Park overflow at Wineglass Bay questions need for visitor management

Tasmania’s hot spots are being swamped by keen nature lovers, resulting in parking chaos at one much-loved site. But adding a bigger car park might not be the solution >>

Visitor management is a balance between community needs and tourism.

A ticketing system should be considered to prevent peak season overcrowding in Tasmania’s world-famous national parks says the Freycinet Action Network.

The call follows parking chaos at Freycinet National Park during the first weekend of 2025. Cars had nowhere to park and were forced to pull over along the natural corridor leading into the car park. Freycinet National Park has gained worldwide fame for it’s spectacular mountains and pristine Wineglass Bay beach.

Visitors took to social media to express frustration while industry bodies said visitor management measures were in the works. But concerns have been raised about introducing new infrastructure like expanded car parks.

Freycinet Action Network founder Sophie Underwood said the influx of cars was an example of the “peak times” when people could not get a park.

Sophie Underwood, Freycinet Action Network founder. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE.

But she said the “majority of the time”, this wasn’t the case.

“A lot of the year, we don’t have as many people visiting in the first place,” Ms Underwood said.

Ms Underwood said plans for a new car park and visitor centre would mean destroying an area of biodiversity.

“We’d rather see a better visitor management flow through ticketing,” she said.

Ms Underwood said the existing infrastructure should be redeveloped rather than “destroying what is beautiful” about Freycinet.

While she said there needed to be a “balance” between tourism sector and community, growth in the area needed to be managed carefully.

East Coast Regional Tourism chair Jen Fry said while people have called out crowding in the parks, it was important to have hard thresholds before introducing visitor number caps.

“Car spaces, sewerage, load limits on lookouts,” she said.

“When we reach thresholds, then we start to manage visitors.”

Cars parked along nature park on January 3 showing peak season

Ms Fry said visitor numbers could be managed through timing and trip patterns by introducing bus only car parks and a visitor centre.

A Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service spokesperson said summer was a busy period for their parks and reserves.

They said works are on the way to “reduce vehicle movement and congestion” within Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park through the Freycinet Visitor Gateway Project.

The $19.7m project will be jointly funded with a $14m commitment by the Tasmanian government and $5.7m from the federal government under its National Tourism Icons Program.

The spokesperson said in 2024 approximately 280,000 visited the park, still 40,000 fewer than pre-Covid numbers.

Visitation numbers show an overall increase in visitor numbers in 2023-2024 with record numbers for Mount Field, Hastings Caves and Thermal Springs and Maria Island.

Despite the overall increase, there were three national park locations with decreased visitor numbers from the previous year including Freycinet, Gordon River and Lake St Clair.

The East Coast Regional Tourism organisation is launching a Positive Impact Plan to work with community members to find a balance between perceived crowding and tourism.

Originally published as Park overflow at Wineglass Bay questions need for visitor management