Caravan family discovers hidden Aussie 'paradise' as free camping continues to 'disappear'
Mark and Clem have been touring the country in their caravan since 2020 and recently stayed for free at an 'amazing' beachfront spot.
An Australian family who have travelled all over the country in their caravan, say they've noticed "free camping disappearing" throughout their four years on the road. So they were pleasantly surprised to have discovered a hidden "paradise" which is still free for Aussies looking to pitch a tent for a night or two — or, like them, a couple of weeks.
Originally from Perth, travellers Mark and Clem ditched their nine-to-five jobs for what was supposed to be a one-year trip around the country. But after falling in love with Australia's landscape and the freeing lifestyle, they have no immediate plans to settle.
Since 2020, when they began their Aussie adventure, the pair — who have embarked on their journey with their two children and two dogs — say they've noticed a decline in the number of free campgrounds on offer across the country.
"A lot of places are now becoming regulated," Mark told Yahoo News Australia. The former West Aussies said a number of factors are at play which vary largely from area to area.
"We don't really have a problem with it because some people definitely take free camping for granted and leave the place in a mess," he said — an issue Yahoo News has touched on previously. "So putting some regulations in place isn't a bad thing."
Aussie family discovers 'free camping at its finest'
But the family was shocked to discover what they described as "free camping at its finest" recently after coming across Point Brown on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia.
"Point Brown was amazing and is completely free. There were no facilities whatsoever — you take away what you bring in," Mark explained. "We just sat there metres from the beach with no obligations, no regulations, no nothing. It was just amazing. It just ticked all our boxes for us."
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The couple came across the spot on Wikicamps — an Australian camping and caravanning travel app — and said it's the perfect place for four-wheel drivers. "[It] was our own slice of paradise," the couple said on their Our Whittle Adventure travel blog.
"We had a huge pod of dolphins cruise past most mornings and afternoons and even a playful sea lion came in close on one of the days. We spent our days playing in the surf, building sand castles, cooking on the fire and watching as a couple of storms rolled past on the horizon."
Picking up seasonal work as they go along, in addition to Clem still maintaining some remote work with her former employer, the family said the biggest "eye-opener" of their travels has been experiencing "just how vast our country is".
"We're from WA, which is a huge state, so we're used to driving long distances, but Australia is just massive. It can be so different between the states and even just different parts of the states. So that was a massive eye-opener for us. We can drive for days and still be in the same state," Mark said.
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Currently in Port Lincoln in South Australia, Mark said the family will head back to WA for Christmas, but beyond that, there are no set-in-stone plans. "The way it's worked out is we normally stop for three months and then travel for six months and then stop to work for three months again and so on," he said.
The family's lifestyle is one more and more Australians around the country appear to be adopting, moving away from their corporate careers and onto the open road. Experts say the country is even in the midst of a "motorhome boom" right now, with caravanners and campers alike taking to the countryside in droves.
In Victoria from December, all campgrounds around the state will be free for all visitors in what's being pushed as cost of living relief. It's aimed at encouraging Aussies to holiday domestically, and inject stimulus back into local economies.
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