National Park booking systems – the ultimate spontaneity killer
Mark Allen shares his thoughts on why National Park booking systems in Australia are the ultimate spontaneity killer.
By Mark Allen,
October 4, 2023
Let’s say I was to prebook a seven-day holiday one month, two months or even longer in advance. A place where I knew exactly where I was going and when I would arrive and leave. Plus, I knew I wouldn’t be visiting another nearby place for overnight accommodation on a whim.
Suppose that holiday pre-booking was at a hotel, a pub-stay, a caravan park, a resort or a National Park. You’ve booked and paid your hard-earned money, and you excitedly await your annual break from the nine-to-five grind we all get entrenched.
When your holiday date arrives, you pack the wagon, slam the house’s front door, and close the white picket gate on the way out of your concrete jungle. You’ve organised the neighbour to keep an eye on the place and feed the cat, and the lawnmower boy knows where the side gate key is. Life is just dandy.
Bear with me here. You tootle off to your chosen destination, you party or relax in the hammock – whichever is your passion – and you fit in a couple of local day trips. However, you always return to wherever your bed has been booked. When the time comes to repack all the dirty clothes into the suitcase, you wave goodbye to newfound friends and return home, all excited to tell your workmates what a great holiday you’ve had.
What a perfect life you lead!
Then there’s the rest of us
Now for the other scenario. The way I, and a lot of other travellers, adventures, grey nomads and those that are generally unorganised, go about their holidays, time away from home, or even those that ‘on-the-road’ is their home.
While I might know I have a certain amount of time away from home, like my recent nine-week, 10,000km trip from mid-coast NSW, Flinders ranges, Central Australia, southern QLD and wiggling our way back down the coast, other than a few significant pre-determined stopovers, we essentially winged the rest of our time on the road.
It’s not because I’m unorganised or couldn’t be bothered pre-planning. It’s just how I roll with my outback touring holidays. Yes, I research via various online outlets, but I also talk to other travellers, locals and anyone who might offer a great spot to camp while we are on the road. We even spotted a signpost to a lesser-known gorge we hadn’t heard of and it was one of our best campsites. We still needed to prebook.
Sometimes, I spend much longer in a particular spot because it’s simply too grouse to leave. In other places I’ve disliked for one reason or another, I pack and leave for greener pastures sooner than planned.
Quite frankly, I hate being put in a position where I have no flexibility in my itinerary. So long as I can book, extend, or change my mind, I’m a happy camper and my life is dandy, too.
The National Park system sucks
Like I said at the top of this yarn, when everything is prebooked and organised at home, the NP system works. Well, sort of works.
But, when you wander around the backblocks, are out of phone reception and have a tendency to decide late in the day that you are going to turn left instead of right at the end of a dusty track, you find that the NP that you’ve arrived at has no onsite ranger, no caretaker and only accepts online bookings and payments, well, that’s when the system doesn’t work.
Try as you might to pay your fair share to park on a piece of dirt, squat on a long drop, and only use the firewood you brought in with you – it simply doesn’t work without phone or data reception.
Sure, some may say I should have known better. Well, yes, I know how the online system works. But when I’ve been travelling for days without mobile phone reception and only find out about a magical spot from fellow travellers or spot the sign while en route to somewhere else, then, I’m afraid those naysayers haven’t really experienced travelling remotely.
Yes, I could buy a satellite phone, purchase the infrastructure, and pay expensive monthly fees for Starlink or the like so that I could book a site regardless of my physical location. But no, no, I can’t fork out for that extravagance. Hopefully, time will bring costs down.
Onsite
In the old days of travelling and visiting National Parks, bookings were made via an honesty box at the campground or by stopping in at the ranger’s office. At times, a ranger or caretaker would drive around every campsite each evening to collect the fees.
There is no doubt some folk would cheat the system and cop a freebie every now and then. No system is totally perfect or cheat-proof, but in essence, it worked.
The big drawback – onsite manpower. Yep, a real person had to be onsite all day, every day, to manage and collect payments. But hey, isn’t that where National Park Rangers are meant to be – out in the park? During our time in Northern Territory National Parks, we saw very few rangers on site – very few. I do wonder why.
Just think how many man-hours are saved with the online system. How much less wages are paid and how little onsite visits are required with an online booking system. A lot! Surely, that would save us taxpayers a whole bundle of cash, eh?
Probably not, because those same rangers, workers and caretakers are probably dealing with more red tape than ever. I’m not having a go at the Rangers themselves, just the system.
Hotel or National Park campsite
Let’s not confuse or allow the facts that a hotel, pub, caravan park or resort of any kind are not the same as a National Park and shouldn’t be treated the same. For one, National Parks are owned by the people. Well, they used to be and should be. Unfortunately, that line is being blurred these days, but that’s a whole different problem we face with losing control of our publicly-owned land.
An online booking system can work for almost all other forms of vacation, given they are nearer the populous and therefore have mobile phone reception. While some National Parks may pass the reception problem, many don’t.
Online misinformation
A few times, we tried to book online before arrival when we had reception. I found the misinformation presented within the booking system a little bamboozling.
One NP system stated that every site accommodated a specific sized van/camper and set number of people. No matter what site I looked at, all the numbers were the same. Given I’d been to that particular camping area before, I knew all the sites varied. Each site recommended a specific style or size of camper, and if you didn’t fit those requirements, then you weren’t suitable and should look at another site… which was all the same! Perhaps the information needs updating or has never been appropriately entered from day one. Either way, it’s not good enough.
At other places, while trying to prebook, we were presented with information indicating that all sites had been prebooked or were full. In other words, “No Vacancy”. When we figured on driving in for at least a day trip, we found the campsites were far from full, with plenty of sites for the taking. Presumably, people are paying and not turning up or the system is simply wrong. Either way, something has to be done to make the system better.
How to fix the problem
Acknowledging the fix is easier said than done, given the expanse and remoteness of many parts of Australia. Perhaps having more rangers or caretakers onsite to take the bookings, plus keeping a certain percentage or number of camps sites available for late bookings.
Keeping these few sites open for latecomers, spontaneous travellers, or those who make late decisions on where we might end up each day would give us a fair chance of booking into many more National Park campsites.
Improved mobile phone reception would go a long way to alleviate the problem. Given the latest trends towards satellite phones and Starlink, that feature may not be too far away.
Our experience with non-payers
I was often greeted by fellow campers, coyly wandering towards our campsite. The conversation mostly went something like this:
Ol’ Mate: “G’day mate, have you booked your site here?”
I would already guess what he was about to tell me.
Ol’ Mate “We didn’t know we’d end up in here and don’t have phone reception to book, so we just set up on this site. I hope that’s OK with you?”
I’d usually smirk to myself, knowing he was yet another fellow traveller who had a guilty conscience and had to tell someone why he hadn’t paid and had to explain it all. From what I see, most campers don’t want to do the wrong thing but don’t want to miss out on a great camping spot, so they pull in and hope for the best. I’d usually discuss the great location, and they went on their merry way – with a free campsite.
Ol’ Mate “Yeah, no worries mate, hope you have a great time here. I hate the National Parks system”.
I’d count at least a dozen times in this one trip, spread over just as many National Parks, that this exact scenario happened.
Like most people we’ve encountered while out remote touring, say the system sucks.
…online booking system came into being for the covids, and, initially was going to resume back to normal afterwards. They found a huge money income stream from the booking fee, so its stuck.
The NSW & ACT 4wd Association is somewhat trying to confront the situation; and in somecases, there are stories floating around of boycotting National Parkes for this reason.
National Parkes system is just wrong and needs auditing.
All above is spot on
Plus, you set up an account and pay for the first N/P.
all goes well until you get out and try and book the next N/P but you cannot get back in to book.
so, you just go into the N/P finding other people had the same problem.
Cheers ,
Colin
On ya Mark, get set, go…. exactly! Been caught the same in places ive been going fir decades, grew up, to drive in find this yes and no service! Its a joke. Actually two park guys were there mowing the near non existent grass and both couldn’t help or had any idea, nor able to take money! Dunno he said I’d just camp stuff it!
Back to first in best site, or a site, with perhaps a limited number of days or week, we pay taxes to use or should say enjoy places, who has the right to at the least make one feel guilty even though they are asking to try and do the right thing, disgusting. Scrap the failing money making system all together i say, especially since the pit toilets are not clean nor have paper, i mean what else do they provide? The place the views the land… who actually owns it
Try South Australia system, it realy sucks since the floods on the Murray. They have changed all the numbering system different from Wiki Camps now. Not only that if you pick one of the sites and it can fit 3, possibly 4 vans or campers on one site you have to pay for all, even you are the only one going to be there. It can cost the same as a caravan park, used to be around $9.50 per vehicle now it can be as much as $40+.
Nice one Mark – our thoughts exactly. We just finished a 2 month trip, 9000k with exactly the same issues. Even the camp-host at Trephina was embarrassed by the stupid system.
So true. The collection boxes are the way to go.
We camp primarily in National Parks and have experienced the problem of people booking sites and not using them, so yes, I would agree that the booking system has its problems. However, I do think it is essential in these modern times. At least you can be assured that you have a spot you can fit your caravan or camper into, and it isn’t a bunfight for the best spots. We booked campsites in National Parks for most of May last year, travelling to Winton and back in a big circular route. A couple of the Parks we booked were closed due to rain by the time we got there and we were forced to find other places. We ended up in a caravan park in Winton and a showground in some sleepy little town I can’t remember the name of. We also got stuck in Blackdown National Park due to the rain and stayed an extra day. Most outback towns have Telstra reception, so we carry a Telstra prepaid phone on our travels. On each occasion we were able to call the National Parks booking service and arrange credit for the spots we couldn’t get to and make the appropriate adjustment to the one we got stuck at. They were always helpful, friendly and efficient. We saw Rangers at every National Park, sometimes daily, and they were also friendly and helpful. We even returned the favour at one Park when one of the rangers came to us for help after they flattened their battery trying to winch a large fallen tree off the road (forgot to leave the car running! He was young and enthusiastic). Which brings me to my final point. The primary purpose of a National Park is to protect the flora and fauna of the area, not to provide a camping spot. The primary purpose of a Ranger’s job is to care for the flora and fauna in the park. Yes, they also maintain the camping sites, but the needs of the park come first. We had a long chat with Rangers at another park and they told us that they had low budgets and money had to be stretched in all sorts of ways, so sometimes campsites came last and they weren’t going to apologise for that because the care of the bush and the animals came first. They don’t sit around doing admin. Most of the booking system is computerised and administered by staff at the department offices. Rangers access the information online, just like us. They just have more information, like who is supposed to be where and when. It’s all very well to say it’s public land so you should be able to access it when you want, but the reason it’s a National Park and protected is because people did exactly that, and some trashed it. Access has to be controlled in order to protect the plants and the animals. I don’t have a problem with this. I want my grandchildren’s grandchildren to be able to enjoy these places just like I have. So yes, do your planning, book ahead, or make a phone call before you go out of coverage and make a booking. Every National Park I have been to has a sign giving the phone number to call to book. Or just put the number in your contacts list. Camp without booking? Be prepared to get turfed out by someone who has booked, and rightly so.
Earlier this year ,booked a site a limited site online,checked before leaving to see if the other 2 sites were booked,they weren’t,arrived onsite to discover the small np reserve was packed with campers ,luckily enough room for our van to fit,my expectations of np fell to lowest level as this reserve is only half hour from a np depot,much disappointed.
As tax payers we already own the national parks, we pay the rangers wages, why should we have to pay to stay somewhere we already own, the parks that I have visited generally don’t have any amenities, garbage collection, etc, so what are we paying camp fees for??
I’m a spontaneous camper and don’t want to change. Nothing better than getting away from the rules and regulations of the city and not knowing where you’ll sleep tonight. Sticking to a planned script does not relax me.
Agree completely re .the National Parksystem..Shiny bums in Sydney and other capitals have probably never been outback or travelled like us. Last year I actually booked Mungo NP because we actually knew our timing. Rain closed the road in. No refund due to late cancellation! We did go in a week or so later and attempted to pay via the ranger but even her phone didn’t work! Free camp that night. The system might be OK in school hoiidays in popular parks. Other than that I and thousands of others will fight the good fight and continue to wing it.. They also don’t understand how crap mobile coverage coverage is outside of the cities especially if you aren’t on Telsta.
At tourist office booked a site at Bifield-site 6. Arrived with our small caravan to find a concrete fireplace in the entrance so parked further up on the side of the road. Our site occupied overnight by inconsiderate mongrels with duff duff till the early hours. Got chatted by rangers next morning for not being in my booked site. Suggested that the duff duffers were also not in their designated site but was informed that they-the rangers-wouldn’t disturb them as “they are still asleep”/Wonder why? Now avoid N.P.’s where possible and free camp. The system is a failure.
We have just travelled through SA, NT, QLD, NSW and back home to Vic. We found the National Parks booking system extremely annoying and sometimes confusing.
We travel much the same as Mark Allen author of the article and the amount of times we left NPs because didn’t have service and weren’t willing to risk getting a fine. This article is so true in every word of what we experienced. The honesty box system that was used in the past is a much better. We also missed chatting with the Ranger, we never saw one in all the time we were away.
I whole heartedly agree with you. I have found that everything mentioned here has happened to me too. NP’s need to think outside the office box, although I think a lot of the time they would prefer that no one visits!
So many issues with this system. If you’ve never been to a site how do you know which ones are unshaded to allow solar panels to charge batteries; You book a site and turn up to find the party crowd have the next door site and although there may be many other empty sites you are now locked into that site and can’t move just in case those other sites have been booked; and as the article states one our joys of grey nomadding is being spontaneous, if weblike the place then ee will stay longer or vice versa
Your correct and in hundred or two hundred years your wishes will have been made by the public service. Nothing in that sheep station is done without a template on the policy , problem the templet created by contractor under sheep guidance does not consider all points you make. I reality could they provide simple communication at low cost . Yes HF patched radio , $1500 a site . Think of an ability to call for help. A specific reference point on the map. In reality rather than building rail infrastructure that a minority will fund going to out back are what is needed..
Imagine calling a large bush fire or injured person .
Customers make paydays possible in private industry , at the sheep station no one cares about payday, most care only about their mediocre efforts.
Many of us share this concept.
Robo
I am a victim of park bookings. They have introduced it to Wilon’s Prom.
Luckily l have been going for over 50yrs and know the sites we like and will take a van.
A “our” site was not available until the following day, I booked a double site for overnight so we didnt have to unhitch the van.
My husband didnt like the site, so i scurried back to the office to change it. You cant just move on. In the dusk, worrying that the office would close, i tripped over a tent peg that had been left behind on a site.
I landed with my arm outstretched and the result was 10 bone fractures in the top of my arm.
No booking, no accident.
Get rid of this unnecessary bother.
A fact you’ve missed is the NP system forces everyone to book a long way ahead then as you say plans change and they don’t make it on the booked dates so the sites stay empty while the booking system says full. Any body with internet in this position should cancel……?
We read taxpayer should not have to pay for National Parks. We already have via our taxes.
First in best dressed… it always worked and will always work.
I recently travelled the NT and had an issue where some of the National Parks actually had locally boosted phone reception within the area of the campground. The thing was, that it was only with one particular provider. So as this was not my provider, I had no reception to make a booking. This happened several times.
Also in an attempt to make the system of pre booking work National Parks had signs up that indicated the best phone reception areas, which may have been ten to 15km away And may not have been with the provider I use (Telstra).
The thing was that in an effort to make this pre book system work National Parks had removed all of the honesty boxes, so no payment was even possible if you decided to stay and feel like a tosser for not paying.
Another loss, was that in some camp areas all the sites were numbered so if you did decide to stay you never knew if a late arrival may come knocking and ask for their pre booked site.
Similarly if you did book a numbered site, unless you had been to that camp ground before you had no idea if it was a nice or not so nice location within the area.
I’d have to say I’m not a fan of the pre booking unless it is dramatically improved.
This is spot on. The rig moral we had to go through to book a campsite when we were Outback last year was ludicrous. Hours spent wasted trying to find reception to book, a website that wasn’t simple enough to download on 1 bar 4G, had to message a relative to make the booking(s) for us and then arriving to empty campgrounds. On one occasion the delay caused us to arrive so late that we couldn’t enjoy the area and just packed up and left in the morning all because we went left instead of right on a whim. It was infuriating and ruined a portion of our trip. Why can’t we just drop some money in a box!? Or have a sign to say camp now send money within so many days when within reception. The system punishes the honest and encourages wrongdoing.
The other problem with the National Park booking system is where you do book a site (and some NSW Parks do not allocate a specific site, just the right to use a site) and when you get there, all sites are occupied. Do you go to each site and ask “have you booked?” and hope you get an honest answer? Or in one instance I have experienced, you get told to “mind your own business”. No ranger on site to sort the issue out….. As you say, the national park booking system sucks.
Agree wholeheartedly. I just don’t go to national parks anymore unless we can do in a day trip or can plan well in advance, therefore reliable roads and weather. Been travelling Australia for over 55 years. First trip around our great country was in 1968. Previous to that spent many years walking in SE Australia.
Luckily I’ve been and seen most national park sights, well before bringing in the booking systems. Feel sorry for more recent travellers having to negotiate such systems that are definitely not focused on the customers. They seem to have been designed by what we used to call ‘bean counters’ in my days working for the government.
Immediate reaction by rangers to phone complaints either at the time or with photographs on trespassers occupying sites booked by others.
Once the word gets around that theres fines for the interlopers, things will improve.
While not everyone would pay with an honesty box system, enough would and eliminating the cost of maintaining the online booking system (probably outsourced to an expensive IT company), Nat Parks would probably be financially far ahead.
The exception would probably be providing certainty for travellers at popular parks at peak times that there would be a site available when they get there. But most of the time in most parks there are always plenty of spots available in my experience.
This system is an absolute joke. I tried doing the right thing so many times but have given up. Been using your OL’ Mate scenario for a while now and find it works way better.
I absolutely agree NP booking system doesnt work for me. Mobile reception is one reason, lack of wiggle room if im doing long road trip (weather, road conditions, unexpected delays eytc), and if the park is new to me how do i know which is most suitable parking bay for my needs! It is making me avoid NP, but i really prefer to camp there rather than in caravan park. Im really annoyed with this system.
Totally agree with your sentiments. We’ve been caught on a number of occasions. The first was at Wyperfield NP where a ranger had been in residence previously. No phone reception ( unless you climbed to the top of a sand dune as we discovered later) so we ended up spending 3 days “ on the house” where previously using the honesty box system we would have paid our fees.On our recent trip down the Darling River, reception is currently with Telstra only ( we are with Optus) in a number of places including the town of Brewarrina. The sole booking we made was done while in Bourke.
So well written and I totally agree. We are spontaneous travellers too and crave the old days when we could just turn up and pay the ranger. We make our mind up one day at a time where we’re staying.
I have booked a site on East coast of York Peninsula, after lengthy discussion with NP booking office somewhere in Cairns (?) When I got there my site had no shade, it had no place to pitch a tent and backing to drop toilet. I was only one of 3 campers for the night in 21 places camping area. This is not one of experience. On top of it NSW NP doubled prices due to outsourcing work to private enterprise. I think we should outsource well paid NP staff in major cities and keep NP people on the ground employed to do what they been doing in past decades.
You forgot to mention the pathetic cancellations policies! I can cancel an expensive inner city hotel at short notice, but in NSW NP’s I have to give 2 weeks notice! Even the weather bureau can’t give me that sort of notice!
Absolutely spot on. You made this article far longer than need be, but I absolutely agree. The booking system is shocking. And even when you do have reception, the way they chase you round and round the site asking the same questions a couple of times over- and requiring you to enter all your details freshly each time, drives me dilly. Why cant i have an account that remembers all my details?
One solution perhaps, you turn up, find a vacant site, set up for however long, take a note/photo or record it on a piece of paper, then when you have ph/internet reception log on enter place and site number along with stay dates then pay, would only work for most people, but at least we can still travel as we want to?
Sorry but I like it better now, in the past we had ghost campers that set up a week early and took up all the good spots and we were unable to find a spot and we went home after hours of looking for a spot.
TOTALLY AGREE. I often email various states NP to explain hiw woeful their sites are for booking. WA and SA sites were ok until they ‘uograded’ them. And totally agree about online accessibility too. And they ate all hiking their prices but you still only get a pit loo. We love NP camping but tgey really are making it way too hard when there are more low cost options around.
I agree with everything you have said. The online system is generally hard to use and lacks usable information. Park sites are empty because people book “just in case”. Enjoy it and want to stay longer – just drive a couple of hundred KMs for reception. Ridiculous. Multiple times I arrived at a fully booked park to find it half empty.
I have found that even if you can find a ranger they are not allowed to take your money either and state ‘ you have to book online’ In my view this system has led to a large number of travellers staying for free – because you literally cannot book when you get there and are certainly not going to travel hundreds of kms back to the nearest city. They really need to get back to the old way of doing things. Honesty is still the best policy because this way – even if you wanted to – you cannot pay.
Absolutely 💯 percent correct, I have found this to be the case for the past several years. A good system with the envelope with payment in it in the steel safe box always worked . I have no idea where I will be at the end of each day it’s all about where I pull up . I too stopped at Chambers Pillar , online bookings only 🤔. I met two rangers there , they agreed the system doesn’t work and they don’t check any campers for their booking receipt. Two great guys who work for a brains trust that have no idea 💡
I know some people will book and pay for NP sites and because they are usually quite cheap, they don’t care if they don’t actually use them. The trouble with that is sites will say they’re booked but actually won’t be used. Very frustrating.
So true… and they are getting greedy.
SA sites have gone from $13 to $25 a night. No improvement in facilities. You get a pit loo … if your site is near one.
The coins in the envelope system in the NT works great (or did when I was last there). Online bookings: I’ll only ever do if I’m 100% certain I’m spending the night there or know that the place is patrolled.
I wholeheartedly agree that camping or touring is a leisurely activity and shouldn’t be treated and booked like a factory line. I’ve no issue paying for a maintained location but they should ask us to
– pay ahead of time
– maintain rigid schedules
– report our where abouts at all times
– deal with their terrible websites and bookings systems
– miss out on prime campsites because it’s too difficult or time consuming for others to cancel
Why should there be any fees at all seeing our taxes pay for the upkeep of the parks.
In the NT it is free for NT residents so why not for the rest of Australia ?
How does anyone know when they’ll arrive at a camping ground on their epic journey travelling around in the bush .
This ‘on-line’ obsession is becoming exclusive. Having been a ‘victim’ of this when traveling, I was told to ‘pack-up’ and leave. Again, no reception, no warnings.. The Ranger told me that someone could have booked the site but, hadn’t turned up yet.. He didn’t even know if that was true. As you say, it suits Gov./business groups but can be very obstructive to many others. I am a pensioner, my resources are limited, my phone is very basic, can’t afford to go all ‘high-tech.’ This process also puts a financial burden on the public ie: must have a computer, printer, pay for paper, cartridges etc. The ‘other side of the coin’ is this desire of the Banks/big business to delete cash. It may be to ‘their advantage’, with no consideration to the public however, case in point..I was staying at a small coastal town when a storm hit and too out the power-lines to this town. Everything that relied on electricity went down,
ATM’s, Efpos, Tapn-go, Swipe etc: I went to the local Pizza shop to order a pizza, they informed me of the situation and I told them that I didn’t have a Credit/Debit card, would ‘cash be ok’. I thought he was going to kiss me. The costs came to $26.50, he rounded it down to $25. As there were a number of persons waiting and others eating in, I asked how he was going to get paid. He informed me that they were collecting mobile numbers and where they were staying so they could pay later. I saw the owner on the following Monday and asked how he went with the ‘non-cash’ people. Nearly ‘all the people who had purchased from him on the Friday had left early Saturday or provided him with a ‘incorrect mobile/staying details’. He lost approx. $800 for that night. I thought to myself is this what is happening in Society these days. So I don’t support businesses who refuse cash, and I believe it hasn’t become ‘compulsory’ to have a credit/debit card, so cash is king, with all the electronic fraud, scams, bullying, harassment etc. the electronic route is heading for more trouble.