Australia is fast heading towards a complete lockdown, meaning that we should all be staying home to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
With Australia quickly heading towards a full-blown lockdown, we thought it imperative to let you know what the state of the camping and caravan rules are to this point, with our camping and caravanning wrap up.
Camping
Camping in national parks has been closed off across essentially the entire country. Regardless of whether the campsite is empty, or packed out on the weekend, the various national parks bodies have closed down the entire country. This is inline with the advice coming out of Canberra, surrounding social distancing and that many in Australia are just ignoring the advice and decisions that have been made.
Certain state forests have been closed; specifically in Queensland and Victoria, however, the national park closure only took place this morning in New South Wales, we’re expecting State Forests NSW to follow suit at some time today and lockdown their camping areas as well.
Caravanning
Caravanners have been harder hit, with many of the council-owned and private caravan parks simply shutting the doors to any ‘non-essential’ travellers. Many are remaining open, albeit in a much-limited capacity. The kids playgrounds are closed off, pools are shut down, even the communal bbq and camp kitchens in many are shut off. These are only open to those who need the accommodation for work, or for those with no other place to go.
It won’t be long, we’d wager, that with the ongoing restrictions around ‘stopping all non-essential travel’, if you’ve got a caravan or camper on the back of your four-wheel drive, you may get a bit of heat from the local constabulary, questioning whether or not you really are undertaking ‘essential travel’.
Travelling
Travel is still open within each state at this stage, however with everyone expected to consider whether the travel they’re planning is, in fact, essential. You can’t however cross borders into other states such as Queensland unless for very specific, essential travel. National Parks and state forests roads are remaining open to travel through them, however aside from say the Kosciusko National Park, there are more often than not easier ways to get to places, rather than through a national park.
At the end of the day, we would suggest wherever possible, stay home, settle in, and do some work on the four-wheel drive, caravan, or camper over the coming months. The sooner we can get through this, the sooner we’ll get out the other side.
