MANAGING PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIAN PARKS 1. VISITOR ENTRANCE AND CAMPING FEES By Ralf Buckley, Natasha Witting & Michaela Guest RESEARCH REPORT SERIES RESEARCH REPORT SERIES The primary aim of CRC Tourism’s research report series is technology transfer. The reports are targeted toward both industry and government users and tourism researchers. The content of this technical report series primarily focuses on applications, but may also advance research methodology and tourism theory. The report series titles relate to CRC Tourism’s research program areas. For further information on the report series, access the CRC website, [www.crctourism.com.au]. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Buckley, Ralf. Managing people in Australian parks: 1. Visitor Entrance and Camping Fees Bibliography. ISBN 1 876685 81 6 (no.1). 1. National parks and reserves - Australia - Management. 2. Conservation of natural resources - Australia - Management. I. Witting, Natasha R. II. Guest, Michaela. III. Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism. IV. Title. 354.3340994 Disclaimer Information presented in this report has been compiled with care, subject to constraints of time and resources. Detailed data, however, were provided largely by staff of protected area management agencies, and have been accepted at face value. It was not feasible to check their accuracy in the field. Language reflects that provided by the agencies. This is a research report, not a legal document. No responsibility is accepted by the authors or publishers for any use or misuse of information contained in or omitted from this report. Corrections, additions and comments are welcome and should be addressed to the senior author. © 2001 Copyright CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Ltd All rights reserved. No parts of this report may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by means of electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Any enquiries should be directed to Brad Cox, Publications Manager or Trish Kalle, Publications Coordinator to [email protected]. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction National parks agencies in all Australian States, Territories and the Commonwealth charge individual visitors entrance fees, camping fees, or both. This report summarises fee structures as of mid 2001. It also examines how fees are set, collected and spent. Fees for commercial operations such as tours, and for services such as educational activities, are described in separate reports. All agencies amended their fees in mid 2000 in response to the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax. This report hence supersedes the updated ANZECC review in 2000 (QPWS, 2000), which quotes pre-GST figures. Entrance fees - overview Four of the State and Territory park agencies (WA, SA, NSW, TAS), plus Parks Australia, charge daily entrance fees for public access to some or all of their national parks; three (NT, QLD, ACT) 1 generally do not (Table 1). Entry fees may be charged per vehicle, per person, or both. Some agencies charge fees for all parks, others only for more heavily visited parks. For parks where fees are charged, fees range from $3.00 to $15.00 per vehicle per day, and $3.00 to $6.00 per person per day. Annual passes are also available from all agencies that charge daily entrance fees. Costs range from $17.00 (WA, one park only) to $170.00 (SA, all parks in SA). In addition, one-month passes are offered in WA and SA, two-month passes in Tasmania, and three-day, one-week and two-week passes by Parks Australia. Entrance fee concessions All of the agencies, which charge fees to enter national parks, offer discounts to children, pensioners, school groups and/or coach groups (Table 3). Most agencies also offer discounted rates to clients of commercial tour operators, as described in the companion report on commercial tour permits. Entrance fee consistency TPWS is the only agency that charges a uniform entrance fee for all the national parks under their management. WA CALM and NSW NPWS also charge uniform entrance fees, including holiday and annual park passes, but these do not apply in all parks. Parks Victoria, NPWSA and Parks Australia charge different entrance fees at different parks, but with similar pricing structures. Fee collection For those agencies that collect entrance fees, park passes can be purchased and entrance fees paid in advance at approved outlets such as district offices, information centres, shops and some barge and ferry operators. In most cases, payment can also be made on entering the park at entry stations or visitor centres, by self-registration, or to patrolling Rangers (Table 4). i TABLE 1: VEHICLE ENTRANCE FEES IN AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL PARKS Length of pass No. of Parks Parks Agency WA NT SA QLD NSW ACT VIC TAS PA Day All n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a $9.90 n/a Some 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n/a n/a $9.00 $6.00 $3.00 $5.501 $6.00 $9.002 $10.00 $12.502 One n/a 0 $7.00 0 $15.00 $8.50 n/a n/a n/a $10.00 $13.00 $18.00 $36.00 Month All $22.50 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a $16.503 n/a Some n/a 0 $18.00 0 ($40)4 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a One n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a $32.505 $21.606 Year All $51.00 0 $170.007 0 $80.00 $11.00 $63.008 $46.20 n/a Some $17.009 0 $55.00 0 $40.00 n/a n/a n/a $65.0011 $70.00 ($150)10 $60.00 $120.00 One $17.0012 0 n/a 0 $20.00 $11.00 $30.00 $19.80 n/a n/a: Not Applicable 1 For Dandenong Ranges National Park this fee applies on weekends, public and school holidays only 2 For Mt Buffalo National Park the fee is $9.00 when ski lifts are not operating and $12.50 when they are operating. For Mt. Baw Baw National Park this fee applies in winter and on weekends only; on weekdays the fee is reduced to $5.50 3 Sold only as a two-month pass, $33.00 4 Vehicle 'service permit' for Fraser and Moreton Islands (managed under the Recreation Areas Management Act); $30.00 if purchased prior to arrival on islands 5 Kakadu National Park - sold as a 14-day pass, $16.25 6 Booderee National Park - sold as a five-day pass, $5.40 7 Initial cost; annual renewal $145.00 8 All parks except Mornington Peninsula National Park 9 Selected group of parks local to the pass holder 10 Vehicle 'service permit' for Fraser and Moreton Islands (managed under the Recreation Areas Act) 11 Available to Northern Territory residents only, for entry to Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Parks only 12 One park local to the pass holder ii TABLE 2: INDIVIDUAL ENTRANCE FEES IN AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL PARKS Parks Agency Length of pass No. of Parks WA NT SA QLD NSW ACT VIC TAS PA Day All n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a $3.30 n/a Some 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n/a n/a $3.301 $2.201 $6.601 $6.00 One n/a 0 n/a 0 $15.00 $3.302 $2.20 n/a $5.423 $6.60 Month All n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a $6.604 n/a Some n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a One n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Year All n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Some n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a One n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a $5.505 $54.40 n/a n/a n/a: Not Applicable 1 This fee applies to passengers on buses 2 Includes bus passengers 3 Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park - sold as a three day pass, $16.25 4 Fee is levied at $13.20 for a pass that entitles the bearer to enter all parks for up to two months 5 Includes bus passengers TABLE 3: CONCESSIONAL ENTRANCE FEES FOR AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL PARKS Parks Agency Pass type Conc. Offered WA NT SA QLD NSW ACT VIC TAS PA Daily Entrance Children " n/a " n/a # n/a "#"free Fees Pensioners " n/a " n/a """ ## Seniors " n/a " n/a """ ## School and/or coach groups " n/a " n/a " n/a ""# Annual Park Seniors " n/a # n/a " n/a ""# Passes Pensioners " n/a " n/a " n/a ""# n/a: not applicable. ": Concession available. #: concession not available iii TABLE 4: ENTRANCE FEE COLLECTION AT AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL PARKS FEE COLLECTION POINT WA NT SA QLD NSW ACT VIC TAS PA ✝ Entrance Fees Park Agency Outlets " n/a "" " n/a """ Park Entry/ ✝ Visitor Centre " n/a "" " n/a """ Ranger " n/a " n/a " n/a "## Self Registration " n/a " n/a " n/a "## Camping Fees Park Entry/ Visitor Centre ## """"""" Ranger ""* """"" #"* Self Registration """"""""# n/a: not applicable. * Commercial contractor. † For RAM Areas only, pay in advance to barge operator Camping fees - overview All agencies charge fees to camp in national parks. Fees may be charged per person, per vehicle, per site, or some combination of these. Fees range from $2.20 (TAS) to $9.00 (WA) per person, $6.00 to $18.00 per vehicle (SA), and $4.20 (VIC) to $86.50 (PA) per site (Table 5).