An outdoor influencer rallied against higher camping fees – and 23,000 people responded

A social media campaign pushed by a prominent outdoor influencer has led to 23,000 submissions mostly slamming proposed fees for pitching a tent in NSW national parks, despite the Victorian government being forced to backflip on an attempt to offer free camping.

The campaign by Michael Atkinson, known as Outback Mike, was so effective it garnered a mention by NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe in parliament.

“I want particularly to give a shout-out to Outback Mike, who has helped generate over 23,000 submissions about this,” Sharpe said, in question time late last month.

Michael Atkinson, aka Outback Mike, is a former airforce pilot and camping enthusiast who led a campaign against proposed changes to camping fees.Credit: Dean Sewell

“This is important. It shows how much we love our national parks and how much people love camping.”

The proposal put out by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to implement a six-tiered pricing structure was billed as a solution to end “ghost bookings”, where people book out a free or cheap campsite but don’t show up.

This has been a persistent problem in Victoria after its state government announced all camping in its national parks would be free, but the most popular spots still required a booking online. The policy change led to people reserving sites just in case, and many popular campgrounds near Melbourne were half-empty over summer and Easter.

The Victorian government has now cancelled the policy and reverted to half-price fees, as revealed in budget papers and reported by this masthead.

Victorian National Parks Association campaigner Jordan Crook said there were about 1000 campsites across Victoria and the booking system applied only to the 110 that campers previously had to pay for, while others were first come, first served. While it was free for consumers, the government paid the fee to Parks Victoria.

Crook said Parks Victoria had been starved of funding for years, including a $95 million cut last year, and the free booking system imposed a burden on rangers.

The NSW government wants to tackle “ghost bookings”, where campers reserve a spot but don’t show up.Credit: Dean Sewell

“They’d have to monitor the campsites more than they were, and then sometimes it was turning into fisticuffs, when people didn’t turn up, but people still camped in their spots,” Crook said.

“There were a lot of issues, a lot of dumped rubbish, fires left alone, and the potential for bush fires. It looked good on paper, but in action with a park service that’s so degraded and not looked after by the state, it was always going to fall in a heap.”

NSW has 360 campsites in national parks, as well as free camping in state forests managed by Forestry Corporation of NSW.

In NSW, the online backlash has centred on whether the fees for national parks are too high. While the proposal would introduce a free tier for a bare patch of earth, a basic campsite with a pit toilet would be $22 a night in high season, while sites with the most facilities – including a hot shower – would be $89 a night.

Atkinson, an outdoor creator whose video posts on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube have garnered millions of views, has been campaigning against the price rises. Now that submissions have closed, he has switched to pushing an online petition.

Atkinson acknowledged that ghost bookings are a big issue – a video he posted in July last year showed a campground in Kosciuszko National Park that was booked out, yet had four out of five sites empty – but said making camping unaffordable was not the way to fix it.

He recently posted a video about how the price to pitch a tent at Woody Head campground in Bundjalung National Park was more expensive than renting a three-bedroom house in the nearby town.

Atkinson said only about 30 per cent of campgrounds had a booking system before the COVID-19 pandemic, while most were free and first come, first served.

NPWS expanded the booking system to cover every campsite as a pandemic measure, though keeping prices for the formerly free locations low. Like in Victoria, the ease of online reservations increased “ghost bookings”.

“They didn’t have a ghost booking problem before COVID happened,” Atkinson said. “The only way to make a booking system work is to make it expensive – but, if you do that, you block out anyone below middle income, and young people are just going to be completely discouraged, so that is a very poor solution.”

He said it would be better for the basic campsites to be free, without a booking system – a proposal NPWS argues would encourage people to physically block out campsites by erecting tents early. Atkinson said the practical hurdles kept this problem in check, and added that NPWS should expand campsite capacity to meet demand anyway.

Former NPWS park ranger Louisa Andersen, who posts content online as “Ranger Louie” and is now based in Western Australia, said she had concerns about the prices.

“How are people meant to care about the environment and parks and natural places if they can’t afford to experience it?” Andersen said.

“Rangers don’t get discounts either … and I just can’t wrap my head around or justify paying that much.”

Sergey Kolotsey of Baulkham Hills made a submission proposing to solve the ghost booking problem without raising fees by asking people to pay a deposit that would be refunded if they checked in using a QR code at the campsite.

The NSW National Parks Association submission recommended merging the lower pricing tiers, since the costs of managing a wholly unserviced site, sites with pit toilets, and sites with pit toilets and a table were all minimal.

The non-government organisation expressed surprise that there was no benchmarking of best practice across the nation, since many bushwalkers and campers travel from state to state.

“Queensland and South Australia have simplified their fee structure and remain competitive with regional caravan parks,” the submission says.

“By contrast this NSW proposal is overly complex … all while charging considerably more than nearby caravan parks.”

Sharpe told this masthead the consultation was “about having a genuine conversation on how to fix persistent issues” and no decisions had been made.

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