The charge session and the payment puzzle
I plugged in and let the car top up while enjoying the maze and sitting down for lunch. Destination charging at its absolute finest.
Once we finished up, it was time to pack up and settle the bill for the electricity consumed. Because this is a relatively new installation for the business, the payment process turned out to be a bit of a learning experience for both of us.
The agreed rate was A$0.40 per kWh. While that sits on the higher side for a Level 2 AC destination charger, it is certainly not outrageous given the convenience of topping up while doing an activity.
The challenge arose when trying to figure out exactly how much power the car had consumed.
I stopped the charging session and opened my vehicle’s mobile app to check the total energy added. Nothing. I then checked the main touchscreen display inside the car.
While the display happily showed the real-time charge rate in km/hr recovered and the current energy rate, it did not state the total kWh added during that specific session.
Resolving the math on the ground
Without a clear total kWh figure on the car’s screen, calculating the exact cost on the spot became surprisingly tricky.
I asked the gentleman at Brookfield Maze if he could check the data directly from the Delta charger’s side. However, the hardware display on the unit was not outputting the historical session kWh data either.
With both of us looking at screens that refused to yield a plain number, we needed a pragmatic solution.
Rather than breaking out advanced calculus on a Sunday afternoon, I simply told him to name a price. He suggested A$10. I was more than happy to pay that. A tenner aligned perfectly with what I expected to pay for well over 100 km of range added while we were enjoying ourselves.
Today, I checked Teslascope and found that session consumed 20.10 kWh, taking the range from 200.60km (47%) to 331.46km (79%) over the course of 1 hour and 56 minutes.
If we calculate the cost based on the actual figures from the 3rd party platform.. 20.10 kWh × $0.40/kWh = $8.04. Turns out the $10 charged was pretty close to the mark (I overpaid by just $1.96c).
Why regional destination charging matters
Overall, it was a fantastic day out in the region.
Technically speaking, I did not desperately need to charge to make it home. But had I not planned my route thoroughly, or had I been driving an EV with a smaller battery pack, having this option available would have been a genuine trip-saver.
The Brookfield Maze charger is now listed on PlugShare, making it a valuable addition to the expanding charging map across regional Victoria.
As more regional tourism operators adopt destination hardware like the Delta AC Max, we will likely see these minor software and billing kinks ironed out. In the meantime, bringing functional charging to regional spots gives EV drivers the confidence to explore further off the beaten track.
For more information, head to https://www.brookfieldmaze.com.au/
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Jason Cartwright
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