With the festive camping boom upon us, local authorities are continuing to warn visitors that they will be cracking down hard on illegal stays.
Those heading to WA’s Margaret River Region these school holidays are being reminded that they need to have accommodation organised prior to arrival, and that there are no free camping options available.
Shire of Augusta Margaret River Ranger Coordinator Naz Graue told the Augusta-Margaret River Mail that her team has increased patrols in recent weeks and was taking a zero-tolerance approach.
“Illegal camping in unmanaged localities typically results in the multitude of issues,” she said. “We often encounter illegal campfires, toilet waste, litter and food scraps … there’s also instances where high value environmental areas have been damaged from the camp set-up or vehicle movement.
Ms Graue said these sorts of issues sometimes come with excessive noise and anti-social behaviour.
She said complaints of illegal campers often stemmed from local car parks, reserves, amenities and recreational facilities being made inaccessible to other users.
“Augusta-Margaret River is a beautiful place to be in the summertime and we understand the desire to be here,” she told the Mail. “If you don’t have a place to stay though, please hold off your travels until such a time you can get accommodation … we’d love to have you visit at that time.”
The Shire website also warns unprepared visitors what they can expect.
“Camping or sleeping in your vehicle, motor home, campervan or caravan overnight is not permitted in the Shire of Augusta Margaret River unless you are using a caravan park or designated camp ground,” it says. “This includes all State or National Parks, local reserves, beaches, road sides and car parks. Every person found to be camping in a vehicle may be issued a $100 on the spot fine.”
Between November 19 and December 8, rangers had issued 40 illegal camping infringements.
So we won’t be spending any money in that area next year like we did last times in 2011 and 2015. We are in a fully self contained RV and we favour towns that are RV friendly.. goodbye Margaret River.
Love your wine but your attitude stinks.
Yep same here had aquick look around and got the he’ll out of there
Any town or area that does not support freedom camping doesn’t see my money
Stay in places that have organised donation or free camps. Margaret River doesn’t. Simple really.
Just because you’re self contained doesn’t give you the right to park where you like.
No but you should have the right to park where you are not hurting anyone. This smacks of elitism
Their rules. Play by them. What gives you the right to park wherever you want
After the resent fires & influx of Grey Nomads… it’s expected. If everyone contacted their local members in writing requesting more designated free area’s… we might get a response in 10 years time…. until then.. let’s hope inland Shires lift their game & put in improved Camping Grounds..
oh & if you’re not prepared to pay small fee for maintenance.. then we don’t mine if you don’t visit our State…
State? Hundreds and hundreds of towns support free camping in WA this is not a state issue this is a Margaret River location issue
Frankly, I don’t blame the Councils etc as very rarely do people clean up behind themselves and it’s a blight on the countryside.
If you don’t like the rules ..stay away.. if you can’t afford to pay for stay.. stay away.
There are other less, environmentally and hygienic places to stay.
You’re the ‘Visitor’ and they the ‘Homeowner’ so show ‘Respect’
I don’t necessarily agree with you most campers are very clean, however my question to you is what would the council do with tourist, shopkeepers who didn’t cleanup after themselves!!! ban them no that just wouldn’t happen.
A part of the shires budget should be the cleaning up of the town AND camping areas, suck it up Margaret River.
Naz Grue, should grow up, shove your precious overpriced place.
Nice attitude there Richard. Simply don’t travel there. No need to be abusive to some one just doing their job.
Why should people camp free willy nilly all over the place. Follow the local rules. They have to clean up after them. It is plain straight out freeloading
That’s easy , Western Australua is getting such a bad name not wanting to welcome Free Campers, whom spend money, we will never go there. If people used their heads and boycotted these places, they learn quickly that we spend money when it affects them. We have seen boycotting towns over the years work and they now offer good free camping.
Not true for all of WA. We are from Qld and have recently enjoyed 6 months in WA and have found that in general there is great support for free or low cost camping, with even roadside rest areas having facilities like dump points. Buying a national parks park gives access to many great low cost camps and many shires provide free or low cost RV stops. Margaret River area is obviously an exception and need to join the ever increasing number of RV friendly towns in WA. By the way we stayed at the Contos campsite in this area and it was great camping at reasonable cost.
Some people have to free load all the time and not pay a cent towards camping.
Phttt bye bye
If Mags allowed free camping willy nilly it would be horrendous because its the Byron Bay of the SW and there would literally people everywhere. Its a tiny town…much smaller than Byron. Its also been hammered with a recent bush fire that still has most of the low cost camp grounds closed. This is why they need to say something up front. Otherwise there is no doubt that you wont be able to move in the rec areas and beach car parks. Then people really will be shitty.
Closed facility’s is more of a reason to open up
Geese what mongrels, I am drivibg and too tired to drive so I pull over for a sleep and that’s illegal. Guess i should drive and die
A tad childish don’t you think. Comparing chalk and cheese. There are plenty of places where you can pull off the road and have a nap, anytime. If it’s an overnight stop you want , do some prior planning and be prepared to spend some of the $$$ you reckon you are injecting into these communities on doing so. There are options that don’t cost an arm and a leg. You just need to do a bit of prep.
So basically if I came to your house in Perth, parked my van on your verge, set up my gear and camped there, she’d be right?
Of course I’d dig a nice hole in your garden for my toilet needs and try to keep the noise down and the kids quiet in the morning. Yeah, cool see you soon.
BTW book rather just turning up at a country town and expecting to camp wherever you want. If you’re looking for free camps there’s heaps, just look.
Thats not how free camping works areas are set aside and designated you can’t just park anywhere
Exactly the point I was making.
We camp free, because the pension does not allow for expensive caravan parks, but we are constantly cleaning up after other campers who are not self contained.
This mess isn’t left by the self contained campers as we are already well aware of the do and don’t and have chosen self contained as the best option for everyone.
It is the campers who have no toilet so do their business on the ground and leave paper behind or they have no way of keeping the dish wash, hand washing and shower water off the ground, and believe it does no harm. The ones who see a full bin and still leave their rubbish or just drop it because there is no bin.
These are the campers that spoilt it for everyone. Please Fine them don’t just put up a sign and not follow it through this is the only way to get the message to some, then maybe one day we can all eventually enjoy free camping again.
I have heard people saying don’t worry about the sign no one will move you or fine you.
We have also heard not to stay at xxx because we got fined $700 for staying over night. The sign said no overnight camping but they thought because they got there late (10pm) that it would be ok but the ranger came at midnight and then again at 2am, and issued a fine.
They made a big thing about the ranger waking them and giving them a fine at 2am.
We thought great, good on the ranger. Sign are there for a reason, we may not know why and we don’t have too.
Good on you Margaret river for getting rid of the messy campers by issuing fines.
We look forward to the day you can open a rv self contained only spot that is monitored to stop the non self contained mess it.
Margaret River, is going the way of Byron Bay, no camping anywhere, if you don’t pay. Their is a camping area east of Augusta, known as Blackwood River Camping area, about 10 km’s out, it is free camping, but that was some years ago. All these, types of places that are putting in these bans, only want you to come , when it suits them. I would be inclined to blacklist them. Nomads would do that, but the hippy and backpackers, will still go, for a while, but after many fines, MR, will be the last place someone would visit. Anyhow, most of the ratepayers are snobs, they haven’t changed since 05..
Why blacklist a town because of their rules. You obviously don’t want to see the place if you expect everything for free. Life is not free!!!!!
Free camping is just a term used to describe a type of camping it’s deffinetly not free and it’s definitely not the same experience as camping in a caravan park every free campsite I have been to has been quiet and people love to spread out, where as with caravan parks it’s always noisy and people are literally jammed in every 6×6. I have never had a great experience at a caravan park
This is wrong the beach shoreline is owned by public reserves national parks, govt land belongs to peoples like the fish in the sea belongs to people poor or rich. If someone needs to rest overnight and get penalised then public servants no longer serve public but themselves M R can rot in hell.
They are serving the interests of the caravan parks which are likely to be council owned and operated
Fair enough too! I find the sense of entitlement and/or outrage by some on this page difficult to understand. The damage to environment, costs involved in clean up, and the inconvenience caused to others are major, and costly issues. Why should tho local rate payers have to foot the bill?
’User pays’ is a principle that is fair and reasonable. I am often astounded hearing first hand from people complaining about paying for camping when their rigs are worth potentially well over $100k. Also, why punish the small businesses in these towns who provide an essential service to locals and travellers. Pay your way and support small business in these towns with no conditions attached.
Been to Margaret River! Lovely! Many local businesses wanting to attract people to enjoy their wares! Why not provide some basic camping and toilets and dump point?? Many people just cannot afford to stay in caravan parks so they just go somewhere else!!
Maybe just COVID related issue, being Nomads from the East we have noticed a lot of younger people with families in vans and the like, these people usually travel (fly) interstate or overseas but were restricted to their state so have hit the road. Not blaming these people exclusively as we know some nomads are sloppy but the new generation are not yet clear on the rules(written or unwritten) concerning caravanning etiquette. With COVID restrictions now easing my prediction is that their will be a lot of good second hand caravans and almost new 4 wheel drives for sale in the near future.
Paying people are more than welcome and there’s enough dump points around Margaret River and Cowaramup. The problem now is the amount of freeloaders populating the area who leave their rubbish behind and have fires during total fire bans and flick their ciggie butts out of their windows whilst they’re driving at 60km/hr on the highways.
Not to mention the amount of theft that is now prevalent in the area. People who turn up in their RV’s seem to do the right thing. It’s these ‘van-life’ people who do nothing but freeload, populate and linger in the carparks and think that they can pull up wherever they want and crash for a month or three and spend minimal money in the area, because they are freeloaders are the ones who aren’t welcome. More than happy to see those people never return or go elsewhere so I can go back to not having to lock my car and not having the neighbours fruit continually stolen by these disrespectful freeloaders.