New Vic national parks laws reveals hidden catch for campers

Victorian Opposition has slammed Premier Allan's promise of no padlocks on public forests as 65,000ha of state forest faces strict new camping and activity restrictions.

About 65,000ha of state forest will be converted into national parks where camping will be restricted to designated sites.

The Victorian Opposition has accused the Allan Government of being “cute with the truth” in claiming the public will not be locked out of 65,000ha of state forest that is about to be converted into three new national parks.

In August last year Ms Allan told the Bush Summit “as a proud country Victorian I won’t be putting a padlock on our public forest”.

But the government recently introduced its Parks and Public Land Legislation Amendment (Central West and Other Matters) Bill 2025, which converts 65,000ha of the Central West’s state forests into three national parks that restrict camping to designated sites, as well as banning firewood collection and prospecting.

Currently the government’s regulations state “you can camp anywhere in a state forest if you set up at least 20m from waterways and stay no longer than 28 consecutive nights”.

But new regulations will apply once the central west forests are converted into the Wombat-Lerderderg, Pyrenees and Mount Buangor National Parks, which state “a person must not camp in a park, other than— (a) in an area set aside under regulation 72”, which is a designated area determined by the land manager.

The park regulations also state “a person must not light or maintain a fire in a park except in a public fireplace or an area set aside under subregulation (2)”, whereby the land manager may set aside an “area of a park in which a person may light or maintain a fire in a place other than a public fireplace”.

The Bill, which is yet to pass parliament’s Upper House, also puts an end to hound hunting of deer by banning off-leash dogs, while also restricting horses and vehicles to designated roads and tracks.

The government has responded by arguing firewood collection and prospecting can continue in state forests outside the parks.

Interestingly the Bill allows firewood collection to continue in an extension to the Bendigo Regional Park, which sits within Premier Allan’s electorate, until July 1, 2029.

Environment and Outdoors Minister Steve Dimopoulos’s office said: “Victorians can keep doing most of the recreational activities they love to do in the Central West national parks, including camping, horse riding, four-wheel driving, dog walking, fishing, seasonal deer hunting and more.”

But Opposition regional development spokeswoman Melina Bath said the Premier and her minister were “being cute with the truth”, when it came to saying the public would not be locked out of these forests.

“Yes it’s true, you will still be able to go into those spaces, but a range of traditional practices are now curtailed. It’s restricting a range of bush user group activities.”

Bush Users Group United founder Bill Schulz said the Premier and her government were “discriminating against people get anything other than firewood for fuel”.

He said Parks Victoria was already so under-resourced that it was closing gates on access tracks, locking users out of forests.