Rest Areas or Free Camps? Part 3 – The Options

In this, the third of a three part series, Keith Thompson looks at the other options for short overnight stops, or perhaps a little longer.

There are many other Free Camp options in the form of locally managed Picnic Areas, Fishing Camps, Dams, Forests and some National Parks, as well as specific council provided RV Stops in an increasing number of towns and villages. Here is the old one at Tully in Queensland (since relocated) which is free; you do have to catch grey water but the dump point is at the gate (this is not uncommon).

In respect of Full Range Camping, where this article was originally published, these are all included in FRC’s “Free Camps” category.  Note that we include here those which ask for a small donation;  if they have a fixed fee of $10 or more however they become “Campgrounds” (Sometimes the distinction is narrow!)
Searching Free Camps by selecting a large radius on the website or using the Map search on the App (Premium members) will turn up various options in many areas; town RV stops like the above is only one of them.  There are river bank sites, dams and even Showgrounds which are free in some small communities.
If you want to expand your options there are many sites in our Campgrounds category which are low cost, see comment above.

This Free Camp is at Bogan Weir, only 7km off the Newell Highway at Peak Hill; this is a large area with some water frontage, shelters and bins.

Problem Areas:

The use of Gravel Pits as an overnight stop is another controversial issue and in fact illegal everywhere as these areas are essentially “Crown Land” or “Crown Reserves” (all road reserves are Crown land from fence to fence). In all States (except Tasmania), of which WA is one, it is illegal to camp anywhere outside of an approved area, this is part of the WA legislation which expands this to areas which may be “off road” as well:
“access to unallocated crown land and unmanaged reserves by vehicle is limited to roads, tracks and designated parking areas, and people are only permitted to camp in an area designated for camping”

All other States except SA (and Tasmania) have similar legislation, mostly placing a licence or permit system in the hands of councils, National Parks and other authorities; on the other hand South Australia has this:
“Camping:
You are permitted to camp on unalienated (sic. unallocated) Crown land for a limited time. Camping or occupying Crown land for a period longer than three weeks is an offence and penalties may be imposed.”

The downside to this is knowing if there is any “unalienated” Crown land where you are. Please note that other legislation including Native Title may also impact on this.

Conclusion:

Confused?  Yes we all are but the solution is to take advice from reliable sources of information such as Full Range Camping.  Be wary of information shared in forums and apps which has not been verified.  We are currently (Feb 2018) undertaking an update of all our Rest Areas which may allow overnight stays, and converting these to our Free Camping category; the Eastern States and SA have been completed.  Please take note of this distinction in our listings, “Rest Area” unless updated by us to “Free Camp” infers no overnight stays; we are always happy to receive any corrections to this for an individual site, just use the “Comments” or “Contact” form.   Your comments will not be published without being reviewed and not published if we verify and make the changes to the site listing. Please note that we do not list Truck only areas.

Can We All Help?

Yes we can; please be respectful of the Truck Parking requirements, please keep all Free Camp areas clean and tidy and respect the regulations in place whenever possible.  We all know it is easy to “play the fatigue card” and at times it may be necessary to do so.  However, careful trip planning using resources like Full Range Camping can ensure that you stop for the night (or longer) at an appropriate and safe location.
If we all respect the facilities which are being provided for us we should expect these to improve over time, the more these roadside facilities are abused, the more they will be restricted or removed from us.

The Future?
We understand that a National review of the provision and use of roadside areas is being undertaken by a government appointed committee and we would all applaud some uniform regulations – preferably in our favour of course!

One example of a really great Free Camp on the Bruce Highway North of Townsville; Bluewater Park has water, toilets and a Dump Point with a 48 hour limit:

Useful links:

Queensland Dept. of Transport:
https://publications.qld.gov.au/dataset/guide-to-queensland-roads/resource/84321993-796b-4d5a-ba79-e6128140b4df

Main Roads Western Australia:
https://mainroads.wa.gov.au/UsingRoads/TouringWAMaps/Pages/RestAreas.aspx

Northern Territory:
https://nt.gov.au/driving/safety/road-rest-stops-in-nt

VicRoads: (Interactive Map)
https://vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/driver-safety/fatigue/restareas-map

South Australia:
https://data.sa.gov.au/data/dataset/rest-areas

http://coastshop.com.au/maps/rest_areas/SA_restmaps.pdf

New South Wales RMS:
http://rms.nsw.gov.au/roads/using-roads/trip-information/rest-areas/index.html

Disclaimer: Any information contained in this article which may imply a legal requirement is sourced from freely available published documentation from various relevant authorities.