Have you thought of stopping over at Griffith NSW? CLICK HERE

National Parks do not allow animals. Some National Parks have designated camping areas but the fees are not always cheap for what you get. Often when staying in National Parks you fill out your details on a form and place the form and your money into an envelope which you then place into a secure bin. The rangers come around regularly and empty the bin and check you have paid. You will most likely need cash to pay your National Park fees.

NSW National Parks	Parks Victoria	Qld National Parks and Forests	Parks & Wildlife Service TAS
Parks NT	National Parks WA	Parks SA

Free camping - many people choose to free camp on the roadside. It saves money which can then go into fuel. CLICK HERE  you will find links to Roadside Rest Areas. This enables you to plan your stop ahead of time. Some roadside areas are for resting only whereas others allow overnight stops and some up to 48 hours. With the advent of the "Porta Potti" or similar you no longer need to worry what the toilets are going to be like.
    If you are going to camp without power regularly you will need to work out what you will do for power. This is an issue and there are many opinions, so I will tell you how I have my van set up. You decide whether you like that idea or not.
I have a couple of batteries under the front seat of the van. These batteries are hooked up to my 12 volt system. I also have an inverter connected to the batteries which runs the TV and some of the other 240 volt appliances. These batteries are charged from the alternator on the car. To do this though you need to be able to stop the batteries in the van backfeeding to your car when the engine is not running. If the batteries backfeed all your accessories (radio, air cond. fan etc) will continue to run. To stop the back feeding I installed a diode (1 way control valve for electricity) on the positive wire going to your caravan batteries. To stop the van batteries draining the car battery install an isolator switch. These can be purchased at a reasonable price from Ebay.   I have found this to be the most economical for me. To set up a solar system to keep the batteries charged would cost around $1200.00
I do not recommend using the battery in your car to run your caravan lighting etc (ok for short time) because with modern vehicles the battery needs to be in good condition to activate (wake up) the ECU (vehicle computer) when starting. Also with diesels a good cranking voltage is needed for starting.
       
    If you are only going to do occasional free camping you could

*      Buy a portable jump start battery. (about $50.00)
*      Connect a cigarette lighter male adaptor to the wiring of your
        caravan internal lighting.
*       When you stop, plug the male adaptor into the female plug on your
        portable jumper  battery.
*      You now have lights in your van.
*      When you head off in the morning place the portable jump battery
        into your vehicle.
*       Connect it to the cigarette lighter and charge it. It will now be ready
        for another night.
These batteries generally take a fair while to charge so you may find that if you plan to use this system regularly the battery may not be recharged in time.