free camping Archives | Little Aussie Travellers

10 Tips for Camping in National Parks Around Australia

We’re really blessed with so much variety available for Australian holidays with options available for beach side fun to dry deserts, but one of my favourite things to do when travelling is to visit our National Parks.

Obviously because we are travelling Australia with our dog, our time camping in National Parks is limited, but before we were travelling full time it was one of our favourite ways to get out into nature, and during our time on the road we’ll kennel Yoshi when we need to because there’s some National Parks in Australia that are just too amazing to miss.

If you want to head out camping in National Parks, here’s our top tips:

1. Please DO NOT take pets and animals into National Parks.

It’s crazy the number of times we’ve done day trips or camping trips into National Parks, only to see people there with dogs or other pets. While as people travelling with a very well behaved dog we’d love it if we could take him with us, the rules are very simple: NO PETS ALLOWED.

This is for a good reason; The purpose of National Parks is to protect the fauna and flora inside them, and dogs not only scare the wildlife, but they can carry disease and attract other dogs into the area. Escaped pet dogs are also the cause of Australia’s large number of wild dog populations which decimate wildlife and cattle across the country.

2. Some Camping in National Parks is Free, Some is not.

It’s important to check out if the National Park you want to camp in is free, or is paid and requires bookings. While many of the more remote campgrounds are free and made available on a first come first served basis, for some of the more popular National Park campgrounds pre-booking may be necessary, especially in peak periods.

3. Some National Parks Require Passes for Entry.

In more regulated tourist areas it’s likely you’ll need an entry pass into the National Park. Some National Parks are available for people to come and go as they please, while others will have options for day visitors to purchase an entry pass. When payment is required, there will usually be a payment box that allows you to take an envelope and pay your days entry and acquire a pass to show on your vehicle.

4. Each State of Australia has Different National Parks Requirements.

It’s not possible to purchase a single pass that covers you for all National Parks. When you’re planning to head to a State, our advice is to check out the website for that state’s National Parks and research the requirements and the passes available. When we were in Tasmania it was cheaper for us to purchase a 60 day pass as we’d be visiting a couple of National parks over our time there than it was to purchase separately for the days we’d be entering, this is often the case.

5. Leave Camp Areas Clean or Cleaner than You Find Them.

National Parks are an important part of conservation of Australia’s plants and animals and when you visit them, you may find there aren’t any rubbish facilities. It could be that they are remote, or just financially it isn’t possible to provide rubbish services. PLEASE take your rubbish with you. If you find a campsite in a mess, notify a ranger if you bump into one, or call the National Parks office for the state you’re in to let them know; alternatively clean up what you can and take it with you.

6. Don’t Mess With The Natural Environment.

If it wasn’t introduced by visitors, then don’t take it out of the National Park. It is illegal to remove flora and fauna from a National Park, and while it might not seem like a big deal for one person to do it, if every visitor took something they found it would have horrible consequences. The same goes for firewood. Please don’t fell trees or use fallen timbers for fire wood; it’s important for the eco system that wood isn’t removed from the habitat.

7. Don’t Feed The Wildlife

It’s also important not to feed the animals, although this doesn’t just apply in National Parks, it applies to anywhere in nature that you’re camping around native wildlife. Not only does feeding the animals pose a risk to their health and can make them sick, it can also familiarise them to humans and make them more confident in approaching camps. For animals who can pose a threat to humans, if they become too placid they can become food aggressive and may need to be euthanized to keep the area safe. Not feeding the animals prevents innocent animals having to be put to sleep.

8. Stay Tidy or You’ll Regret It.

Trust us on this one: Keep your rubbish and food packed neatly away. While you’re snoozing of a night, lots of animals will come out to play, and it’s your food and goodies they’ll be excited to rummage through. If you don’t keep your rubbish out of reach of the animals, you can rest assured you’ll wake in the morning to find it strewn across your campsite. If you don’t pack your food in animal proof containers, then don’t expect it to be waiting for you to eat the next day. Animals aren’t silly and they’ll take any opportunity you give them to grab your goodies.

9. Take Everything You Need With You.

Most National Parks won’t have facilities for you to purchase food, and in many cases won’t even have water access points. Please be sure you have enough supplies on hand, especially drinking water as it can sometimes be quite a distance to get to a town for supplies. You’re going to have to be totally self sufficient for the most part, this could also mean there aren’t toilets available so you’ll need to take your own or get comfortable with safely digging your own bush toilet. Bush showering is also likely for long stays although more popular National Parks have some kind of toileting and showers available although often cold. Here’s some of our camping tips if you’re not familiar with camping remotely.

10. Enjoy and Be Safe.

Just get out there and explore, enjoy and follow the paths. Don’t go wandering into areas without designated paths unless you’re highly familiar with the area and know what you’re doing. Do, sign on for walking registers. For more popular National Parks there are registration sheets to help rangers track walkers to ensure that everyone returns safely. Do go prepared with plenty of water, snacks and a first aid kit including a snake bite bandage. Take photos, video, make memories and have fun, we’re blessed to have such amazing outside places to explore.

Week one on the road – Free Camping at Bulahdelah NSW

by Loreena Walsh | NSW Accommodation

Jan 28th to Feb 3rd: It’s a surreal existence when your dreams are happening around you. It’s a spectacular sense of accomplishment, mixed with a dash of disbelief, a slight twist of vulnerability, and a nagging sensation that it’s all going to crash down around you sometime soon. At least that’s how it felt to me.

Our first few days on the road, well I guess, closer to a week were spent catching up with friends and family before we travelled off into the sunset to enjoy our nomadic dream. It was nice, and a sort-of in-between, where we were officially on the road travelling Australia, and yet floating around the familiar tracks of our past lives, not yet truly on our way.

The 28^th of January saw us drive out of Matt’s Nan’s driveway with no real idea of where we’d stop for the night, it was everything we’d wished for; point the car in the direction we wanted to go, and just drive. Take things as they come, trust the universe would lead us to where it was we should go, and enjoy the journey, after all, the journey really is the destination!

As evening began to hit, we decided to pull up in Bulahdelah. This is a pure case of deciding to take a chance on a place we’d driven through probably hundreds of times before, and yet never really looked around. Living on the Mid North Coast made Bulahdelah the fuel and toilet stop of the Pacific Highway when travelling to Sydney; a nice mid-point. But, the highway has since by-passed the little town, and we’d noticed there was a free camp in the area so it was worth a look.

Truly, camp sites don’t get too much better than this one. It’s a dog friendly and family friendly free camp.

We arrived to find a nice big vacant area right on the bank of the river, with a jetty to our left and the walkway to the bridge not too far away. There wasn’t any shade in our new found yard, but we figured we were only staying a night or two, so it we’d work around it.

Van up, table out and a couple of chairs, and we were dishing dinner before we knew it. We’d anticipated a late arrival so had thrown a big feed of beef stroganoff in the Dream Pot before leaving, it was perfect by the time we were ready to eat, and a nice reward after the drive and set up.

There was no time like the present for the kids. Bellies full, they had the rods unpacked, bait net in and were keen for a fish. It didn’t take long before the bait net was host to a small fish. Jackson didn’t like the look of it, with a few ominous spikes giving a warning not to get to close. He gave a yell to Matt to come take a look, and before Matt made it to the Jetty, a lovely guy in the campsite near went to take a look and not wearing his glasses put his hand in to retrieve the little thing.

Ouch! He’d been stung, and boy did we feel bad about it! First night in camp and we’d already inflicted an injury on some poor bloke! We dug out the bites and stings book and I enlisted the help of good old Google to identify the sucker, which we soon realised was a Bullrout. Luckily we carry plenty of pain relief and creams in the van, so we offered him some, and then advised to wash it with hot water as per the first aid directions, also assuring him if it got too bad we’d be happy to run him up to the hospital for them to take a look. Thankfully it was all fine and not too major, but lesson learned for the kids, not to let others touch their nets until we’re there. I’d hate to feel responsible for something bad happening to someone else, even if it’s unintentional.

Crisis averted, Matt and the kids fished well into the evening, before it was time to hit the sack, we figured we’d stay another night, and then see where the road led us.

This plan, to leave the next day happened for several days, and we ended up staying there for five nights. We didn’t realise at the time that the site actually has a 3 night maximum, but it wasn’t full and we spent money in town every day which we thought the small businesses would appreciate so not a major issue.

Our days were filled with swimming, fishing, wandering through town to stock up on supplies, and hanging out with our new friends, the resident geese and ducks, who would often make their presence known and had quite a bit of character about them.The kids enjoyed having a go at camp cooking, and even washing the clothes, although the fascination wore off pretty quickly 🙂

We chatted to locals, met lots of other travellers, some who’d been on the road for some time, others who were testing the waters and deciding whether to dive in and head around Australia full time on the big lap. (of course we told them to go for it, life’s just too short, we hope to meet up with them on the road) 🙂

If you’re in the area, then we can highly recommend this free camp. It’s an initiative of the local Lions Club, to help aid the community after the highway bypass. You need to be pretty self-contained, there is a tap on site for water top-ups, and there are toilets just a short 100 metre walk across the bridge, we carry our own shower, so that wasn’t an issue for us but I think there may be a shower at the showground for a fee.

Please, if you do decide to stay, support the local businesses, it’s a great spot, one of the best we’ve experienced, and by doing some groceries, going to the pub just for a drink or even for dinner, topping up with fuel, or grabbing lures from the hardware like we did it helps prove that the camp is bringing income into the town, as there have been rumours that there has been some objections to the existence of the camp there. We injected around $400 into the town, and most other travellers we talked to spent relative amounts depending on their length of stay, so the small businesses are truly getting extra income from travellers like us, and goes some way to show that towns offering free camping as an alternative definitely benefit.

It was definitely a difficult place to leave behind. Our deadline for reaching Melbourne to sail on Spirit of Tasmania was looming, and we knew we needed to be there by the 8^th of February, so we had to give in to the demands of time and wave goodbye to our riverside home and continue on our way.