NSW national Parks pricing

[firefox]

Just curious, has anyone seen the new nsw national parks pricing? Worked out with 2 kids and car pass that it's 48 a night. That's no power, nothing other then basic site.

Used to be half the price, is as expensive as a caravan park.?

Getting a lot of interesting feedback on this through Tripigy and industry partners, but have noticed not much comment on here?

Costs now are basically 24 for 2 adults, then 6 per child and 8 day per vehicle.

[tk421]

We usually get the yearly car pass so it makes it a bit cheaper but haven't seen the new pricing. But wouldn't surprise me.  Cashing in on the camping resurgence. But they are starting to provide better amenities in a lot of them which costs money to maintain.

I still believe NSWPS don't actually want people in their parks.

[MarkGU]

Gday Justin.............. thats why we nearly always head out to Brooms Head instead of the closer Redcliff. cheaper for 5 of us to check into the c'van park out there with all facilities rather than the national park.

PS. we are long overdue for a cold one overlooking the pacific ocean at Broom arnt we? 

[Paddler Ed]

Just had a look at some of the local ones here; only a couple have parks entry fees, and most if they charge are $6 per adult, $3.50 per kid. Saying that, I'll stay over the border in QLD as they are cheaper than the NSW one when you go up through the Bald Rock National Park.... and you get more for your money.

I got annoyed when doing my rego renewal on the car, as I couldn't get a discounted parks pass that didn't include the Sydney parks... I have no intention of going to Sydney to go to a national park...

[Bird]

They work on the theory if you don't like it bad luck.

The main reason for it is to push you towards a caravan park.... many council owned surprise surprise..

[alnjan]

when they have their Government funding cut back and told to make their own funding they have no other real means of raising funds for their limited resources

[gronk]

90% of nat parks are free......well they are for me !!       

[Pete79]

You're worried about NSW prices?
Don't come to QLD these days then....

An Annual pass for vehicle entry into every NSW national park will set you back $190 today. That is entry into every single national park in the whole state for a year.

If you're a surfer living in SE QLD and want to surf Double Island point (as I do) it will cost you $242 every year just to drive the 40km of beach to get up there.
Then if you want to have a few camping trips at Fraser each year (as I do, it's only a couple of hours from home why wouldn't I want to sneak over there 4 or 5 times each year), that's another $242 each year.

So for me to be able to jump in my car and visit 2 national parks less then 2 hours from home it will cost me $484 just to get my car in, then there's camping fees on top of that.

That's not including a couple of $48-$46 short term passes to visit Bribie and Moreton.

I've had a NSW all parks pass on my vehicles for the last 10 years or so. It's great value for money I think, even for someone living over the boarder.

But here in QLD there's no option at all to get multi park passes and the individual park access fees are more expensive then your all parks pass.

[Rumpig]

We used to camp a lot in certain Northern NSW National Parks many years ago, the current pricing policy has stopped us doing that as we can camp in Qld Parks and other locations for half that price. A mate showed me a nice spot he was staying at a few months back in Northern NSW, we were going to do a future trip there until I looked at the pricing...as you showed it was pretty much $50 a night for an unpowered site with a composting toilet for us to stay there, which I am not keen to pay. Many modern campers seem happy to pay what ever and think of it as it what it is these days....but it does put me off going there and I personally choose to go elsewhere these days.
The expensive vehicle permit system here in Qld has also stopped me visiting areas such as Bribie Island...I'm happy to pay for a day pass like you can at Teewah Beach, but their one week minimum price is stupid for people not living local to that location. I'll drive past Bribie to Teewah if I want to go to the beach for the day, yes it cost me more in fuel, but it's the principle of it that has me avoid the place.

[KevL]

You're worried about NSW prices?
Don't come to QLD these days then....

An Annual pass for vehicle entry into every NSW national park will set you back $190 today. That is entry into every single national park in the whole state for a year.

If you're a surfer living in SE QLD and want to surf Double Island point (as I do) it will cost you $242 every year just to drive the 40km of beach to get up there.
Then if you want to have a few camping trips at Fraser each year (as I do, it's only a couple of hours from home why wouldn't I want to sneak over there 4 or 5 times each year), that's another $242 each year.

So for me to be able to jump in my car and visit 2 national parks less then 2 hours from home it will cost me $484 just to get my car in, then there's camping fees on top of that.

That's not including a couple of $48-$46 short term passes to visit Bribie and Moreton.

I've had a NSW all parks pass on my vehicles for the last 10 years or so. It's great value for money I think, even for someone living over the boarder.

But here in QLD there's no option at all to get multi park passes and the individual park access fees are more expensive then your all parks pass.

Aren't all those costs associated with vehicle permits to drive on beaches / Islands?
As far a I know entry to all Qld national parks is free. Introducing annual passes would just mean additional costs to those of us that never visit or take a vehicle into coastal/ island National parks.

[Pete79]

Aren't all those costs associated with vehicle permits to drive on beaches / Islands?
As far a I know entry to all Qld national parks is free. Introducing annual passes would just mean additional costs to those of us that never visit or take a vehicle into coastal/ island National parks.

Yes, they are beach access fees.
If you want to surf/camp at Fraser Is, Double Island point, Bribie Island or Moreton Island you have to pay separate fees for each one.
You can get daily/weekly/monthly as well as annual passes.

The current beach access fees are clearly just a money grab.

While I don't agree with these fees in principle, I would accept paying a beach access permit if I could access all beaches.

To me $250 per year should give you access to all QLD parks that charge vehicle entry fees.

[Traveller]

90% of nat parks are free......well they are for me !!       

This is quite interesting. Being a Victorian (alright stop the heckling) our NP fees, thankfully, are still $0 I believe. Therefore when staying in the NSW NPs (or SA NPs) I don't mind paying to be able to camp there in a clean, well maintained camping area, unlike a lot in Vic. We try to combine NPs with free camping if we can, but more places are being closed due to the grub/deadhead factor which quite often only leaves the NPs as a place to stop.

We recently pulled up in Fort Grey, and as I was walking back to the trailer from paying the fee ($20 including the pair of us @$6 each and the vehicle for $8) the Parks Ranger turned up and we had a good yarn for quite a while. He had come to check out the dunnies and bbqs, and he seemed like a really nice guy.

When paying the fee, there was a sign there saying something like less than 20% of all NP users pay their fee in NSW (I don't know if this is what Gronk was referring to), but I thought how much cheaper the fees could be if all users actually coughed up. Maybe the authorities should just go back to the thought of taxing all fourby owners so those that actually get out of the cities would be partly sponsored by those that don't.

Just my thoughts.

[rags]

Yes, they are beach access fees.
If you want to surf/camp at Fraser Is, Double Island point, Bribie Island or Moreton Island you have to pay separate fees for each one.
You can get daily/weekly/monthly as well as annual passes.

The current beach access fees are clearly just a money grab.

While I don't agree with these fees in principle, I would accept paying a beach access permit if I could access all beaches.

To me $250 per year should give you access to all QLD parks that charge vehicle entry fees.

The worst part about having all these permits is that it gets hard for the passenger to see out the windscreen for stickers being in the way. And then there is the problem of they all need to be in the bottom left hand corner.
Yes I would be happy for a one sticker suits all QLD parks like NSW. As like a beach driving permit the NSW is a access permit. Also the NSW sticker was provided to RFS members for free.

[Rumpig]

We recently pulled up in Fort Grey, and as I was walking back to the trailer from paying the fee ($20 including the pair of us @$6 each and the vehicle for $8)

that's there is the thing I don't get with NSW National Parks, there's no consistency in their fee pricing. If you were to camp at say Pebbly Beach for instance, it would cost $12 a night per adult, as well as the vehicle entry fee. As far as I am aware it's the one price no matter what park you visit here in Qld.

[Homerj]

This is quite interesting. Being a Victorian (alright stop the heckling) our NP fees, thankfully, are still $0 I believe. Therefore when staying in the NSW NPs (or SA NPs) I don't mind paying to be able to camp there in a clean, well maintained camping area, unlike a lot in Vic. We try to combine NPs with free camping if we can, but more places are being closed due to the grub/deadhead factor which quite often only leaves the NPs as a place to stop.


No they're not.  Many national park campgrounds start at $25 a night and increase during peak periods.  Some that were $13 a night have gone back to being free. 

[Traveller]

No they're not.  Many national park campgrounds start at $25 a night and increase during peak periods.  Some that were $13 a night have gone back to being free.

This is quite interesting. I had heard about how a lot of the parks had a fee that was overturned, but I was unaware of the $25 fees. Thanks for the heads up. I have had a look at the Parks website and was alarmed at the number of parks where you do have to pay.

In May this year I headed up onto the Circuit Road, and as we were going through the winter toll gates we were stopped by a Parks representative to do a survey about park access fees, as they were thinking of introducing them like other states, so they are certainly after the dollar from four-wheel drivers.

[chisel]

If you go to Fraser or Moreton Island for 4 nights and have a family of four then you're basically paying $40 per night when you divide the vehicle permit by the 3 nights.
Of course the ferry plus fuel costs (from brisbane) are a lot higher than the camping+vehicle permit fees.

[Bird]

lots where you pay..

http://www.parkstay.vic.gov.au/

surely this is incorrect - $393.90 a night?
is that $2700 a week?
http://www.parkstay.vic.gov.au/murray-sunset-national-park-shearers-quarters#/accom/66331

[Rumpig]

If you go to Fraser or Moreton Island for 4 nights and have a family of four then you're basically paying $40 per night when you divide the vehicle permit by the 3 nights.
Of course the ferry plus fuel costs (from brisbane) are a lot higher than the camping+vehicle permit fees.

Calculating it at 3 days makes it seem worse then it is, if you go for longer it's not so bad. Fraser and Moreton have one month permits that cost $48.25, that's good value compared to Bribie which is $46.25 for a week. Does NSW do monthly passes or just day and annual passes? because at $8 a day vehicle pass it would be around $240 for a similar one month pass. Obviously there's annual passes there to be considered as an option also.

[Pete79]

NSW give you options for their annual passes.
$65 per year for all parks except Kosciusko.
$190 per year including Kosciusko.

When we lived on the Gold Coast we got the cheap one. When we lived in Sydney we got the full price one.

4 trips to the snowies (2 camping  over Easter and 2 skiing trips) and it worked out to be good value.

Now we're back on the Sunshine Coast we're debating if it's worth it or not.
Though we've already done the boarder ranges earlier this year and planning another trip over the boarder next month, so I guess it is almost worth it again.


With regards to the monthly pass for the SEQ beaches; that's ok for camping trips. But I want to go for a surf whenever conditions are good. It should be economical for locals to get a pass that I can jump in my vehicle and go up there whenever I feel like it.
Besides, it's not like national parks actually maintain anything at Double Island point.