Long term Schengen visa's

[Malenko]

I have been searching for an answer to my question for the last few months and just seem to be getting the same info, so I thought I would ask.

I am an australian citizen, and as such I am well aware of the typical schengen travel visa of 90days out of 180 for pretty much all of western europe.

My question is if my planned stay is going to be considerably longer, ie I am going on an uber epic backpacking trip that will last 12+ months, and I dont wish to have to leave europe within that time what are my options.

I know I can goto the UK for 3 months to reset my visa etc, but I would rather stay traveling through europe instead of breaking my holiday up like that. So, my question is if I want to stay in spain for a month, then a month in france, and 3 months in germany, a month in holland and a month in switzerland (note, not my actual itinerary, I haven't planned that far ahead yet) what are my options?

I was also wondering if any one has worked the 90/180 system in their favor, eg

Jan 1 arrive in UK, Jan 2 travel to france
Jan 7 go back to UK
March 31 travel back to france
June 31 schengen visa's 180 day limit expires and new 180 day period starts
sept 31 leave schengen zone and go back to UK.

So basically I would start off with a 3 month trip to UK, then 6 months in schengen zone. I dont want to go over there and try it and end up overstaying and getting it noted on my visa, would like to stay a legal traveller.

EDIT: or if i get a working holiday visa in say germany would that give me a years worth of travel in europe.

[mastermind]

If I'm not mistaken the Schengen agreement covers only short-term travel (90/180) and whatever long-term visa you obtain for one of the participating states wont allow you to break that 90/180 rule [to travel to other Schengen countries other than the one for which long-term visa was obtained]. But from practical point of view, as there are no border controls inside Schengen area how are they gonna know if you did?

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

Do you have any recent family members (parents/grandparents) who were born in Europe?