No real action will be taken to avoid a repeat of the ‘ghost camping’ situation for the Easter School holidays.

Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, said over the peak Christmas holiday period there were close to 50% of camping sites vacant due to Government mismanagement which allowed:

• Campers to book out multiple sites at different locations in more than one family members’ name and then choosing one spot without cancelling the others.
• Campers booking out adjacent sites to the one they occupied under different family members’ names, so as not to have any neighbours.
• Campers booking a site in advance, but then simply not turning up and not notifying Parks Victoria.

“At locations like Cape Conran and Corringle, at times the camping areas were just over or less than half full, when in peak holiday time they are always full. This impacts our local economy and has less people enjoying the outdoors.

“There were cases of campers turning up and being refused a site despite multiple being vacant. Parks’ staff were forced to turn them away as these sites had been ‘booked’.

“I suggested to the Minister options that could be considered including:

• Paying a refundable deposit that would be returned on occupation of the site.
• Having campers pay half price over the peak holiday period, while keeping camping free in the shoulder and off-peak periods when areas are not full, or
• As they do in Queensland, issue a fine if the site is not occupied without good reason.

“Unfortunately the Minister has not chosen to adopt any of these easy fix solutions, and has chosen to:

• Reduce the number of campsites that can be booked in a single transaction (this will not assist as in most cases different family members were doing the bookings at different times).
• Send reminders to campers seven days out from booking date and again 48 hours prior to the booking date to encourage campers to cancel their booking if they decide not to go camping (reminders were already in place over Christmas).
• Active marketing and social media campaign to discourage “ghost” camping (with Easter imminent, no-one I know has seen this).

“What we are going to end up with again is more vacant sites over the Easter holiday period. Other states that had made camping free, forecast this problem and addressed it.

“Despite this, the Allan Labor Government failed to identify the issues and now knowingly refuses to introduce the easy fix that is required,” he said.

Caption: State Nationals Gippsland East MP Tim Bull, says there must be no repeat of empty (yet booked) Parks Victoria campsites this Easter.

Monday, 7 April 2025