Want to travel for a year

Be sure and check out the Eurail pass, if that is what you are referring to in your post. Many times it will be a lot cheaper to buy point to point tickets, especially with advance purchase, and also travel by long distance bus. Also consider the seasons in Europe and Australia, respectively. I would wait until March before heading to Europe (I'm no fan of winter) or even go to Australia first.

Anna is right. You should look into heading to Australia first as January is their summer. You will also need a visa for a stay that long in Australia. And even if you cut your time shorter in Australia, you need to get an ETA for stays up to 3 months.

Also, be prepared to show you have sufficient funds to support yourself as well as health insurance when you are trying to travel within Europe and Australia for the long term. Are you hoping to pick up work while you are traveling? That's a whole other ball of wax and not as simple as you may think. You may want to pick up a copy of "Vagabonding: The Art of Long Term Travel" by Rolf Potts so you understand how to prepare and plan for a lengthy trip.

All of the things mentioned CAN happen vis-a-vis Schengen and the UK. They are not the usual run of things. The people affected ran into persons who need to show superiors that they were "on the job". There may have been other reasons for the harsh treatment.
That said, it is a question of probabiliies. Do you want to take the chance of running into some little Napoleon, exercising his power to show you how important he is? Do you want to take the chance of there being a crackdown? It could be like TSA in the US- and we know what a nightmare that CAN be.

As to Australia, we just returned from there. It is a wonderful place and very laidback. We were there for 90 days on a ETA. We ccannot speak for what you would need to do to get a longer visa, tho it should not be involved.
Our suggestion for Europe would be to stay much of the time in non-Schengen countries such as Croatia,Romania,Bulgaria,Albania and Macedonia and in cheaper Sch nations, such as Poland

The OP has asked if "there are any negative consequences" of overstaying the 90 days in the Schengen Zone. A man named Dennis posted here on this subject a few months ago, telling us his daughter was at the airport on her way back to the U.S.A when she was found to be THREE DAYS over the 90 days allowed. She had to pay a 500 euro fine, missed her flight home and had to pay for a new flight, and though I don't remember Dennis saying so, she has probably been banned from entry to Schengen countries for 5 years, which is one of the penalties.

andy,

To answer one of your questions, YES there can be "negative consequences" for staying longer than 90-days. Norma provided one of the examples I was going to use to illustrate that. I believe the most severe penalty consists of fines plus deportation from the E.U. for as long as 10 years!

If the authorities feel that you were aware of the regulations and chose to flaunt them, they may be inclined to apply the most severe penalties possible.

As you're travelling for a year, you have some flexibility. I don't believe England is included in the zone covered by the Schengen Visa so you could stay there for longer. However, if you don't have a return ticket when you arrive, you may be questioned by authorities. In one case that I'm aware of, two travellers from North America arriving in England without a return ticket were deported back to Italy within a few hours, even though they demonstrated that they had adequate financial resources!

Also, some of the eastern European countries are not included in the Visa, so you should be able to configure your trip in such a way that you don't exceed the 90-day limit.

Happy travels!

Also, if you are going to be ducking in and out of the Schengen zone you need keep some records, hotel receipts, food, etc., which documents when you are out of the zone so that you do not exceed the 90 days out of 180. If you time it properly you can spent six months in the Schengen zone out of your year.

Thanks for the advice. I'm not planning on exceeding the 90 limit for that zone I was just wondering if it was actually enforced. And it does make more sense to go to australia first. I was looking into visas for there and you can actually get a 6 month or 1 year holiday/work visa as an american citizen. And I can always go back and fourth between schengen zone areas and non areas such as england where I have family so it'll work out.

andy, You can't go "back and forth" from England do Schengen Area. Schengen regulations are, in detail, permission to stay without a visa for a maximum of 90 days in any 180 consecutive days period.

But if he uses England as a home base and say does 5 days in the Shengen zone and then 5 days back to England over and over again for 6 months, then you're looking at only half the 6 months - or about the 90 days that's allowed - in that period. Also, Andy, not sure of the purpose of your trip but you could also spend a lot of the time in the UK and Ireland, and really see this one great area in depth. 3 months going all around the UK, then 3 months around the rest of Western Europe, or splitting it up, sounds like a pretty darn good time to me. As others have said, Andy, that's something you'll have to take care with. I would personally never risk violating that kind of law but I certainly think you'll be able to do it without violating anything.