Thread: State forest camping

i thought in NSW you could camp anywhere but i'm not 100% on that redback would be the best person to ask

Originally Posted by TheEntertainer

Had a chat with one of the blokes from the the state forest department up at Orange (canobolas) and the guy said, aaah well just come up and camp it's a state forest you can camp where you want too...! Then he relised what he had said and said it's best to stick to the camping sports.

What is the rule? Can you camp any where in a State forest?

All NSW state forrests are free to camp in as long as you camp in the marked camp grounds some are only picnic areas and are usualy marked out on the forrestry maps tho some SF's dont have camp grounds and as long as you leave it how you found it all is good

As far as I know, in Vic, you can camp anywhere in State Forest. A few years ago I asked at Parks Victoria's office about camping in State Park as well. They said, "just camp anywhere". I think they're a bit more careful what they tell the public these days.

Also, when we were in Alice Springs we got a lot of misinformation about camping in the West Mac's at the tourist info centre. For example, they said deffinately no fires anywhere in the West Mac's, yet when we got out there, they actually supplied fire places in some camp grounds. There were other things too. It seemed like they have 'standard' answers they give everyone, and don't differentiate between experienced travellers and a 'one time' overseas touist.

I wonder if it is the same forestry guy I spoke too down at Jenolan. He said to me just make sure your not in peoples way and he doesn't have any problem with people camping where ever.

Because I sleep in a hammock it is some times hard to find a good spot which suits the bill of hooking the tent up to trees so this is definately favoured by me.

We just camp anywhere in state forests, but obviously not in the way of anybody. It's highly unlikely that you'll get any grief over it. I think it's probably more a case of there are some good built campsites up there, such as near the top and they would prefer you to use them, but you can camp anywhere.

There are a lot of really nice bush camping spots in and around Mt Canobolas especially if you take those little side tracks to the edge for the views.

Yep like i said before you can camp just about anywere in a state forrest as long as its not a signposted picnic area or there are signs saying no camping and you can have a fire as long as the area you have the fire in is cleared and there is no risk of the fire spreading and you can also collect fire wood that has fallen to have a camp fire tho you are not to take the wood out of the forrest unless you have a permitt and its all at no cost which is great and most state forrests have beter camp grounds than nat parks and they cost an arm and 2 legs to camp in now days and they wont let you colect fallen wood for fires .....

Good stuff, thanks for all the info guys!

From a practical point of view, what's the difference between a state forest and a national park? I assume the former is still potentially a working forest (ie logged) whereas a NP isn't?