Freecamping for the uninitiated
First up freecamping is about as far removed from the uninformed misconception as it could possible get. Brace yourself; freecamping is generally structured, easily accessible, often not free, very safe and very very unlikely to ever be found without a crowd of other freecamping caravaners just like you; all in search of that elusive freecamp where other people just like you … aren’t.
My elderly (tour guided, 5 star, Hyatt holidaying, never camping) parents were horrified when they discovered years ago that we would risk our very lives freecamping in all manner of dark, savage, unchartered and lawless places including off the side of the road where we all know axe murderers are thick on the ground and patiently waiting for our arrival.
My parents like many other people have this mental picture firmly implanted as their well meaning but completely uninformed impressions of freecamping.
The reality of freecamping is that its likely to be much more like this …. (note the hordes of other victims)
Its by no means a coincidence that freecamping used to be just that, free-camping, camping for free. Add a little bureaucracy, a touch of greed, some stupidity, and some narrow-mindedness and we arrive at what freecamping is today … a different animal all together. At some point, and with a lot of input and definition manipulation by caravan magazines, the term has somehow morphed into Freedom Camping, whatever the hell that term is supposed to mean. Freecamping now seems to be anything that doesn’t have a Big4 sign out the front, regardless of whether it has a cost attached or not.
The idea of true free camping will evoke a vastly different mental picture to different people dependent on whether they’ve previously experienced freecamping or not and dependant on what that freecamping entailed. To the uninitiated, freecamping maybe just randomly plonking off the side of the highway down a random track somewhere between there and nowhere and is a leap of faith in a lawless, dangerous, unknown unchartered abyss which includes a hand written invitation to cuddle up with Ivan Milat or Bradley Murdoch. To the seasoned traveller freecamping is that elusive Utopia we yearn to find where a wonderful remote or isolated camp is completely devoid of other people … Im told they do exist and I’m damned if Ill stop looking.
This is the view of a couple of freescamps of ours in north western Australia 100s of km of dirt road from the nearest remote town … and we could barely open the van door.
To many like us freecamping is our 1st choice, but to others freecamping is more of just an economical overnighter enroute to a distant location. Our van has everything a overnight caravan park could offer us, and I personally struggle to justify paying $30, $40 or even $50 per night just to park my van when I can park up the road at no cost with the identical facilities because I just happen to be dragging those facilities along behind me.
Freecamping is easy and very much within the grasp of everyone. Freecamping doesnt require anything more elaborate than a virgin fully on-road touring model caravan. Every caravan comes from the factory with everything thats required for a couple of nights freecamping, bed, water tank, and gas fridge. Freecamping doesnt have to mean days of driving on bone jarring 4×4 bush bashing tracks just to get there, it can easily mean just an overnighter in a roadside rest area. You are only limited by how remote we can or are prepared to go, how long you can or want to stay wherever you do go, and how many modern comforts you want to bring along with you. Freecamp accessibility ranges from wonderful modern clean well appointed purpose built road side rest areas, to remote chassis bending isolated northern Australian indigenous communities where you’ll run a very real risk of damaging something.
With a little preparation, realistic knowledge and being properly equipped, freecamping is a very safe, rewarding, comfortable and a wonderfully cost effective way to travel. Much, much more often then not freecamping is generally amongst any number of like minded friendly people and can also find you in some of the most beautiful and picturesque locations around the country.
Preparation is the key to success and we as individuals are the only real hurdle to our own successful freecamping experience. Everything we would have laid on in a caravan park which we expect to have, use and eat whilst freecamping needs to be provided by us in order to enjoy an issue free freecamping experience. Just like a caravan park we’re going to want shade, water, power, refrigeration, cooling, and heating available. With all these boxes ticked freecamping is not hugely different from the perspective of the immediate surrounds of the caravan, to a caravan parked in any caravan park. In our 20ft van we have everything we require for off the grid freecamping that we would have when hooked up in a caravan park … except a $60 a night jumping pillow which my knees moan at just seeing it
A popular misconception regarding freecamping that we certainly subscribed to before we knew better is that freecamping all happens somewhere down some mysterious random and unknown dirt track that we happen across. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the reality is surprisingly different than the perception we otherwise may have. Freecamping is almost always in specific areas purposely set aside by an authority of some description such as a local council, state Govt and maybe a farmer. Freecamps are generally well signed, well known and constantly occupied. Some freecamps are set up and maintained with long drop toilets (including toilet paper), rubbish bins and picnic tables, and sometimes showers. Others are just truck rest areas which are large enough to provide plenty of space to share, and others in ore remote places such as the Nullarbor are just random networks of tracks off the highway and into the vast scrub.
There are of course some remote, more random spots if you explore and look hard enough, but they are not so common and becoming less so every day.
Some freecamps are of course better than others; some are simply breathtaking and left us gobsmacked, some just as memorable due to their remoteness which is what we personally treasure and some memorable because they are disgusting over flowing with rubbish and toilet paper blowing about.. Freecamping ranges from flat vacant blocks of land in the middle of a town such as Tiaro in QLD or Kalgoorlie in WA, to the end of remote bone shaking goat tracks and everything in between. One of our favourite freecamps is on a dirt road that a Toyota Prius would be happy driving on. Another was a 4 hour torturous horror track that saw us loose our oven, dislodge our fridge and jettison our table to the other end of the van; and once we got there there were many other large caravans disappointingly already lined up side by side reminiscent of a local Big4 caravan park.
A great example of a freecamp is Mary Pool in Western Australia, just off the Northern Highway between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek. The huge area is a true “free” freecamp over the Mary River causeway. The camp has long drop toilets and is a magnet for freecampers with some staying just overnight and others dug in for the long haul. Mary Pool is very well known, very popular and very over subscribed. On one overnighter at Mary Pool we stopped counting at 80 vans and campers, and they just kept rolling on in well after dark.
Rolling along the Nullarbor and nearing the bewitching hour (that time the wildlife starts to move about) we headed south off the highway and into the scrub for the night. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, 100s of kms of nothing and 10s of 1000s of hectares of empty fenceless scrub in both directions. We were 150mtrs off the highway and invisible, so we thought. An hour later another large van pulled in to the same nameless track out of the hundreds available, pulled up within 30mtrs of us and pitched camp. We were dumbfounded, the intrusion was either arrogance or a newby looking for the security of other people … we hoped it was the later and thats ok. Had he pulled in 15 minutes earlier he would have found me enjoying nature pants down, shovel in hand and waving.
Water is the true equaliser for all freecampers and we have an article dedicated to all things water. We can carry plenty of food, but its the water that dictates the amount of time we can stay off the grid. Freecamping is possible for everyone and everyone can do it to a level, location and extent that suits them. Once you break the freecamping seal, youll be constantly amazed and surprised with the 1000’s of offerings available.