There are two chances of a decent size area near the popular south Sydney beaches being set aside for backpackers and their campervans, Buckley's and None!!!

Any spare land around these places that isn't set aside as park land is sooo valuable that no council would be able to resist the temptation to sell it off to developers.

The reality is that far too many small campervans, currently the vehicle of choice for most backpackers, are totally inappropriate to be used for free camping. Few have a proper toilet facility, let alone shower or even a sink to clean their dishes.

These vehicles should be confined to camping in caravan parks which can provide such vital facilities.

If the council does somehow find an area for overnight stays, only fully self contained vehicles should be permitted to use them. I'm so over having to step over dung heaps and used toilet paper when I use free camps. Respect, people!!!!

It appears that we're in furious agreement Bruce and Bev.

The lack of basic toilet facilities at rest stops is an appalling oversight in many areas, but SA really is hard to beat.

We recently stopped over at a free park in an area controlled by State Forests in Victoria's far West. When we arrived there was nobody else there and we had the place to our selves. The site provided great fire pits, plenty of wood, tables and seating and a brand new, no smell toilet facility. We thought we'd landed in paradise!!

Not so fast. About an hour before sunset it all started to change with the arrival of the first of the backpackers vans. Then another and then another until we were surrounded by them. Plenty of obscure "music" and lots of loud voices as darkness descended.

By now numerous tents had been erected and it was time to light a few fires to cook dinner. These fires had to be seen to be believed. Flames shooting into the night sky, I swear they were 6 meters if they were an inch!! Eventually about 1am it all subsided and peace returned to the area.

When we awoke the next morning, after daybreak, we used the toilet provided at the site. You can imagine how annoyed we were to find the site littered with used toilet paper. It was obviously too far to walk for many of our backpacker friends and anyway they probably won't be returning any time soon so why not just do a dump next to the first tree they found. Thankfully at about 11am our guests arose and gradually packed up and drove off leaving anything they didn't want. Meanwhile we donned the industrial strength rubber gloves and spent half an hour cleaning up after them.

What can be done with these types of bottom feeding losers who come here, trash our camp sites and give virtually nothing back to the areas they abuse.

Is this the reality of "Free Camping?. I think I have to stop reading these threads or else I will be put off my plans of living on the road for a couple of years.
Todays reading of a number of threads was not exactly encouraging.