Lock and roll! Toilet paper theft still an issue on the road

Published: June 14, 2023

When road-weary travellers pull up at a highway rest area, most – not unreasonably – expect to find the amenities block stocked with toilet roll … but all too often, they are left disappointed.

In what may be a hangover from the crazy loo roll frenzy which kicked into gear in the early days of the Covid pandemic, toilet paper shortages persist in many public facilities.

At the Nungarry Rest Area on the Princes Highway at Dunmore, Transport for NSW has put up a sign saying they can no longer guarantee to keep the toilet toll stocked due to ongoing issues with ‘damage, vandalism and theft’.

A Transport for NSW spokesperson told the Grey Nomads there were no easy solutions.

“Transport for NSW contractors regularly service rest areas along state-owned roads, including replenishing toilet paper, but cannot always be there to ensure toilet paper is restocked the moment it runs out or is, unfortunately, stolen or vandalised,” the spokesperson said.

Clearly, monitoring the theft of toilet paper and vandalism at all rest areas is difficult when the sometimes remote locations, the frequency of use, and the need to respect privacy, are taken into account.

And there is only so much that can be done to prevent theft or restrict how much toilet paper facilities visitors use.

Even in places where cleaning and toilet paper re-stocking takes place multiple times a week, empty loo rolls can be a problem.

The advice from some experienced grey nomads is to be prepared and always carry your own toilet roll supplies when visiting pubic amenities blocks … just in case!

  • When you’re stopping at a highway rest area do you always bring loo roll from your rig on the assumption that there will be no toilet paper available? Comment below.

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Iii cannot understand the mentality of travellers who do not respect and look after public toilets. To some extent, the same in caravan parks. What must there home be like ?

Try never having to use them. They’re revolting.

Travellers in the days of yore had to use the interleaved paper sheets (similar consistency as tracing paper). It used to do the job but having next to no absorbency and a bit scratchy, it was never stolen.
Perhaps if public loos went back to the interleaved tissue paper it wouldn’t be stolen.

Utilising a high impact robust dispenser to deliver Interleaved Toilet tissues in a clean and simple design.
Dispensers help control usage, keep facility tidy and are lockable to avoid pilferage.

Oh yes I had forgotten about that kind of loo paper, it was OK in an emergency.
I always travel with my own because I’ve been caught out in a loo with none; but you need some in the loo just in case, so maybe we should go back to the scratcy kind.
I hate to say it, but I think it’s a sign of the times, and there seems to be less thoughtfulness and more selfishness every where and it saddens me.

We never leave home without 8 double length rolls in our caravan.
Some of our experiences over the past 13 years of of our 140,000km travels include:
A group of a dozen elderly travellers sitting around a happy hour campfire bragging about how many toilet rolls they’d stolen on their travels.
A CP manager telling us how he’d caught an elderly guy using a battery powered drill to unwind toilet paper from a bulk roll in an amenities block.
You can’t blame everything on overseas backpackers.

Afraid it isn’t a post COVID-19 ‘thing’. Been an issue for decades. Even the thin leaf sheets of toilet paper.

Solution is laughably simple – just DON’T provide toilet paper so if you need it, BRING YOUR OWN.

Tony Lee.
Yes exactly, remove ALL toilet rolls so there is no doubt that you will have to use your own. Councils will have less to worry about and thieves will be beaten, surly if you can afford to travell nowadays then you can afford your own dunny paper! Probably more hygienic as well.

I always have at least one roll in the back of my ute, for you know who.
I fail to understand the mentality of the people who will steal a product worth about 50cents and, in the course of stealing said item vandalise the containers and usually the ablutions as well.
I remember camping in a state forest and being woken by a rowdy lot of miscreants coming through about midnight and in the morning all the toilets had been looted and vandalised to boot.

This is why I prefer the bush away from all.

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