Patrick Jones, Meg Ulman, their two boys and their dog have spent the last year cycling up and down Australia's east coast. But this family set themselves a bigger challenge than the journey itself. They lived on free food along most of their 6,000km round-trip.

Patrick says one of the most confronting elements of their trip was the amount of road kill they encountered. (Artist as Family : Supplied)

"Wherever we cycled we were joined by a critical mass of Guugu Yimithirr kids, taking it in turns to ride on the tandem." (Artist as Family: Supplied)

During their stay in far north Queensland, Neville Bowen, shows them the art of a Guugu Yimithirr spear, each one weighted to the spear thrower's arm reach. (Artist as Family: Supplied)

Green ants were a regular part of their diet. "Like whitchetty grubs they have a high fat content; perfect as a cycling fuel." (Artist as Family : Supplied)

Patrick spears a crab near Mystery Bay on the NSW south coast (Artist as Family : Supplied)

"We stewed the possum with garlic, carrots, tomato, salt, pepper and a handful of buckshorn plantain (Plantago coronopus), the seed heads of which are mucalaginous and help thicken soup." (Artist as Family: Supplied)

Meg and Patrick live on a sugar-free diet, something they say was further cemented by their bike-eye view of the sugar industry around Mackay in northern Queensland. (Artist as Family: Supplied)

Served with a grilled fish that they'd caught, the family foraged to make this salad of brassica leaves and flowers, pigface fruit, sow thistle, wild fennel and some leaf vegetables and herbs growing in a local family's garden. (Artist as Family : Supplied)

Aside from plenty of family time, they spent their days looking for edible wild food. (ABC : Supplied)

Just over a year ago, this family of four packed camping gear and limited supplies onto two bikes and set off for a great adventure. (Artist as Family : Supplied )

They call themselves Artist as Family: Zephyr, Zero, Meg, Patrick, and Woody have been travelling the Australian east coast to document the free food that is available - from weeds and shellfish to wild fruit and road kill. (ABC : Margaret Burin )

Patrick almost drowned while spear-fishing on the NSW mid-north coast, they stewed dead kangaroos and possums from the side of the road, and dodged speeding cars on the country's most dangerous highway.

It is safe to say, the past 14 months has been one hell of an adventure for this family of four, and their dog Zero.

Meg, Patrick, 12-year-old Zephyr and two-year-old Woody, have just arrived home to Daylesford, north-west of Melbourne.

From their quarter-acre permaculture plot there, they aim to live a largely sustainable lifestyle; foraging wild plants and mushrooms, pickling foods, as well as keeping their own ducks and chooks.

But in 2013 they decided to push these life skills to a new level.

The idea was, as much as possible, to live off free food along their one-year cycling trip.

"Some days we would eat nothing but free food, especially in Queensland, with fish and coconuts and forageable fruits and vegetables," Patrick said.

"Much of the trip was about recording how much stuff is out there."

They documented many of these findings and their adventure in their blog Artist as Family.

Patrick said, along with the sustainability message, they wanted to highlight some of the health benefits of eating food that is freshly grown, hunted, or gathered.

"Things like green ants are delicious, full of vitamin C and are medicine food for many Aboriginal people," he said.

"I think that's the point of our research; that a lot of this wild food directly picked has so many health benefits; it's sort of preventative medicine really.

"A lot of our food in supermarkets is stored for such long distances, [for such] a long time, and a lot of the nutrients have disappeared by the time we eat it."

The research trip took them from Victoria up to Cooktown, and back down through croc-infested country south-east of Cape York.

Five mammals on two bikes, they were only able to carry supplies that would fit in their saddle bags, which at times, pushed them to their limits.

"In outback Queensland, we twice nearly ran out of water," Meg said.

"That was very frightening."

There were many highs and lows, including being taught about bush tucker by Aboriginal elders.

But for Patrick, returning to a warm and cheerful community homecoming was the highlight.

"Getting home without killing my family, that was a great high," he said.

Meg and Patrick have just signed a deal with NewSouth Publishing - a publishing arm of UNSW Press - to document their trip and the food they found along the way in a book titled The art of free travel.

This year they also plan to begin permaculture workshops at their Daylesford home.