A petition calling for camping in NSW national parks to be kept at affordable levels has gathered more than 13,000 signatures and has now been submitted to the state’s Environment Minister.
While it missed the 20,000 benchmark needed to trigger a parliamentary debate on the issue, the high number of signees still means the Environment Minister is required to respond.
The petition, submitted by influencer Michael Atkinson (aka Outback Mike), urges the government to appropriately fund national parks, remove the booking system put in place during Covid, and increase campground numbers.
The news publication, Region, says the petition came about in response to a NSW Government draft plan which proposes restructuring camping to a six-tier system with fees of $13 to $89 per night.
‘I’d like to book the whole campsite for six months, please!’
That proposal aims to bring back some free camping across the state, but only for tier one sites – those with no facilities. Tier two sites – those with pit toilets – through to tier six sites – including hot showers – would charge users. These sites cover almost 90% of campgrounds in the state.
Mr Atkinson said the government was unfairly shifting costs on to average Australians.
“They need to fund national parks adequately, they don’t need to raise revenue from the public,” he said. “It’s much fairer to take people’s money at tax time because it is means tested.”
Region reports that Mr Atkinson is also unhappy about the current booking system, which he says was introduced as a temporary Covid measure in 2022 before being quietly expanded. He said NPWS had made it almost impossible to object to the booking systems, which were never subject to consultation.
As many grey nomads would be all too aware, online bookings can result in ‘ghost bookings’ whereby people book sites and then, for one reason or another, don’t turn up, leaving the site empty.
Region says Mr Atkinson has a simple solution
“Get rid of the booking system for places that didn’t have one before Covid,” he said. “[People] definitely will not be able to go camping for a week in a NSW national park and fork out more money than it costs to rent a three-bedroom house … it was only put there for an infectious disease that was four years ago, so I say just get rid of it.”
A NPWS spokesperson told Region that 83% of its survey respondents supported a booking system.
“In many cases, it is not practicable to expand existing campgrounds due to potential environmental risks, infrastructure limitations, costs, and impacts to the visitor experience,” the spokesperson said.
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I prefer the booking system since it gives you assurance you’ll have a spot, especially if you are driving a long distance to get to it.
To avoid ghost bookings for free sites (with $6 booking fee), only allow bookings 3 days in advance. While some may still not show up I think this would be a very small miniority when comapared with people who book weeks or months in advance.
While there may be ghost bookings for sites $25/day or more I think this would also be a small minority as the person would be out of pocket.
If phone numbers are requested upon booking and no one has appeared at a designated time arranged, then the camp ground owners can either call up the prospective camper or designate the plot vacant.
I also agree with John, a three day booking window should be standard, if you can’t get to the site on time phone up or loose out.
For most national parks, there are no campground supervisors. There is no one policing the campgrounds. So I am not sure how your suggestion can be implemented.