What to bring, that is as varied as the weather .
We are talking about July so the right gear is essential otherwise the experience is not going to be a good one . I would start by saying that there are two 3 categories , personal, communal and mechanical .
Communal items and mechanical items apart from your own vehicles spare parts such as hoses and belts can be split between the party you are travelling with - Bloody stupid if someone has mechanical problems and 4 sets of sidchromes appear. Cooking utensils can be split up as well - no use everyone bringing a camp oven . This requires a bit of forward planning, menu etc.
For those who are new to the site, just hang the question out on the forum, you will quickly find that other people are wondering the same, it is a good ice breaker . There those who tend to travell alone so there is always the chance to be someone elses jockey too .
As far as camping gear, if you are going to try camping for the first time and haven't much in the way of gear, it is a smart move to try before you buy by way of hiring, this extends all the way up such items as camper trailers - sure it is a bit of an outlay but not as much as if you go wild with the Visa and find you are not into it .
Most of the crew have been away together before and without being privy to what people have in their tents ,most of them have reasonable gear .
A goods nights sleep is essential, and mostly it will be the cold that will keep you awake .
Tent, remember canvas breathes a lot better than nylon or a swag with a decent mattress in it .
I personally dont rate airbeds too highly, the cold seems to come up from the ground for me, a good camp stretcher beats being on the ground every time .
On a rolling camp, I swag it , I have a 3X4 metre section of shade mesh which I put down as a carpet for my swag, this is great when you have to answer the call of nature in the middle of the night- saves the bare feet from bindis and stones . I also pull out an awning attached to the patrol down on an angle , this helps stave off the cold night air- see pictures of my setup in my trip report of Alice Springs to Mt.Dare down the old Ghan line .
A good sleeping bag and I would suggest -10 rated you can always unzip the bugger if it gets too hot or a good doona that you can fold in two.
Pillow, - I always take my own from home .
Other personal gear is up to you, depends on the interior capacity of your vehicle.
Remember Food refrigerated and dry ,water for cooking and consumption must be brought .
The above posts have covered pretty much the rest .