It is fair to say that the online booking systems now in place for camping at many national park campsites around the country haven’t been universally embraced by grey nomads.
But there are signs that the various authorities are at least aware of some of the problems, and are trying to address the worst of them.
For example, campers planning a trip to WA’s Ningaloo Coast later this year will be the first to trial a new booking process that starts next month.
The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) will trial a new approach to bookings on the Park Stay WA website, with bookings opening in monthly blocks, six months in advance, at 10am on the first Tuesday of the month.
Yardie Creek in Cape Range National Park will be part of the new booking trial. PIC: DBCA
DBCA Assistant Director Visitor Services Rod Annear said the changes aim to give campers a fairer chance of securing a booking in popular campgrounds during peak periods.
“The new system will close loopholes that some people were using to exploit the system and deny others the chance to secure bookings during popular periods such as school holidays,” Mr Annear said.
The trial covers bookings for all campgrounds in:
• Cape Range National Park
• Nyinggulara National Park
• Nyinggulu Coastal Reserves.
The trial will initially run for three months and will be reviewed for potential expansion to other popular locations across Western Australia.
The first monthly release will be 10am on February 3, when bookings will open for stays from August 3-August 27.
Future releases using the new system will open:
• Tuesday, March 3 for stays between August 28 and September 24.
• Tuesday, April 7, for stays between September 26 and October 29.
For more information and to book, click here.
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Maybe Parks need to consider more camping availability. Whoever set the campground sizes years ago needs to reflect upon the increasing population of Australia and begin to provide more camping opportunities. As a retired Senior Park Ranger, Ecologist and National Parks Senior Technical Officer I absolutely know that the argument of ‘we dont want to clear more land for camping’ is not an argument in reality. In most parks there is always some places of degraded, old grazing, previous freecamps, erosion area land, etc etc. Many park managers around this country have done it, looked carefully at the park and make it happen. To simply restrict camping into the future will only lead to more people degrading Park Systems and Management as ‘out of date’ ‘lazy’ ‘not prepared to work with recreation users’. This exact momentum is increasing in NSW and Vic particularly as many Influencers and Youtubers comment the shit out of Parks for restricting access rather than continuing to improve access as different components of the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum increase/decrease. Park Managers will know what the ROS is and should take a long hard look at what they are here for and its not ALL about the ecosystems and conservation, to do that you NEED the people on board and education, access, camping, experiences are equally important.
It is a real problem for those who like to roam at their own pace exploring the country, nomads. You are travelling, you find a place and decide to stop, only to find you have to have an online booking. But that’s not possible because there is no service. Often the park is empty, or there are many empty sites but you don’t want to set up camp and have someone turn up late claiming to have booked the site.
Maybe booked sites have to be on site before 4pm or they are open for others?
Even if only some sites.?
So travellers can continue to use the national parks.
Daryl, you are exactly right… if a site is vacant at 4pm it should be available…. Our next trip is from Victoria to Mid WA and then North. To plan a site next week for 6 months away is crazy, the weather is unknown and the trip planned only by direction and out of school holidays… we’re going to see Australia not just a campsite
I have travelled a lot thru out my life. I see your comment David and agree you have no idea when and where you may be on a given time.
The idea of site available after 4 o’clock in theory looks good but does not work.
In my time sometimes you may not get to a destination until after dark.
I really do not have an answer at one time I thought make people put down a large deposit on top of the fees. This would not be fair on people travelling on a budget.
This would also not solve the problem for travellers just money in the NP pockets.
No solution fits all maybe limited site times say 5 days, and you then need to rebook.
Maximin 14 days at any NP and you must move on for 5 days then if you what come back on a rebook.
This may stop long stays thus more people can enjoy the park.
Not an easy one to solve. My travels started in the late 1960s, and we have seen and been to places that these days have been closed.
Safe travels and enjoy this great land we live in.
National parks in Australia remain all about administration and not recreation. The comments by Peter Mills encapsulates this. It is not only access to national parks that require a rethink but also indigenous ‘cultural heritage’ areas. As stated below, access will improve education and appreciation. Locking away or restricting access fails to do so.
Seems National Park staff are not familiar with how Grey Nomads travel. To book for 3rd August on 3rd February is illustrative of the lack of knowledge of their clients.
It’s just not practical to book 6 months ahead if you live in Tassie and want to ‘do the lap’ at leisure.
Like many whom have been travelling for a number of years and have experienced the changes of the last ten years, I fully agree with Peter Mills, The Camping areas / site numbers need to grow significantly. Whatever systems are put in place there will be some who look to exploit the system to their own benefit, The systems are not perfect and its never great to get to campgrounds and you know well that when you booked in it said the sites were booked and remain empty. So this pre booking system needs to be advertised Australia wide or like us nine years ago we found out after leaving Broome that we needed to book for Cape Range, It was a pain trying to set a timetable then , but at least we were able to get a booking , Not so year before last , even with the six months
Having been a regular camper at Cape Range I certainly am familiar with the issues. It will be wait and see as to how this trial goes, but at least there is an effort being made. I also believe that there should be a 14 day limit per person during peak time in each park. As it is there is nothing to stop someone booking 28 days, then booking a further 28 days with a 1 day gap and so on. They could also consider setting aside 2 or 3 of the less desirable sites in each campground to be booked no more than say, 7 days ahead with a maximum of 7 days.
It is not people paying and not turning up, parks are locking them to make it look like they are booked. They do not want people staying in the parks, it is happening country wide.
I’ve found the easiest way to camping is to avoid national parks. Having been a camper since early child hood for the last seventy years I’ve given up on trying to book a site and have modified my travels to avoid the disappointment of being ghosted out of destinations. Some lovely places have been discovered by looking further afield than national park sites which are now being treated as a cash cow for the bureaucracy. As for the plan to privatise national park camping in some areas this only is an indicator of things to come and of the mindset of the politicians and their advisers to exploit the system to benefit the few.
I agree with Halesy. We never camp in National Parks as a matter of course as we travel with our little Tenterfield Terrier, Jack. By avoiding National Parks we have camped in some wonderful scenic places and for free.
Great reply spot on
The old system was the best and there were no ghost bookings. Drive up, take a spot if available, otherwise move on. I presume this new system is based on the dollar. Making money for a resource that is already funded by the public.
Agree – this system worked very well
All I can say is the new booking system isn’t coping at all , I have been trying for an hour and a half , get a fair way down the queue , with lots of back and forth to “waiting room” only to get a message when 99 in queue saying queue full try again later . Very frustrating