The problem of popular and beautiful campsites effectively being ‘loved to death’ is not a new one … and local authorities are forever searching for a solution.
Earlier this month, we reported on how the District Council of Streaky Bay was seeking ways to tackle the increasingly negative consequences of the huge numbers of caravanners and campers staying at Perlubie Beach on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.
A little further down the coast at Greenly, west of Port Lincoln, the District Council of Lower Eyre Peninsula says it has faced – and at least partially overcome – similar challenges.
In the summer of 2020, at the height of Covid, locals were enraged by the vast number of tourists who camped on Greenly’s clifftops … and by the human waste they left behind, and by destruction of native vegetation they caused.
Bins at Greenly Beach near Port Lincoln before the online booking system was introduced. PIC: Murray Kelsh
However, the Adelaide Advertiser reports that the council has since brought in an online booking system and a small fee for camping, with any money raised going back into improving facilities.
According to Mayor Jo-Anne Quigley, the new measures are working well, with campers appreciating the fact that a spot can now be guaranteed through the booking process.
“At the height of Covid … we had a crazy amount of camping and it was the lack of respect, I guess, that was the issue we had,” Mrs Quigley told the Adelaide Advertiser. “Since then, we’ve actually done a lot of work to formalise those camping spots, which were pretty ad hoc, and make it very clear where you can and where you can’t camp.”
Mrs Quigley said more permanent toilets were also on the agenda to help deal with the issues of human waste and toilet paper in the dune areas.
A lot of work has also been done in rehabilitating the sensitive area.
It’s certainly one way. If you really want to stay in very popular places, then a bit of effort and planning is Ok by me. In fact ,if certain places are so popular then a small fee is not unreasonable.
I like free camping, but I would hate to contribute to environmental damage. I fear that places like Streaky Bay are being abused in their popularity.
the main problem with the online booking systems for these types of camps is you don’t always know where or when you will be at any certain camp and don’t always have the reception to book online
Exactly, does’nt allow for breakdowns or people who just don’t turn up and the site is then vacant sometimes for days. Totally in-flexable.
Sounds like a cash grab by councils to me. Once OS travel returns you’ll find RV travel will go back to normal.
Great idea hopefully will spread use of app around Australia. A little bit of money for guaranteed site is ok by me
A great idea. We appreciate places that make spaces available, even if there is a small fee, it’s called RESPECT., Also it brings in outside money to these lovely friendly communities.
We recently free camped in Victoria and used the online booking system, a small fee charged, which is fine. BUT, at no time did we see a ranger or anyone for that matter, come and check that everyone had actually booked a site. What a joke!! It is only the honest people that will actually book, and there’s not many of them around today. This system must be monitored, or how many will actually do the right thing???
There has to be a fee involved as I could see some selfish people booking sites and not turning up or even booking multiple sites in case their friends wanted to join them etc. I fully agree with a previous comment regarding potential issues with online booking systems when you are in areas where there are no internet service areas, have already had this problem with NSW National Parks booking system
Good try by Councils to manage ‘free camps’ better, but the instant they charge money they won’t seem to qualify as ‘free camps’ anymore? If free camps are meant to be sites where.users are self-managing and totally responsible for the site, this seems to presume/require that the site are NOT too popular?
But free camps should be ‘free’ ie painless to manage for councils too. Even if you have to provide a bin, which then needs clearing, this simple initiative means the site is not self-managing and probably means Councils are justified in renaming the site (ie not ‘free’) and expecting a fee to help maintain it.
Free camps have an issue when too popular. One approach is to increase the number of free camping sites, needed as populations grow anyway.
So the idea of free camps is great, but its a fuzzy area. In Covid times some sites have been crazy-busy, but assuming normalcy might return, super-popular sites probably need active council bins, signage etc. And fees, and monitoring for payments, and online service, AND teaching some campers better self-management skills, etc. But how can I be a good free camper if I cannot find a another free campsite that is not too busy, eg by looking online? Free camps are a wonderful, complex and fraught model for providing access to people ‘passing through’. Long may they live!
I’m a permanent traveller who doesn’t run to a schedule. Happy to pay a small fee but can’t set a date I’ll be there. Also until I get there don’t know which are the best sites. Very rarely able to book online onsite as no internet connection in a lot of national parks.
Small fee and much larger fines to the cost of repairing or removing what these campers do or leave behind.