The Future of Remote Area travel

Since our first 'trip around' in the late 80s there is noticeably less places to roadside camp... fences everywhere.

Most remote tracks seem to have someone pass every hour or two.

I think maybe permits are need more rather than less, just to police the use of many areas and maybe start to keep some people out?
At the rist of appearing racist, there are vast tracts of Australia that are very remote that only people of one ethnic group are allowed to freely access.

I am sure that there are too many people in this country already. Sure, there are more people to give me more income and make the economy boom....

but rather than Global Warming being a symptom to focus on, maybe population policy should be the global threat to work on?

I think adventure and remote area travel in Australia will continue to grow due to a number of reasons (listed below in no particular order). I’m not suggesting these are good or bad, but are likely to be some of the drivers, so to speak…..

As for some ‘destroying’ the natural wonders (donuts on salt pans etc) that comes down to education and a greater awareness of the environment that is being accessed. We’ll always be stuck with people who have no respect….and for this reason I think some areas will eventually be restricted to accredited operators’, but these will be very specific areas. For the most part access will continue much the same as it is today.

Why remote area travel……

Geo-political tensions in other holiday destinations,

A desire to see our own backyard,

Improvements in road/driving conditions,

Greater confidence (sometimes misplaced) in our ability to undertake remote area travel. Usually promoted by the plethora of four-wheel drive magazines,

A whole industry has been built around aftermarket four-wheel drive modifications and therefore ongoing promotion by this group (follows on from 4WD comment above),

Improvements in remote area communication,

More leisure time (aging population)

Cheers

Hi John, the only direction I see remote touring going is up. That is a continual
increasing of the numbers turning up on the once perceived remote treks, such
as Canning, GRR, Cape, Tanami, GCR etc. We find not only larger numbers of
our Baby Boomers lot but many more young families on the road. As you say the
BB are far from the peak & the youngun's are unlimited. Many, including me,
are finding that a modest outlay will get you into a rig to tour most of the
remote outback, while many will be more than happy to part with big bucks to
have all the fruit. I dont think fuel prices, at present levels, are having any
negative effect on remote travel. Friends of similar vintage are saying to me that
many of the favourite treks & places bear no resemblance to their first visits
many years ago, due to development & the sheer numbers of visitors in peak
season. One particular mate was disgusted that he had to join the continual
traffic jam to the Cape last winter...only saw dust he said..interspersed with idiots.
The only likely Govt action will be to close areas to all if they are put under
pressure & then everyone loses. Publicity has caused a bit of a rush to do the
usual routes, so we will be looking for "the road less travelled". It's a big country,
perhaps we need to spread out more. Not you city dwellers...just us noble
travellers. :)))....oldbaz.

Hi John

Popularised places are under pressure. The coastal fringe will still attract the hordes. The main tracks criss crossing the country will be used more often. More population, more travellers, more cars, more caravans, more idiots, more road deaths, more everything..........

But you can still get to remote places closeby you as we proved last weekend.

We were about 300km from our home and on the coast with not a soul in sight and where NextG had a very weak signal which necessitated the use of the Satphone to make a call :-)

I don't think that the price of fuel will make a difference. Those who want to travel will make the necessary adjustments to their budget.

Infortunately the Bogan travellers are out there as well. They too earn money and buy all the goodies they want. They are the ones who want to take all their modcons with them and befoul the places they visit and do donuts on salt lakes and churn up the the dunes with their motorbikes with little care or conscience.

The short term future will still be OK but in 10 years time when I get to the end of my travelling days I am afraid that travelling around Australia will have a new meaning to it. You may be priviledged enough then to book a campsite at a remote roadside stop for $50 for the night. All other places will be either out of bounds or fenced off!!!

I am pleased that I came before the Baby Boomers :-)....and that I have seen the best of the country over the years, travelling with few restrictions or hinderances.


Cheers

Hi John,
Give it time. In another ten years or so the only new 4wd's available will be soft roader vehicles and only those of us who have looked after our old Troopies will be able to negotiate the corrugations :-))

KK

One interesting and alarming aspect of the resources boom here in WA is that many of the caravan parks and motels are being bought out by mining companies so as to house their staff. This means that traditional holiday accomodation is lost.
This in turn may force the development of wayside camping areas or a whole new market for open camping areas. Only time will tell.

John,

There certainly seems that is a sesse of urgency about getting out there and as the others have pointed out there are many reasons why it won't be the same some time in the future.

The indiscriminate decisions by governments to deny access to lands and oceans based on conservation will only get worse. Everyone and their dog will give you a reason why something should not be accessible ranging from over fishing to littering, but those mindless morons are not EO members! Saying that I care about the environment means I will do my very best to leave minimal impact if I visit. I sure as hell don't want to be legislated out of these areas and I also am very sceptical about the motives of some of the green movement.

I think it a croc when someone suggests that the actions of those mindless morons has resulted in some reduced access. There is no will by the authorities to deal with this problem in any other way other than banning everyone.

Permits may provide some solution and I'm also convinced that no amount of training will fix the "doughnuts". The fundamental problem with all this is that access to these areas has by and large been freely available and to suggest anything else does not sit well with most. And those that suggest the draconian measures seem to come from groups that either never visit or just want to feel that they have done something to save the planet.

On a lighter note I'm hurrying to get out there before the gravy train stops.

Kind regards

Hi John

With people buying larger and larger rigs for their big lap or years on the road, fuel prices are not having a huge effect. They may spend less money in towns, more free camping and less luxuries to fund the fuel bill. Also more and more rigs are set up for independent camping and after paying mega$s for the rig, why would they want to pay to camp in a town? It would be cheaper to go to a motel that buy the rig.

There is also a new generation travelling younger, often before their children reach high school. The numbers on the road are increasing from all age groups (observation).

With doing treks such as the CSR becoming somethings 'everyone does', there are now droves of vehicles on formerly remote tracks such as these.

With better equipment and navigation equipment, going totally 'off road' is not just the province of the pioneering early explorers.

A few spoiling it for everyone (shutting down camping places due to a few inconsiderate people) is punishing the wrong people, and somehow the inconsiderate need to be educated.

Permits - some truly remote places may be difficult to get permits, but the determined can succeed. Regular permits such as for the Gary Junction Road is a farce. you can get one on line for the NT side, yet have to wait three weeks or more (if you can get one at all) for the WA side. Some travellers told us they got one for the NT side but didn't bother trying for WA. The communities themselves are welcoming, and don't ask you to show your permit. That reminds me, i must write to the Minister about the WA permit.

Hi John, I think Permits to access the more remote, scenic areas of Oz are going to be a problem in the future, due to Dogooders & angry misguided people. We may even be banned from owning vehicles big enough to tow trailers or caravans, not in the near future but with all these climate change supposed fixes it may happen not too far down the track. Please see post to Royce. Take care. Safe Travels. Bye, Sally.

Hi John,

I believe there a too many people in Oz at the moment. I would like a cap of say 20 million. i believe it would be easy to limit or stop immigration to ensure this happens.

This way there would be less pressure on our infrastructure.

I also dont believe that we should improve the traditional outback tracks or amenities.

It shouldn't be easy to traverse some of our remote areas and thats the allure of it.

Less people will do it and those who do put the effort in will reap the rewards.

Cheers Wilko

Initially I feel it will get even busier in remote areas over the next 5 years. So many have done the big tours (CapeYork, Simpson etc) & are looking for that next challenge. Unauthorized access, overuse & vandilism to some areas will see even more closures. Fuel prices will again lead to a reduction in numbers as we saw when they were nudging $2 a litre prior to the GFC. Access to select groups like commercial tour opperators or 4x4 associations will increase.
Ironically it's internet sites like this that have contributed to so many heading into remote areas which are no longer quite as remote any more as a result.
Cheers Craig..............

This post has been read by the moderation team and has been moderated due to a breach of The Foul Language Rule .

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I agree with the views already posted. It will only go one way. More expensive, more regulated and harder to get permits to where we want to go.

Doom and gloom no way. Just a good reason to get out there and do it now, not sometime never. We at least are fortunate to still be able to do it.

I read in the paper today that some country is introducing a kilometre tax on ks travelled. It's not going to get easier!

For those who have it take that long service leave and get out there while you can. Don't wait for retirement. Plenty of time to do the retirement things later, touch wood.

Flynnie

It is easy to say we need to cap our population, but we don't really want to examine the consequences.The only study I am aware of that tried to work out a max population for Australia that could be sustained without degrading the environment, set a figure of around 14 million. The irony of this of course is that our whole economic system is based on growth. The only way to cap our popultion, whether at 14million or 20 m or 30m would require a degree of government control of the economy similar to a communist country and this would send most of those who contribute to these columns inti mouth frothing rage. A sustainable, rather than a growth based economy, is a key part of green policies. Where the greens differ however is that they try to have an overall policy that links the various aspects together and in doing so they manage to have some bits that get up just about everyone's noses (including mine.)
Climate warming; population growth; water resources; national park control etc etc are all just aspects of the same problem. None of them can be dealt with on their own. So our population will continue to grow and our only defence will be to increase restrictions on more and more areas.

We are planning a remote trip for April. This is something I had thought I would do when I retire (34 now).

When I was young my grandfather who worked Australian Airlines as an engineer had a heart attack and died 6mths before retirement. My mum died aged 45 from a rare heart condition.

In Aug last year my dad passed away from Motor Neuron Disease aged only 55. He and his wife had only recently set themselves up with a 4wd and camping gear about a year before he found he had the disease and they were planning to spend more time travelling. It never really got to happen.

Bottom line 2009 was a bit of a wake up for me. No point working hard all your life saving and putting of till retirement. As retirement may never come. My focus now is to start doing these things now, while balancing the financial realities of life. No point sending ourselves broke, but at the same time having realistic priorities.

The other up side is that we will get to share these trips with our kids who are currently only 4 and 7.

Back to the point of your thread. I can only see these remote area trips increasing as people chase what we are chasing. A chance to get out and see Australia and also get away from the crowds. Although that will get harder (avoiding crowds).

I'm not to pessamistic about the access side of things although going forward I think there will be a greater financial cost. When 40% of car sales in Aust are for SUV's and Utes, etc and whole industries are set up promoting 4wdriving we are not going to witness the end of 4wdring in our life time.

Also with GPS and Sat Phones, SPOT, UHF Radios, etc and well equipped vehicles it is getting easier to do trips that in the past would have been considered to hard. As Jeremy Clarkson (TopGear) said on the North Pole special exploration now is about demonstrating how easy things can be done.

The down side of this is as always the idiot factor. Those who either ruin it for others with their rubbish or noise or behavior and those who don't respect the inherent dangers of remote areas and end up getting themselves killed because they don't use basic common sense.

As for me, I will be out there somewhere when ever I can and will be making the most of however many days God has in mind for me whether that be 50, 70 or 100 years.

The more you write on internet forums about great locations and trips, the more people will read and want to go and see it forthemselves.

Unfortunately, some regular internet users feel the need big note themselves and give the impression that they were the first white people to travel and camp in certain areas - Well, you can't have your cake and eat to!

Jack

Re: last entry, Sorry, I don't know what happened. I tried to retrieve it & get rid of the end bit which wasn't showing when I sent it. However, I couldn't get it back, must've been too late.Bye for now. Sally.

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful and thought provoking ideas. This is obviously a topic that matters to the sort of people that inhabit this forum.

As I said above, I've been asked to write a revue on the future of travel in remote areas. Thank you for a lot of valuable thoughts. Reckoned I'd better print off a copy for easy reference - took 17 pages!!!! I'd better go and plant a tree to compensate!!

If there is one strong message running through everything that's been said its "Get out there NOW and DO IT". Next Year may be too late for any number of reasons - health, permits, expense, crowds, ..... Do It NOW!!!!

Once I've unravelled it all and made it into a coherent story, I'll post it here for your entertainment.

Many thanks for your interest and ideas.

John

while it s a bit harder to get away from it all its still not that hard its just people are inherently lazy.

why figure out there own treck when they can read about one?

the Holland track is a classic there are plenty of other bush tracks and yet everyone wants to do the holland track because it has the most write-ups

Yes the iconic tracks and places will become busier in time. If we can accept change then that shouldn't bother us. My mum always told me that there is no use in worrying or complaining about something you can't fix.

I'm sure 25 years ago there were those who believed we were overpopulated and there will be those that believe it in another 25 years.

I just spent two nights in the foothills of the high country, swam all day, ate and drank like a king, watched a Platypus swimming around at dusk, viewed great birdlife and saw no-one else for the 3 days. There were no doughnuts anywhere, the camp was very clean and well maintained.

I'm not concerned at all about finding ways to get away from the crowds in the future. Just don't go to the most popular places and you'll enjoy the serenity without the crowds. We are still very free in Australia. Lets keep it real.

TJ..