Some thoughts on National Parks in WA

Discussion about the need to book campsites in Qld National Parks led us to reflect on our recent experiences camping in some national parks along the south coast of WA. Over the past month we have camped in the following NPs:

Fitzgerald River (at St Mary Inlet near Point Ann) – most sites were occupied.

Cape le Grand (le Grand Beach) where some sites were vacant, but Lucky Bay was very busy, despite the weather being wet and windy.

Cape Arid NP where we stayed in the new NP campground. There were a few vacancies there, but the more sheltered “Council” camping area seemed quite busy.

We also had a quick look at newish campgrounds in the eastern end of Fitzgerald River NP near Hopetoun, which was nearly empty, and at Stokes NP which had only a few sites occupied .

All these parks have campgrounds with individual campsites (except for Lucky Bay), toilets, showers (Cape le Grand), and camp kitchens. Some allow limited generator use, while most prohibit campfires.

At St Marys Inlet and Cape le Grande rangers called each day to collect fees, while at the other parks this was the responsibility of the camp hosts. Camp hosts are volunteers who have been given some training for their role. As well as collecting fees they also do maintenance and cleaning and assist with projects around the park. On previous trips we have found camp hosts at the Stirling Ranges, Kennedy Range and Kalbarri NPs and have been impressed by them and the work they do.

The Fitzgerald River NP is having some major work done, as proclaimed by large (but undated) signs. Access roads are being sealed (although internal roads were quite corrugated) and new campgrounds and day use areas at the eastern end have been built. WA must have quite a generous budget for its national parks but the priorities for expenditure had us puzzled and a bit concerned.

Sealed roads will undoubtedly encourage more visitors and more vehicles including caravans (as already happens at Lucky Bay). However the new campgrounds have very small sites and are marked as “car based camping”. It would be difficult to fit a camper trailer into most of those sites and caravans would certainly not fit. It is to be hoped that the delightful St Marys campground is not similarly “upgraded” once the road sealing is completed.

We were astonished to see the acres of empty car parks at the new day use area near Hopetoun and the extravagant landscaping and sculptures there. My guess is that this area could get busy over the summer holiday period, but the rest of the time..? Likewise the new picnic shelters and camp kitchens look great with abundant stainless steel (mixed with galvanised steel and aluminium (?) so look forward to quick deterioration via galvanic action). We are not against functional facilities but maybe some of the dollars spent on these day use areas could be redirected to extending the camping areas or improving park maintenance.

The overall impression we had was that the intention is to discourage overnight or longer visits – if you are not set up to camp in a tent then best come as a day visitor only. Hopefully our impressions are wrong.

Cheers,

Val