I generally use rest areas for an overnight stop and move on. Boy do I appreciate them being there though. I think the ones in Qld are a bit more comfortable and in some nicer places. I hope to see a few of them.

Interesting observation, I feel sorry for those trying to run a business (CP) but hopefully lobbying to close the free spots isn't the best answer.

GaryKelly wrote:

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Interesting survey, John, and thanks for posting it. It's certainly an eye opener and makes you think twice about the problems faced by CP owners, caused by low cost alternatives. I'm wondering how many of the campers using the freebies could afford a CP but choose the freebie because they're cheapskates - rather like wealthy families getting their groceries free from Vinnies even though they can afford to shop at the supermarket. Maybe there should be some sort of means test to use the freebies - like showing a pension card - but I suppose that would involve a bureaucratic nightmare and be unworkable.

I'm not sure what the answer is either, but I do know one thing... if the freebies keep attracting campers who could easily afford to stay at a CP, pretty soon the freebies will disappear and make it impossible for pensioners like me to travel anywhere. Another case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

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 Hi Gary, I always enjoy your posts, and your blog, and usually agree with what you say.  However today I do not. I am not a cheapskate and I prefer camping away from CPs unless it is absolutley neccessary, for instance on the coast.  I work part time and and because I have a younger husband, it will be many years before I will qualify for a pension as he will still be earning an income for many years after I have reached retirment age.  We  have a comfy but not flash van which is self contained.  We do not use all the fancy bits that CPs provide and I prefer a bit more space around me, not listening to next doors noises.  We like to drive a short distance and enjoy the bush as often as we can, if we had to drive to a CP it would certainly restrict our breaks away.  Like a lot of people, we have had illnesses and dissapointments and set backs.  The one thing that keeps me sane is being in my van, even if only for 48 hours.

As for rich people getting freebies from the charities, I work in welfare and it is not like that where I am.  People come to my office for assistance.  They have to visit 3 charities and show they have been unable to help them, and get a statement from Centrelink to show their payments, and a recent bank statement.  Then maybe we can offer some short term assistance.  This funding will be drying up in the future as the govt tightens its belt and cuts it workforce.  Possibly including me.

I usually avoid commenting on the CP versus "free camping debate" but today, well why not.  My husband and I spent many years as scout leaders, teaching the kids, among other things, the joys of camping.  Our sons love to be in the bush and given time constraints of sports etc, my grandchildren are also getting a taste of the outdoors.  I hope its not something that will be lost in the future.  That would be such a shame.

Lets hope we can all enjoy our precious free time, or retirement if we are lucky enough to get one, in safe and healthy ways of our own choosing, not dictated to by someone else.

cheers  

Safe travels everyone.

WEll we know  what ot say when their prices tumble

rockylizard wrote:

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Gday...

[posted on another thread ... but thought I would give it a life of its own. I apologise in advance for using that useless phrase "free camping"]

Many know me and may remember my lifestyle is usually to "free camp" (hate those two words together). However, a bit of my recent history.

Gin Gin QLD - showgrounds. stayed 9 days. About 7 to 10 vans each night. Local van park less than half full.

Eidsvold QLD - van park. stayed 12 days. Except for one of those nights, I was the only van there. At the "free" camp just out of town each afternoon there were between 4 and 7 vans.

Biloela QLD - van park. stayed 2 nights. park was less than half full and the majority stayed only overnight.

Duaringa QLD "free" camp - I lunched only. There would have been at least 40 vans there.

Bedford Weir QLD - "free" camp - it was chockers ... at least 80 vans. Had trouble finding a spot. I have stayed there before and enjoyed it - not this time as it was worse than staying in a van park. It was claustrophobic. Only stayed overnight.

Emerald QLD - lunched at the info centre. On the way through the "free" camp at Botanical Gardens, under the bridge, had at least 12 vans/vehicles/tents(yes tents) even all up along the fence to the roundabout ... and this was still at lunchtime. Talking to the bloke in the info centre about van parks and the "free" camp and he believes the van parks are struggling to get half occupancy even during this peak season.

Sapphire QLD - drove through on the way to Rubyvale. Van park looked about half full - "free" camp" had 7 very crowded in vans.

Rubyvale QLD - in the van park. I booked because I had always heard this place is full and buzzing with GNs. Been here 2 nights and the park is less than half full (about 7 vans). I don't know where the crowds of GNs I heard usually frequent this area, but they ain't at Rubyvale it would appear.

The moral of this story is that there are still many GNs on the road and the "free" camps are attracting a lot of 'business' and it does seem to be at the expense (sorry about that word) of the van parks.

I do not know the solution, but this trip has made me rethink this whole "van park/"free camping" thing. This short, recent scenario above would indicate van parks are definitely not getting their share of the market. There are a myriad of reasons for sure, not the least that they charge too much (?) and provide services we don't want.

I do know that the general travelling public (GNs?) seem to put up with being overcrowded, with little facility, at a "rest area" they love to call a camping spot, and get it at the cost of the local ratepayers ... but will not shell out a $ to stay in a van park where at least they can have a bit more space, facilities - and given the size of most van parks - fewer neighbours.

Again, I don't know the solution but I know I find this so-called 'camping' at rest areas far too off-putting.

Cheers - John

[edit: just removed those weird  thingies .... where on earth (or cyberspace!) do they come from?]

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Well... I think I do see a great solution: Less greed on the site of van-park operators, and everyone will be happy :) Their prices are Very Often outright atrocious! Simply unaffordable.

No wonder they get no people.

Besides... Just to sleep overnight, having a caravan, I would be a serious money waster going to caravan park. Besides. Way too many are also much too bureaucratic in their attitudes towards the tired traveler- their customer, not their walking wallet, and obligatory payer.... After 8:00 PM, most van-parks are inaccessible. And they complain they get no traveler to stay at their place?! People often get there already after their "Opening Hours"! I myself met often with such attitudes at van-park operators at many places, many, many times over...

I actually often stay at caravan-parks, but I always choose only ones that I can afford. I firmly believe, any service business is for me to use it services, not me for the greedy bureaucratic service business operators. to be used and ripped off by them.

herbie wrote:

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Can I ask why you mention in your post why you hate the the use of the two words FREE CAMP ? If  you are not paying for it in my mind it is FREE CAMPING !!! But to the local rate payers  living in that particular Free Camping area I know it doesn't just happen to appear out of the wide blue yonder it is costed into their over all rate payments. 

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Gday...

Just one of my foibles ... I guess it is the use of the 'new' word - freecamp - that irks me. I simply prefer to be camping ... and camping is away from a town, in a bush area, hopefully on a river, creek, watercourse, dam etc with little or no facilities. This is sometimes 'free' but I do not mind paying a nominal fee for the privilege. 

I do try to always get 'value for money' - eg Menindee a couple of years back - National Park had a daily entry fee plus camping fees which worked out to $19 per night - with no facilities except a long-drop loo. The local van park, with power, clean tank water, bore water in the showers, flushing loos, power and right on the bank of Lake Menindee with a few like-minded folk for $16/night won my vote.

Having said that I cannot bring myself to call being crowded into a wayside stop/rest area, within or near a town, on the side of the road, camping.

I do realise it is difficult to find a single word to identify "I parked my van/motorhome/tent on the side of the road in a rest area to sleep and paid no fee".

The fears, and angst, displayed by travellers that 'freecamps' are being closed down are usually regarding the 'rest areas' not the genuine camping areas.

I wish I had taken a photo of the 'freecamp' at the Emerald Botanical Gardens - it would have been a perfect example of why townsfolk are becoming increasingly intolerant of GNs (as an umbrella term) cluttering up their environment. The vans, campervans, motorhomes and tents not just down under the bridge but ALONG THE FENCE right up to the roundabout. Awnings out, generators at the ready, chairs and belongings all laid out ... and clothes lines strung between vans and the fence. It looked like a shanty town. Grotesque springs to mind.

Anyway, it is always good, as others have mentioned, if when it is getting a bit late in the evening to be able to pull into a rest area and sleep. However, these 'freecamp' rest areas are usually full by 3pm so they are not able to be the haven they were intended to be - a rest area for the traveller.

The problem, like so many in our civilised lives, is almost unresolvable as we all have our preferences, likes and dislikes. We all expect different outcomes and memories from our travelling experience and, thankfully we are all not the same - how boring that would be.

I know how I like to travel and will continue to do so, and if the need arises, I will adjust my life to fit any new regulations or reduced opportunities to camp where I would like to. It is a huge, wide, varied and wonderful country. The further inland I get the more I love to travel. Isolation, peace, quiet, relaxation are all so much better away from the coast, big towns, tourist attractions and the major highways.

Cheers - and keep on keeping on with your personal travels - John

Gday...

That sounds very much like Isisford on the Barcoo River. Been there and if it is the one you refer to, an excellent CAMPING spot. No need for the freecamp title (gawd he's pedantic ain't he?)

There are many such places all over QLD in particular ... and many in inland NSW as well - Gum Bend Lake near Condobolin comes quickly to mind.

No cost but they are camping spots.

cheers - John

jules47 wrote:

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We stayed at a terrific "freecamp" recently, when we arrived there were about 30 or so vans etc parked up - it is a really good spot close to a town, with hot shower available for a fee, etc.

We stayed about three days, and got talking to some of the people who were there - at least two lots told us that this is where they come for their annual holiday every year - (this camp is in QLD) - they come from Victoria!! They stay for weeks - sometimes driving out to see some sites, but quite often just sitting outside their vans, as they have most likely seen everything there is to see in the area, having been coming for quite a few years.

It is not a coastal town, but beside a river, the town economy benefits from their presence I am sure, the town has a supermarket, cafes, hairdresser, post office, hotel, hardware store, and a bowls club, and more - there is also an area where you pay to camp with water and power (reasonably priced).

I suppose what I am saying, is that there are different types of "free" camps - some suitable for one night, or two, to rest up, some where you can set yourself up for longer term camping. I don't like the idea of "free" camping in main streets etc., though we met a couple in Tassy who had been over from NZ for about six months - and had spent only $10 in accommodation in that time! They boasted of having "camped" in main streets in cities - i.e. Elizabeth Street, Melbourne!!!! And it wasn't that they couldn't afford to pay, they just didn't want to!

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 Hi Jules47, I read with interest your post ,think I have stayed in the very spot your mention ,but what got me was the part regarding the couple from N/Z camping in Elizabeth St Melb, they must have got this pointer from some one their younger x pats ,as I have seen myself whiz bangs parked there at night,but just thought the people who owned them was off at a night club or bar,never for one minute did I realise that they were camped there.These are the type of people who make it bad for the rest of us ,but sadly we all get tared with the one brush. I understand about the bragging rights to not, or how little people for any type of camping while travelling around and that just is not from our O/S visitors ,some people just think they have the right to camp where ever they feel like, this is why the free camps are becoming a thing of the past slowly but surely.

Golddetectornomad wrote:

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Well said Kantiki...as the Yanks would say you have Attitude....bush craft, camping,..in other words self reliance, are skills that serve us all well and quite often foisted upon us with little notice...e.g. natural disasters..as GN travellers, just to at least feel comfortable in your Bush surroundings can make all the difference.....even your very survival.

 

SNIP  .. wouldn't be dead for quids...Hoo Roo.

-- Edited by Golddetectornomad on Wednesday 12th of June 2013 12:25:38 AM

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I can relate to that - your description of your reactions to your predicament  parallel mine in very very similar circumstances.  I  now leave nothing to chance except chance itself.