Lorna Thornber.
Freedom campers in New Zealand may think they have it tough, but Tony Allsop reckons the Aussies have it even tougher.
Born in Wellington in 1940, Allsop fell for the freedom camping lifestyle when he first moved to Australia at 19 and went on to carve out a career in writing and taking photos for caravan magazines on both sides of the ditch. Now retired and based in Queensland’s Mackay, he still freedom camps, but says the days of going walkabout (or driveabout) and expecting to be able to set up camp in a secluded spot in the wilds are long gone.
‘‘In New Zealand there are many free camping spots and councils even set up places for free campers. Here, councils are making it illegal to camp unless you are completely self-sufficient, have holdings tanks for both grey and black water and there’s a limit to how long you can stay.’’
Many so-called free camping areas in Australia are now patrolled and have introduced fees ‘‘as the rubbish and toilet paper has become intolerable’’
‘‘Rubbish left at sites is a big problem in Australia, whereas it was not so bad in New Zealand [on a recent trip]. Backpackers are often blamed in Australia and we have had some bad experiences here with them. Once, two of them high on drugs wanted to fight us at 1am.’’
The costs associated with maintaining caravan parks have forced many to close or sell to developers.
Allsop is a camper of the oldschool variety, having spent his formative years travelling around the East Cape, Napier and other parts of the North Island with his camping-mad dad. He slept in an old army surplus pup tent alongside his parents’ larger canvas one until the family upgraded to a comparatively flash plywood caravan with louvre windows when he was 10.
‘‘Compared to these days it was all very primitive. Caravan parks just had toilets and showers - that was about all.’’
On his first working holiday in Australia, he met three fellow Kiwis who were travelling around the country in an old Plymouth and even older Chrysler towing two caravans (old as well of course) and decided to join them.
‘‘Two of the guys had girlfriends travelling with them so I had to sleep in the Plymouth or cheap hotels.’’
Despite the dodgy accommodation and poor state of the mostly dirt roads in Queensland at the time, he was hooked. After two years back in Wellington, he moved to Brisbane permanently and married his girlfriend Denyse, a doctor who luckily loved camping as much as he did.
In 1974, the couple set off in their new two-door Ford Falcon on what was to become the first of several ‘‘round-Oz’’ trips.
‘‘We freedom camped a lot, sleeping in the car or beside it in sleeping bags on a deserted beach.’’
They spent a year on the road, covering thousands of miles and picking up work whenever and wherever they needed it.
‘‘We met very little traffic and most roads were dirt. It was a real adventure in those days.’’
While the couple now travel in relative luxury in a well-equipped modern caravan, they consider their second round-Oz trip in 1988 - in a 1986 Holden with a small offroad camper - as the greatest camping trip of their lives.
‘‘We stayed mainly off-road on this 10-month trip and saw very few people... We camped on wonderful isolated beaches, in national parks and made the most of our small camper with no real