I am planning a holiday to Oz and am thinking about camping. Is this safe, a good idea, fun, etc?
Hello John, welcome to the forum!
I went on a camping trip around my home country of Australia 20 years ago (time flies!). I loved it, and you get to meet a different type of person to staying in cities. I found it to be safe, clean, and well-priced. There is one suggestion though - try to stay more in tourist or holiday parks rather than caravan parks. The reason is that generally caravan parks have more long-term residents, and you know what that can mean. I also found that the itinerant nature of people staying in Tourist and Holiday parks meant that they had more in common with a fellow traveller. This may have changed in the past 20 years, so I'll leave that for someone else to comment.
In some parts of Australia, and I'm thinking of Uluru here, it is much cheaper to camp in the camping ground instead of sleeping in roofed accommodation. Also, due to the large coastline we have, a few parks in smaller towns have camping grounds directly on the beach front - and this is just fantastic. There was a particularly good one in Pambula in New South Wales.
You can also camp in National Parks once you have purchased a permit - and that is a super way of seeing the countryside.
However, illegal camping is frowned upon, so if you decide just to pitch a tent somewhere that is not a designated camping site, then be prepared to pay a fine and/or move to a new area.
Reply to this I spent a year traveling around Australia in a 4x4 and camping the whole way. Except for the more populated parts of the east coast camping was free (even in state parks). We were even able to camp near rivers or on the beach a lot of the time.
I found it perfectly safe. The only real danger is crocs. As long as you camp 100m away from infested rivers you'll be fine.
The best place I visited: the Kimberly. You'll need a 4x4 or an Oz experience bus to get there. Also, Karajini National Park, also in Western Australia.
Reply to this I hitchhiked around Australia pretty much nonstop for 25years.I have camped all over this country and have never had a problem.Most state have a KM limit this means you can camp anywhere as long as you are a certain distance from closest accomadation.Also most states have longterm parking bays.These are on side of highways and can be 24hr or 48hr but rarely longer.These are more common in Nth Queensland (the mayor of Townsville in the 90s was a Winebago buff) but are starting to pop up everywhere.
Western Australia, Northern Territory and central Queensland are the real outback.You have to be a bit more careful where you camp on the Eastcoast
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