This Guy Has Made It His Mission To Hit Up Every Bunnings In Australia For A Sausage Sizzle
After visiting three states, Josh Eastwell has managed to scoff down over 100 sausage sizzles so far.
On the 23rd of January 2020, Josh Eastwell kicked off a feat not done by any man before him. Josh decided to embark on The Great Australian Sausage Crawl, grabbing a sausage sizzle from every single Bunnings across the country.
Currently residing in the Western Suburbs of Victoria, Josh has been spending his weekends chowing down on as many Bunnings snags as humanly possible. As Josh has a full-time job, the sausage hunt has been limited to weekends but, thankfully, Bunnings sausage sizzles are only available on weekends anyway.
Documenting his journey on his YouTube channel, Josh has slowly eaten his way through Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania so far. Across both Australia and New Zealand, Bunnings has a mammoth 377 trading locations which means each state trip takes meticulously planning to get done.
For example, for his home state, Josh had to use three weekends in order to eat all 75 sausages on offer at Bunnings locations in Victoria. But while he tries to cram as many sizzles into a weekend as possible, Josh hasn’t needed to take up much annual leave for his epic weekend trips. Josh explained to Junkee that for his Tasmania tour, he simply flew in on the Saturday and flew out on the Sunday.
His longest trip out of state has been South Australia where Josh drove up on the Friday and home on the Monday to give himself optimal snag eating time. While the trips are not exactly cheap to do — the South Australia trip was about $800 for fuel and accomodation — Josh reckons the trips have been worth it.
“Tasmania was another weekend gig, fly in Saturday, fly home Sunday and cost around $1000 for the seven snags,” Josh told Junkee. “Definitely worth it though, I’d never been to either state before.”
In preparation for his monster road trips, Josh does some pretty thorough planning for the day-to-day travel. By creating a route with a Bunnings location map and a Google map, Josh is able to “combine the two to create an orgy of efficiency.”
But when it comes to meals, Josh is a little more relaxed when it comes to forethought. “I don’t plan my meals too heavily,” Josh told Junkee. “I just eat a lot of greens during the week and make sure I’m hitting cardio in the gym to burn off the snags in preparation for the next.”
Currently having eaten over 100 sausages to date, Josh reckons the best was at the Seaford Bunnings in South Australia. This is because while every other location only had a beef sausage available, Seaford offered pork, chicken and beef.
Thanks to his Great Australian Sausage Crawl, Josh has also figured out what makes the perfect Bunnings sausage sizzle: white bread, a charred but not burnt sausage, a moderate amount of onions and a splash of tomato sauce. Which, frankly, was the only correct answer anyway.
Despite having now travelled to three of Australia’s eight states and territories, Josh yet to hear any other names for the hotly contested sausage sizzle. Just like the debate over potato scallops vs potato cakes, a sausage sizzle is also sometimes referred to as a “sausage sandwich” or the even more manic, “sausage in bread”.
Similarly, Josh has also yet to see the blasphemous use of a bun instead of sliced bread. But this might change when Australia’s unofficial king of snags heads off on his next trip to the ACT.
With over 200 locations left to go, Josh is preparing his stomach for his upcoming trips, especially after finding out that Bunnings also operates in New Zealand too. But before anyone gets up in arms about any wasted food, Josh assures us that he eats all the sausages he buys — even on the day he purchased 23 and his mouth broke out in ulcers.
As The Great Australian Sausage Crawl bubbles along, Bunnings has actually contacted Josh about potentially doing something for his last sizzle in Australia. But even if that falls through Josh is just happy with his journey so far.
“At the end of the day it’s just a laugh and something to look back on,” Josh said.
You can follow the The Great Australian Sausage Crawl on Josh’s YouTube channel.