Sunday, Oct 20, 2013 at 11:29
Hopefully you find the technology works for you.
My wife and I visited Queensland Parks for the first time in August this year as part of a trip around most mainland states and their National Parks. We found the Queensland system incredibly bureaucratic, subject to system crashes on a number of occasions when we tried to book in by smart phone and unavailable to access from many of the parks we visited.
When we booked by phone the system operators were forced to ask the same questions even when we called again the same day to extend our stay once we actually got to and saw the park. On this occasion it ended up costing us three times the
camp fee in sat phone charges to extend our stay by one night. We made the effort to gave
feedback to system supervisors that a reasonable proportion of visitors are traveling from park to park and the question set for this group could be modified and streamlined to save time for both the visitor and the tele operator.
We were allocated numbered sites by someone in an office somewhere and when we got to the park found more suitable sites sat empty nearby.
The system may suite premium, high demand parks but we were forced to use it visiting parks with ample, near empty camping sites.
The system also puts the onus on campers to tough it out between them on site when booking glitches occur.
We did provide written
feedback to parks management. We did write to politicians. I empathized with tele operators who admitted to the abuse they received from frustrated callers.
I took to signing and hanging signs on parks noticeboards suggesting frustrated campers contact MPs for the local area, local chambers of commerce whose members loose business when park visitors are forced to move on and media which frequently had articles and stories about the need to boost tourism. As a friendly courtesy I let the rangers know I had done this and why.
I expect the Queensland Department of National Parks,
Recreation, Sport and Racing has too much financial and
infrastructure investment in the current booking system to address from within the fundamental problems with the booking system without pressure from outside influential individuals or organisations.
Beautiful parks in Queensland but we also left the state with overarching feelings of frustration and having been subject to bureaucracy every few days during our stay in the parks. We were relieved to cross the border into the Northern Territory as we felt we had more choice and control in our stay in NT parks (and each of the other states we visited).
I know everyone has their own experience of and reaction to the Queensland National Parks booking system. This was ours.
James Boyce
AnswerID:
520039
Follow Up By: steved58 - Sunday, Oct 20, 2013 at 19:02
Sunday, Oct 20, 2013 at 19:02
After our trip through queensland and
cape York last year I have to agree with you the
ranger asked why we were on our
camp site as his list showed it empty luckily we had printed our receipt and showed it Their system seems to be completely useless There were loads of empty sites more suitable to our equipment sitting empty but we were unable to use them Had no trouble in any other state on the remander of the trip
Ps the
ranger was very good trying to make the booking mistakes make sense for everyone
Steve
FollowupID:
800440
Follow Up By: AMO'S - Sunday, Oct 20, 2013 at 19:04
Sunday, Oct 20, 2013 at 19:04
Yes, I feel your pain. During July to October we travelled the length of the east coast to the tip staying in 20 different qld Nat pks..
Had the issue of arriving to an illegally occupied site twice. One claimed no knowledge of the system and the other stayed in our site because theirs was full. Found most people apologetic .
What was really annoying tho was to get to a park having been told the night previous was fully booked only to find from other campers that this was not the case!
Anyway by far the worst was waiting on the phone racking up the Telstra mobile bill going over the same details time and time again. Now I can do it on the ipad much like nsw system I'm a very happy camper.
It doesn't stop the campers arriving on dusk and leaving first thing without paying. A sign saying Stop, Do Not Proceed Without Permit totally ignored.
The majority of qld Nat pks are truly special
places and
well worth the occasional annoyance.
FollowupID:
800441