We need to talk about ghost camping
It’s the bane of RV travel – campers who book cheap sites at sought-after campgrounds and don’t show up. But how can authorities stamp out ghost camping?
By Catherine Best,
June 3, 2025
A few years ago, we rolled in to Lucky Bay in our caravan, thrilled to have secured a spot at one of Western Australia’s most popular campgrounds. We set up on the hill in Cape Le Grand National Park, overlooking the beach famous for its sand-hopping kangaroos. We were indeed lucky. We’d booked a few months in advance and had planned our south coast journey around this coveted stay. A family we’d met a day earlier in Esperance was not so fortunate. They’d left their run too late and the Lucky Bay campground was booked out, leaving them with no option but to day trip.
But here’s the thing, the campground wasn’t full. Not even close. It was half empty. Yet the WA Parks and Wildlife Service booking system showed no availability for days. And a ‘campground full’ sign at the entrance turned hopefuls away. Perplexed, I questioned the volunteer camp hosts, who were shaking their heads. “It’s always like this,” they said. “Sometimes people want to stay longer and we have to say ‘no, we’re fully booked’, but you look around and the sites are half empty.”
Sites go begging
Fast forward a few weeks and we pulled into South Lefroy Bay on the Ningaloo Coast. Another bucket-list spot. Another swathe of empty sites. Another ‘booked-out’ campground. Competition for bookings along this stretch of the WA coastline is fierce. Wannabe visitors often stay up until 2am eastern time to bag a site when bookings open 180 days out. Some do this for several nights until they succeed. Others miss out entirely and take to social media to try to hunt down a last-minute cancellation.
But if people had the courtesy to cancel in the first place, ‘ghost camping’ wouldn’t be a thing. The problem is the cost impact is negligible. When campers are only stumping up $10 a night per person ($5 for kids), there’s not much incentive to cancel. Yes, you can get a refund for cancellations more than 48 hours in advance, but clearly not everyone bothers. Make a speculative booking for a week with a view to adding the spouse and kids later, and if it doesn’t work out, you’ve only lost 70 bucks.
It’s not right but there’s nothing to stop the practice. Ditto the people in other jurisdictions who book several sites for phantom friends, or so they can pick their preferred spot on arrival. In Queensland, authorities have had enough. Last September the Department of Environment Science and Innovation announced it was slapping $322 fines on ghost campers. The fine applies both to no shows and campers who set up their gear and leave it unattended to ‘bag’ a spot, for example in the lead up to a long weekend. Sites in Queensland cost just $7.25 per adult a night.
The free camping fiasco
In Victoria, the government has temporarily scrapped camping fees at 131 campgrounds across the state, finishing at the end of June 2025. The seven-month free camping experiment was a fiasco. Instead of making holidays more accessible to families, as was the intention, it locked many people out as campgrounds booked out en masse. But many of the freebie campers didn’t turn up. Tidal River in Wilsons Promontory – one of the state’s most popular campgrounds – was riddled with empty sites at Easter, in what is usually one of the busiest times of year.
To address the issue of ghost camping, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has proposed a controversial overhaul of its campsite booking system. The upshot is campers will pay more at popular times at many campgrounds, commensurate with facilities. In some cases, that means an $89 a night sting, up from as little as $6. But other sites, with no facilities, will be free. The backlash has been fierce, with some campers accusing the NPWS of price gouging and making campgrounds unaffordable. A consultation paper on the proposed fee restructure has attracted more than 23,000 submissions, with a final decision yet to be announced.
The ghost camping conundrum
The NPWS says the proposed new system would discourage ghost campers and incentivise people to cancel if their plans change. Cancellations made at least three days ahead of the booking start date would receive an 80 per cent refund. The NPWS is resisting full refunds, which it says would only increase speculative bookings. The service says it considered other systems, including fines for ghost camping but the practice was “difficult to enforce”. With more than 365 campgrounds to manage, NPWS resources are presumably already stretched.
This begs the question: are greater fees justified for better facilities and service? Personally, I’m happy to pay more knowing I don’t have to share the serenity with a backed-up pit toilet and overflowing bins. Higher fees also minimise the troublemakers. The bourbon-swilling, late-night-music-blaring litterers with a penchant for cutting down native saplings for firewood. Sure, cashed-up campers can be idiots too.
Some argue that fees and booking systems take the spontaneity and freedom out of camping in national parks and state forests. It’s true. But many free camps can still be found dotted around the country, assuming they haven’t been closed because of antisocial behaviour. For popular campgrounds, a paid booking system, reflective of the facilities, makes sense. I have a large family caravan. I wouldn’t dream of taking a punt on an unbookable site near the city on the eve of a long weekend. And I’m happy to pay more for the privilege of a reserved spot. I’m also happy to be a vigilante campground enforcer, documenting empty sites for authorities – perhaps in exchange for a campsite credit. If the rangers can’t regulate ghost camping, someone should.
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I can’t see a problem with so called ‘ghost booking’.
If I buy a site and don’t turn up – that’s my issue. I still paid for the site.
If a site is vacant – but paid for – why should I whinge about that fact.
The NSW gov’t BIG MONEY GRAB is using ‘ghost bookings’ to somehow chang the focus from their GREEDY approach to site csts.
This indicates that you may be at the heart of the issue. You having paid for it is not the issue here. The issue is that if you didn’t use it someone else could have.
Charge a refundable online Booking Fee of $100 per night. Use a smart phone with location and date display enabled to take a photo of the tent/caravan/motorhome in the site. The photo should, where possible, also display the site number. Share the photo with the agency you booked the site through. If the photo confirms location and date, to the satisfaction of the booking agency, the $100 will be refunded to the nominated bank account. A non-refundable Administration Fee could also be considered if you wish to recoup some expenses associated with the refund process.
COMMENTS: (1) This $100 per night Booking Fee should deter most ghost campers but I do acknowledge that there will be some who can afford the loss. But, surely, this is a better system than the current one that rewards all selfish people ? (2) This system also does away with the potentially costly process of paying numerous extra rangers to collect fees on a daily basis. (3) I do acknowledge that there will be an administration cost to manage the refunds but surely my suggestion is a better outcome for all than the status quo (4) It’s simply not practical to have someone on site 24/7 to determine who didn’t arrive as many tourists turn up late and leave early.
Black listing those who ghost…also fines. Yes it might make enforcement hard but word will quickly get around and then perhaps it will make ghost camping too risky. Black listed in all states of Au for say 5 years…ID needed to book. Perhaps use a similar system to clubs where by ones drivers lic is noted and if a family both spouses ID so if one gets black lists…they both get black listed. Refunds up to say a week before….but not full refunds in case the isnt rebooked by someone else…OR based on the sites popularity… if really popular then full refund is ok up to 3 days before, but a less popular one…maybe 2 week? Anyway, I submitted my thoughts to NSW NPWS before the cut off date. Hope they extend it.
Was told by a public servant for Parks that bookings for camp grounds on their system don’t match the revenue for said bookings. Ie: a large number of camp bookings aren’t actual paid bookings. Obvious question, why are camp grounds booked out without any payment? Is it to reduce their workload? Or for regeneration reasons? Or is it so Park’s can argue to increase fees?
The only win-win for campers (lose-lose for National Patks though), is to eliminate all fee’s and all bookings.
First in best dressed. It worked for a hundred years before the digital age. Bring it back.
Hi
We have also experienced this booking dilemma but it is fixable:
All jurusdictions need to update thier booking systems to include vehicle rego (this is a requirement in many places) and deny multiple bookings with the same rego details. If you can only book one site for any given period with your vehicle details then the only issue will be people who dont turn up, non shows should be heavily fines to encourage cancellation of booking at earliest opportunity. Revert back to on site bookings instead of online bookings or at least proportion the number of sites available to each process, get back to first come first served as it used to be. Many camp sites dont have internet connection unless you have starlink or similar, whats the point of going bush and having to take all of this technology with you just to book a camp site, dont let technology ruin this experience
The booking service is only 1/2 the issue, the other 1/2 is being able to contact the Parks web site when there is no service. We had this issue at Fruit Bat Falls a few years ago. To be sure we could get a camp site we booked well in advance. We arrived the day before our booked night. Hmm, what to do, the sign said to go on the internet or ring the rangers, only 100 odd km to phone or internet service :-((( The sign warned us not to use the campsite before the due day. We hung around until it was dark, going for a swim etc and then decided that as no one else had arrived we would set up camp. No issues, there was no one else staying in the campground at all. Had we not book, I’m 100% sure that all campsites would have been fully booked.
Maybe there should be a compulsory bond of around $500 required to be paid at least 2 weeks prior to the booking. If it isn’t paid the booking is cancelled freeing up the spot. Or if they pay the bond and then don’t turn up on the day they lose the deposit.
As a traveler you have to have access to spontaneity, as a holiday-er you don’t. The national parks should be available to both parties. As the system is at the moment it is fully catered to the holiday -er. There should always be a percentage of the sites on the old basis first in best dressed. As a traveler there are many times where there is no access to make a booking as there is no reception for your electronic device. I would suggest a split of 60 -40 or 70 – 30 for some places.