Never booking over the phone for National Parks camping again.

G’day Sharon,
I’m finding there are more sites being restricted to tents only with numerous sites that used to accommodate camper trailers being bollard off. It appears National Parks Queensland favours tent camping where you carry your belongings from the car. I think this has been commented on before on this forum or maybe the myswag.org/forum.
I always book over the net as there is usually a description on what the site will accommodate, though I haven’t checked to see whether this is the case with the area you booked.
Regards,
Myles.

We to think the phone booking idea is useless. On our way to cape york last year we were told by the information centre about a campground which had self registration(can't remember the name) When we got there we found a sign that said you have to phone and book. Great, no reception. Rang on the sat phone but couldn't get any sense from the person on the other end so we gave up and went somewhere else that we could just book in to.
We also went out to 1770. Infomation centre told about a nice camp spot on the beach, again told self registration. Got down there about 1 1/2 drive to find a sign saying you need to booked by phone. We did the right thing and rang. Person on other end says computers are down, you will have to find a ranger. I asked where the nearest ranger would be, the response was "I don't have that kinda information, you will just have to look for one".
We stayed 2 nights free as we couldn't find a ranger, we looked for one honest lol.
We did comment on the fact that most sites are now tent camping only and not accomodating for trailers or vans.
Thats why we try to go bush and get away from all that

Josh

Hi Sharon.

During a recent conversation with an NP ranger, it was made clear to me that NP's preference is for campers that are "low impact". In other words those that bring their camping gear in on their back.

Wim

I too have been told after booking online and then calling re: permits that the paper permits will be available at the campsites, which they aren't! Got an infringement notice on the tent a couple of weeks ago and came across the friendly Ranger later that day- he said it had happened to more people than he could count and he had a supply of paper permits with him.

He did mention that after 4pm QLD time the NPWS/DERM office is manned by temp staff who aren't likely to have local knowledge, and it's best to ring before then!

Admittedly a while back, but I rang ahead to book a campsite (tent) somewhere in N.Qld. It took nearly 20 mins on the mobile as this newbie on the other end tried to sort out their computer system. I think the phone call cost about twice the cost of the campsite. The recommended site turned out to be the worst of those available. And the rest were empty apart from one latecomer.
Gerry

I thought it was just us, bad luck. Seems we are not alone.

Red Rock Camp Site.

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Come stay in Victoria. Generally great staff with accurate advice I've found. They are just about to remove the entry fees to all Victorian Parks in July! Majority of campsites are camper trailer freindly too. Over Easter we headed up to the Murray Sunset National Park. Large open campsites, many with new BBQ fire places, water tanks & even firewood provided ............. all for free :-)

"Parks Victoria welcomes Premier John Brumby's announcement that entry to all of Victoria's national parks and metropolitan parks will be made free of charge to encourage people to get active in the great outdoors."
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Cheers Craig..............

Try booking Lawn Hill - pays yer money and book a site weeks in advance to find out that they either:

1. overbook and/or
2. don't verify bookings and don't patrol

The net effect arriving at around 5pm after a long and fairly exhausting drive to find there's no campsites left for vehicles.... and they don't give a flying toss.

Old man (who's a grumpy bugger at the best of times) managed to do some 'superficial' damage ;-) to the grassed area with the overloaded 80's series and trailer (not to mention a few grunge marks from my HJ47 !!)

Serves them right......

Hi Sharon

I had planned to boycott the Queensland on line park booking system - for which the phone is an alternative. We travel in an unplanned fashion, and of course when you get to a park you are usually out of Next G range. We also like to see we can fit our long rig in before paying. Bollards often preclude us. However we did not want to miss out on seeing some of the parks while we were there just to protest.

Places like Lawn Hill and Carnarvon Gorge we had to stay at private parks, so we visited them without worrying about access.

First park we would have stayed at was Porcupine Gorge. I asked at the Hughenden visitor centre and was told that half the camp sites were book on line and the other half on site self registration. The map she gave me gave no indication of size or access, so we camped roadside instead.

We wanted to go to the Mt Moffatt park and choose to book online. The camp ground was open and roomy with not many campers, and it was some kilometres on a sandy track to register at the ranger station as there was no self registration at the entrance to the park or to the camp ground. We booked on line from Injune CP. Our neighbouring caravanner also planned to visit with friends travelling in company. They tried ringing without success on the specified booking number, and the Parks Department Offices in the area, but it was out of office hours and into the weekend. Their friends then made the on line booking for them. Someone came into the camp ground later in the day found they had to go to the ranger station to register; hence they had to set up their tent in the dark because of the unplanned deviation. I don’t know which is sillier – the on line system or not having the self registration at the entrance to the camp ground or park entrance.

Next we booked for Girraween as it was school holidays, and the weekend was fully booked. There are only a few spots suitable for caravans. We booked for the two available nights to make sure we got in, stayed at a caravan park not far away overnight so we got in during the morning to secure a place. Lucky we did, as by early afternoon all the caravan sites were gone and we were packed in tightly. It made sense to be able to book in these circumstances, and well as to know what the situation was. We would have liked three nights there, but knew ahead that we couldn’t.

As you discovered, the system does not give you enough choices to specify your size or type or rig, so booking up front is a gamble. I hope you got your money back. Have you written to Qld Parks to complain?

Motherhen