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Free Camping on the East Coast

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Looking for Hints and Tips on free camping spots along the East Coast of Australia.
13 years ago, January 20th 2011 No: 1 Msg: #126909  
Looking for Hints and Tips on free camping spots along the East Coast of Australia.

We are going to be spending 4/5 weeks travelling up the east coast in a campervan, If anybody has a tips or recommendations it would be great to hear from you. Reply to this

13 years ago, January 20th 2011 No: 2 Msg: #126931  
If your heading in a campervan maybe head of the main road and hide a little a few nights.. Save a decent amount after a few times..

This website has a big list of campsites around of Aus.. When you click on a state it will zoom in so you can see closer to the destination your after: http://www.australianexplorer.com/campsites/index.html

As for recommendations.. nothing really sorry I have not camped up that way.. Reply to this

13 years ago, January 21st 2011 No: 3 Msg: #126966  
B Posts: 897
Theres a great little handbook published by the RAC or RACVIC or whatever its called in each state that you can usually pick up at roadhouses (fuel stations? truck stops?) that has a list of camping spots in each state. Reply to this

13 years ago, January 23rd 2011 No: 4 Msg: #127133  
It's considerably harder to freecamp on the east coast than the west but we still had little problem finding somewhere to bed down for the night without paying a cent.

we found the Camps Australia Wide book invaluable, it lists free and low cost sites and what facilities they have.

Enjoy...

Mike Reply to this

13 years ago, January 25th 2011 No: 5 Msg: #127306  
B Posts: 897
The reason for the disparity in finding free camping on the west coast to the much easier east coast is Poo. Human Poo. When I was working at Ningaloo one of my objectives was to work out human impacts of unmanaged camping - so we needed to know what people were doing with their waste and how much waste was accumulating particularly on the primary dune system at hotspots for camping..ie...ningaloo.

Believe it or not, the actual tonnage of human poo a year accumulating in the dunes due to people digging a hole and burying it is massive......and I got paid to work it out.

Managed Camping on the East coast is why you find it far more difficult to find a free campsite. Managed camping while costing is insurance for ecosystems that end up full of poo. This information is probably of absolutely no interest to anyone at all but thats why....and yes, there is a standard size human poo...:-) Reply to this

13 years ago, January 25th 2011 No: 6 Msg: #127308  

yes, there is a standard size human poo...:-)



Is it wrong that I want to know what that standard size is? I want to see how I measure up!!! 😊

The west coast has many more free camping facilities with toilets than the east... is this due to the above problem?
Reply to this

13 years ago, January 25th 2011 No: 7 Msg: #127313  
B Posts: 897
LOL Michael/Faye - EVERYONE asks that question when i list that as probably my wierdest job and only valid claim to scientific fame! Heres how its worked out, every day for two weeks when my field assistants and colleagues were at home before we left we weighed our "jobbies". Then when we were out onsite at Ningaloo (6 weeks at a time) we continued to measure our jobbies. Because this is all a very private matter it was all done cloak and dagger so no one actually knew who was achieving what that day...it was all entered into an XL spreadsheet with participant #, day, weight of jobbie. SO you average all this out and you then find the average weight of an adult australians poo.

You then times it by the number of campers in the area - we were flying over in choppers doing counts, identifying campsites, dropping in and giving them surveys about what they did with their jobbies. So you can imagine some of the receptions we got...german backpacking couple on their honeymoon disturbed by lunatics dropping in on them in noisy helicopters asking them what they did with their poo...actually thinking back its rather funny.

So..as a result the tourism dept here did install biocomposting toilets at many of the popular campsites. Also the reason camping somewhere you manage to reach trekkin through the dunes is discouraged. People here in the survey were asked if they would pay a small fee to have managed campsites...the big problem is the OLDER generation - the 60s and above 'grey nomads' travelling Aus in their caravan and 4wd. The younger demographic was more than happy to pay up to $20 per night to ensure conservation. Unfortunately the oldies who were over represented in the survey due to their numbers held this "we've been coming here to camp every year for 40 years, its those bloody hippys surfing over there doing all the damage and we're not paying a cent" attitude.

I assume (and did give this lots of thought) that people in different nations with different diets would have a different average jobby weight. If you live in Aus i can tell you the average weight LOL but so far no one else has offered to pay me to find this out. Reply to this

13 years ago, February 1st 2011 No: 8 Msg: #127890  
In Nth Queensland most parking bays are 24 or 48hr camping areas.The old mayor of Townsville was a campervan enthusiast and passed laws to this effect Reply to this

13 years ago, March 15th 2011 No: 9 Msg: #131233  
hi

we just spent 3.5 months travelling in our van in the eastern part and camps australia wide is defenitely the best book to get. there is free camping but you need to know where and usually it is not easy to find.

by the way, we are just about to sell our toyota hiace, 1991, km 304'000 for AUD 15'000 in sydney....if anybody is interested...

regards from the hunter valley
denise Reply to this

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