Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 17:17
Warb,
is this it.
There are a number of other issues involved here. Whilst it is easy to get caught up in issues relating to lost income for
camp sites, etc. there are some other very important reasons why landowners (councils or private individuals) don't like people camping "just anywhere". For example, whilst I am sure that everyone here takes full responsibility for their own actions, we live in a very letigious society. No landowner wants to be sued because somebody had an accident on their land. As an extension of this, the camper has no idea about the potential hazards lurking on or around a nice looking piece of ground. Whilst the original article was concerned largely with crown land, let me give a personal example. I am a landowner, with both council and crown roads running through my property. I have leases on the crown roads, so they are treated as part of my
farm and are not fenced. In fact like many other rural landowners I use cattle grids rather than fences to contain livestock and so have paddocks that are not fenced off from the (dirt) roads. Every now and then, somebody decides that it is OK to set up their camper/tent/caravan/motorhome on my land. I do not know if they think they are on crown land, or if they simply believe that if it's not fenced then nobody owns it. None has ever asked me first, even though my house is clearly visible from most of my property. The behaviour of my "guests" has mostly been OK (only a couple have decided that a
camp fire was a good idea) and most have taken their rubbish with them. However what would happen if a bull had decided that it didn't like them being there and battered them or their equipment, or simply scatched an itch on their $200,000 motorhome? Or if that particular area had just been sprayed with herbicide or insecticide? They have no knowledge of what the possible risks are! Whilst I do not believe that any still exist on my land, at one time there were a large number of gold mining shafts left from the 19th century gold rush that were quite capable of swallowing a man on a horse - or a campervan! It is also of concern that people pick up weed seeds and spread them from place to place on their shoes and equipment - this probably doesn't even occur to most city dwellers, but it is a major problem. Most of the same problems exist on council owned land and unoccupied crown land. So, whilst as a camper I can understand the frustration of people watching "their" countryside being taken away, as a landowner I can understand the problems from the other side. Councils, being seen by lawyers as a prime target for law suits, must be even more concerned!
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