Your take on best & worst State for Free Camping Poll

[generdawg]

Things will change slowly, very slowly

Yes unfortunately. Even the lady with her magic wand* seems to realise that this undertaking may be a life long career for her boss Dr Kim Hames and his "Caravan and Camping Action Plan".

dawg (*see page 18 of the August 2013 Wanderer paragraph 8 "Despite positive impressions...")

[Dot]

We were talking about this today and I was wondering if anyone had been fined and if so had they taken it to court to put their case forward if for instance they had stopped for the night due to illness or just plain tiredness? surely not everyone pays fines if they have a valid reason. I won't be paying a fine that's for sure, would rather spend the week in their local clink. Around SA the road sides are not controlled by council but the main roads dept and they don't worry about people stopping if they are not restricting traffic etc. We shall keep to out beloved gravel pits, near country dead centres, back of cop shops, big supermarket car parks . Always ask the manager and keep well out of the way and be gone early am = no problems.

[Forest]

1 for disgrace - 2 mostly bad - 3 tolerable - 4 mostly good - 5 fantastic
Currently
VIC 5
SA 4
WA 1
NSW West Great Divide 4, East Great Divide 1
QLD Coastal 1, 100km's west Bruce Highway 3
TAS 4
NT 2
ACT 2

Use gravel pits and back roads. Also park in middle class suburbia in towns between border 2 properties. Each property thinks you are visiting the other for the night and you are gone 8:30am'ish and nobody the wiser. Only way in WA, ACT and some locations NT. Not a case cannot afford caravan parks, loathe caravan parks. Always happy to park at community park and leave donation.

[Dot]

I like that boarder parking, will def give that one a go. We parked out the front of a vets in Rocky, no one questioned us on that one either.

[generdawg]

We parked out the front of a vets in Rocky, no one questioned us on that one either.

Makes sense for a whole lot of situations. Arriving at (fill in the blanks), after closing hours, and just waiting for establishment to open in the morning so that we can ask if we can park here.

dawg (who sez you can't teach al ol dog new tricks. )

PS However, after I've purchased something I find many could care less and will happily allow overnight parking.

[Kelvin12]

There sure is some variation in experiences here. Some have no trouble at all finding a suitable camp others get the run around.

Dirk

[John M]

I have been following this post with interest, after a prolonged time on the road, and using whenever possible free camps, our results have been quite interesting, I find it very hard if not impossible to sort by state alone, as the availability and suitability of free camps (or almost free), varies immensely from shire to shire, even within the state. for example the Cassowary Coast region in Qld is almost devoid of free camps yet a couple of Kms up and down the coast sees any number of possibilities. Our biggest concern in the inland areas, has been availability and access to potable water.
Some areas in all states have been less than Rv friendly while others, often in adjoining shires, go out of their way.
One of our biggest complaints, particularly in Victoria earlier this year, seems to be the removal of garbage bins from camp sites, and then the council's contractors wanting to charge us to dump a bag of rubbish, largely made up of supermarket packaging.

[generdawg]

....varies immensely from shire to shire, even within the state...
....council's contractors wanting to charge us to dump a bag of rubbish, largely made up of supermarket packaging.

1) well noted John, my experience too. However, you can just about pin the tail on the RV hostile areas by the level of attraction.

2) you have just given me a bonza idea. After grocery shopping at your local brand X, drive (or walk) round with your internal plastic bag of surplus packaging complete with carrot, onion and potato peal, to the big bins at the loading/unloading dock and do the right thing.

dawg

[Dot]

Public loos have rubbish bins.

[John M]

you have just given me a bonza idea. After grocery shopping at your local brand X, drive (or walk) round with your internal plastic bag of surplus packaging complete with carrot, onion and potato peal, to the big bins at the loading/unloading dock and do the right thing.

Hi Dawg
we normally do this if we are parked any where near the supermarket, when we put every thing away, however often we are camped out of town and have used the toad to do the shopping.
One of the major problems with even the RV friendly towns is often the absence of places to park 13m of bus and trailer (or caravan and tug) in relative close proximity to a shopping center.The trend of more modern shopping centers to have off road parking makes access almost impossible, Like Woolworths fuel outlets, they seem to be designed specifically to deny access by larger vehicles. Even when there are parking spots available and designated for caravan parking there is inadvertently a small car parked right in the middle, closing the lot off.