On the road…
How backpackers and irresponsible local travellers make it hard for all
As the backpacker industry floods places with visitors, irresponsible travellers camping in vans in popular places make it hard for all
Day use only. No camping. The sign was specific.
Its message was similar to others I have seen near popular holiday locations. Why it is there has something to do with the growing number of people choosing to live or to spend time traveling in vehicles and vans. It also has a lot to do with a particular form of industrial tourism.
When I lived in Byron Bay I would encounter van-travelers in the carpark at the beach end of town or over in the Clarks Beach carpark. Their vehicles ranged from the classic 1960s Kombi, the converted Toyota Coaster to the minimalism of a Ford Econovan and other types.
They would be there for only the daylight hours because Byron Council has a habit of moving people along. You can’t overnight on council land no matter how tired you are. In this town where the touristy surface glosses over a poverty that sits uncomfortable alongside wealth, there is no alternative to paying for commercial accommodation. The council has a ban on sleeping in vehicles that applies even during the day.
Byron Council’s regulation makes sense in terms of public sanitation and preventing the town’s beachside carparks becoming the domain of motorised itinerants. It was that which stimulated the City of Sydney into action when local people complained about backpackers living in vehicles outside backpacker hostels on Victoria Street in Potts Point, and about their littering and their urinating in the gutter.
That mini-controversy ended in council action. It highlighted how vehicle-based backpackers make it hard for local people living in or traveling by van. The litter left by backpackers, though not exclusively by them, and their sometimes poor sanitation practices leads to limits being placed on local van dwellers and travellers.
It as for the same reasons the City of Sydney moved against backpackers living in vehicles in Potts Point that Randwick Council in Sydney’s coastal Eastern Suburbs closed the Clovelly headland carpark overnight to deter travellers using it as an informal van park.
Phillip Witts. We were at Golden beach and watched backpackers leave a big bag of rubbish in the BBQ area. We told them to remove it and take it with them. they picked it up and put it in their wizz bang. 1 hour later we went down and the bag was back and no sign of the backpackers. Most Australians are tidy but its not the backpackers country so they dont give a D@mn.\
…Low Cost And Free Camping Australia Wide facebook.
That displaced those seeking a free overnight space to park. Some found the street that runs alongside Baker Park, also in Randwick. I often walk past travellers’ vans and other vehicles parked here. Some are gone by morning while other stay around longer. They include local travellerds, people who are not backpackers. The difference to the Clovelly Headland carpark is that there are toilets in the park and the travellers do not litter the street.
Understandable council actions against camping on the streets might be, their regulations put tired drivers back on the road.
Flooding the towns
What the industry which grew up around backpacker travel has done is flood beachside towns, once the destination of holidaying families and itinerant surfers, with hordes of mostly-foreign tourists. In high-population cities their number is not so noticeable. In less-populated places their numbers dominate.
The difficulty for local people who live in or spend time traveling in vehicles comes, in part, through the impact of backpackers who buy cheap second-hand vehicles and attempt to live as cheaply as possible while touring the country. This includes camping on suburban streets, in urban carparks and coastal parking areas. The littering and trashing of places by itinerant backpackers is behind the creeping council regulation of overnight camping. Backpackers are not alone in this. There are plenty of locals who pollute campsites with their garbage.
Once, the occasional traveler’s van parked on the street was accepted. Now that an increasing number of travellers seek out secluded overnight parking places, it is not the occasional van that parks there. It can be multiple vans. That makes local residents edgy. Edgy residents complain to council or police.
The solution to the difficulties of itinerant van campers on the streets is simple. Provide free camping where they can overnight. All that is needed is a location and basic toilet facilities. There is no need for anything more elaborate.
Some will say that campers should pay even for these basic facilities. Yet, councils already provide free services. This would be one more, one low-cost more that could solve the littering and sanitation issues associated with camping in vehicles on urban streets. Surely, it is worth try.
More stories of the road…
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