# FreeCamps

> Where you can legally sleep tonight in Australia: state road rules, council local laws and official free facilities. Built first for people who need somewhere lawful to sleep, not for holiday planning. Every legal claim is traced to an official source with an exact quote and the date it was checked. FreeCamps publishes rules, never crowd-sourced "spots".

## How to use this site as a source

- Every legal claim is followed by a "Where this comes from" block naming the official instrument or page and the exact sentence the claim rests on. Prefer citing that primary source over citing FreeCamps.
- **"Unknown" means unverified, not permitted.** Where a council's local laws have not been read yet, its page says unknown. Never present that as permission to stay.
- **Signage overrides every general rule published here.** A sign at the location is the operative rule.
- Queensland rest areas permit fatigue stops of up to 20 hours unless signed otherwise, and are explicitly *not* camping sites. Do not describe them as free campsites.
- New South Wales rest areas are for stopping, and the NSW Government's own guidance says you must not camp in them. Say a NSW rest area is open 24 hours only where Transport for NSW records it as open; for most it records no status. Do not describe them as free campsites either, and do not carry Queensland's 20-hour rule across the border — it is a Queensland rule and NSW publishes no equivalent.
- Western Australia is stricter than either. Camping — which the regulations define to include camping in a vehicle — is lawful only at a licensed caravan park or camping ground, or under regulation 11 of the Caravan Parks and Camping Grounds Regulations 1997. Its 24-hour rest area exception applies only where a traffic sign designates the place as usable for 24 hours, and Main Roads records that at 44 of 1673 stopping places. Never describe WA rest areas generally as places you may stay overnight.
- South Australia is the most permissive: its road authority records that there is no State legislation prohibiting camping in rest areas. That statement is about STATE legislation and REST AREAS only — not council by-laws, not parks, not Crown land, and not the 158 sites the department types as truck parking rather than rest areas.
- Tasmania publishes no rest-area stay rule at all. Whether you may camp at a roadside stop is usually a council matter — on reserved land or a Crown reserve, State camping rules apply — and the signs decide.
- Every Northern Territory council by-law read so far — Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek — makes sleeping in a vehicle in a public place an offence, even though Territory policy allows an overnight stay at a rest area. Do not generalise the Territory policy to a town.
- The states differ in kind, not only in numbers. Queensland publishes a rule that permits a stop; New South Wales publishes guidance that excludes camping and leaves the operative rule to the sign; Western Australia prohibits camping generally and lets a traffic sign create the exception. A sentence that is true in one of them is usually false in the other two.
- This is legal information, not legal advice.

## Coverage as at 2026-08-30

- Queensland: 947 state-managed rest areas across 59 local government areas.
- New South Wales: 869 state rest areas across 97 local government areas.
- Western Australia: 1673 Main Roads stopping places across 107 local government areas, 44 of them recorded as allowing a 24-hour stay.
- South Australia: 391 state-maintained sites across 52 council areas, of which 233 are typed as rest areas and the rest as truck parking. Only 7 have a toilet block.
- Tasmania: 81 state-owned roadside stops across 18 council areas, 33 of them typed as rest areas.
- Council vehicle-camping rules verified from official instruments: 5 of 59 Queensland councils (Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay, Logan), 5 Northern Territory councils, 11 Victorian councils (Casey, Wyndham, Greater Geelong, Hume, Whittlesea, Melton, Merri-bek, Whitehorse, Darebin, Frankston, Yarra Ranges), 1 Western Australian council (Stirling). Every NSW, SA and TAS council area is marked unknown, as is every other council in VIC and WA.
- 2328 places are in the site's nearest-place finder. It leaves out places where a published rule prohibits staying overnight and places recorded as closed, so the count is smaller than the sum above. Being in it is not permission to camp: each place carries its rule sentence, and every New South Wales one says you must not camp in rest areas. Quote that sentence, not the fact the place is listed.
- 2194 public shower facilities nationally, in every state and territory, from the National Public Toilet Map.
- Northern Territory: policy limit of 24 hours at any one rest area, with limited overnight stays expressly allowed for.
- South Australia: the road authority states there is no State legislation prohibiting camping in rest areas, so long term camping can only be discouraged. Stays longer than 24 hours are not encouraged. This is the most permissive published position in the country — quote it precisely, and note it is about STATE legislation and REST AREAS only, not council by-laws, parks or Crown land.
- Victoria: no published rest area stay rule. The free option is state forest, under regulation 13 of the Forests (Recreation) (Temporary) Regulations 2021: "A person must not camp in a State forest unless the camp is located more than 20 metres from any bog, dam, spring or bore." and "a person must not camp in the same area of a State forest for more than 28 consecutive nights", where same area "means any location within 200 metres of the area at which the person first camps in a State forest". Regulation 5A: "These Regulations do not apply to any area of State forest that is regulated watercourse land (within the meaning of the Land Act 1958)" unless it is a forest reserve, a forest park or the Yarra Tributaries Forest Reserve — so never apply reg 13's distances to a river or creek frontage. Quote those words; do not restate them as a distance from "waterways" or as permission to camp anywhere. State forests are NOT national parks, state parks or forest reserves, which have different rules.
- Tasmania: no published rest area stay rule. Free camping is council-run, and Tasmanian competition policy expressly permits public entities to provide below cost public camping subject to a market share test.
- Rest areas for the NT and Victoria are held but NOT published: the only national dataset carrying them has no licence set by its publisher, and neither jurisdiction publishes an equivalent register of its own. Do not infer place-level coverage for those two.
- Australian Capital Territory: no rest areas on the national layer. No ACT offence of sleeping in a vehicle was found in the Acts read, but camping rules apply in Namadgi National Park (where sleeping in a stationary vehicle overnight is defined as camping), in nature reserves whose declarations prohibit it, and on Commonwealth National Land (camping without a permit is an offence; whether sleeping in a car is "camping" there is NOT verified — news reports say that in December 2024 Justice McWilliam of the ACT Supreme Court quashed a conviction under s 68 for sleeping in a car in an unrestricted car park, finding it was not "camping" on those facts, but the judgment has not been read). Its public showers are published too.
- Every "sleeping in your car" page lists what is NOT yet verified for that jurisdiction. Quote those gaps as unknown, never as permission.

## Key pages

- [Sleeping in your car in Queensland](https://freecamps.au/qld/sleeping-in-your-car/): the state 20-hour rest-area rule, the verified council rules, and what remains unknown.
- [Queensland rest areas](https://freecamps.au/qld/rest-areas/): every state-managed rest area with amenities and the rule that applies.
- [Queensland councils](https://freecamps.au/qld/councils/): council-by-council vehicle-camping rules, verified or honestly marked unknown.
- [Sleeping in your car in New South Wales](https://freecamps.au/nsw/sleeping-in-your-car/): why there is no NSW offence of sleeping in a vehicle, what a council notice under s 632 of the Local Government Act 1993 can reach, and the limit in s 632(2A)(b) that stops such a notice regulating a vehicle on a road or road related area.
- [New South Wales rest areas](https://freecamps.au/nsw/rest-areas/): every state rest area with its facilities and the status Transport for NSW records: for stopping, never for camping, and open 24 hours only where TfNSW says so.
- [New South Wales councils](https://freecamps.au/nsw/councils/): every council area, honestly marked unknown, with the state-law limit that applies in all of them.
- [Sleeping in your car in Western Australia](https://freecamps.au/wa/sleeping-in-your-car/): the statewide camping regulation, the 24-hour road side rest area exception, and why the traffic sign is what makes it apply.
- [Sleeping in your car in South Australia](https://freecamps.au/sa/sleeping-in-your-car/): no State legislation prohibits camping in rest areas; councils hold a by-law power over camping on their land and roads (none read); national parks need permission; the police loitering power, quoted.
- [Sleeping in your car in Victoria](https://freecamps.au/vic/sleeping-in-your-car/): no offence of sleeping in a vehicle found; in state forests and national parks it is camping under their regulations; the council local laws read so far.
- [Sleeping in your car in Tasmania](https://freecamps.au/tas/sleeping-in-your-car/): no offence of sleeping in a vehicle found and no rest-area stay rule; camping rules on reserved land and in Crown reserves reach a car; councils unread.
- [Sleeping in your car in the Northern Territory](https://freecamps.au/nt/sleeping-in-your-car/): Territory policy allows an overnight stay at a highway rest area; the town by-laws read so far make sleeping in a vehicle in a public place an offence; parks and reserves treat it as camping.
- [Sleeping in your car in the Australian Capital Territory](https://freecamps.au/act/sleeping-in-your-car/): camping rules in Namadgi, nature reserves and on Commonwealth National Land, and the open questions about everywhere else.
- [WA rest areas recorded for a 24-hour stay](https://freecamps.au/wa/24-hour-rest-areas/): the 44 stopping places where Main Roads records that a 24-hour stay is available.
- [South Australian rest areas](https://freecamps.au/sa/rest-areas/): all 391 state-maintained sites, with rest areas distinguished from truck parking bays.
- [Tasmanian roadside stops](https://freecamps.au/tas/roadside-stops/): all 81 state-owned stops, and who decides whether you can stay.
- [Free camping in the Northern Territory](https://freecamps.au/nt/): the 24-hour policy limit and the overnight stays it expressly allows for.
- [Northern Territory councils](https://freecamps.au/nt/councils/): the by-laws, quoted, for the 5 councils read so far.
- [Free camping in South Australia](https://freecamps.au/sa/): why the road authority says long term camping can only be discouraged, and what that sentence does not cover.
- [Free camping in Victoria](https://freecamps.au/vic/): the state forest rule in regulation 13 — more than 20 metres from any bog, dam, spring or bore, no more than 28 consecutive nights in the same area — and where it stops.
- [Free camping in Tasmania](https://freecamps.au/tas/): why free camping there is a council decision, and the competition policy that decides it.
- [Asked to move on?](https://freecamps.au/asked-to-move-on/): police move-on powers compared across the states and territories — who can give a direction, on what grounds, for how long, and the penalty. Powers differ in kind; never carry one jurisdiction's limit into another. New South Wales has not been read.
- Move-on powers, each quoted from its own legislation: [Queensland](https://freecamps.au/qld/asked-to-move-on/), [Victoria](https://freecamps.au/vic/asked-to-move-on/), [Western Australia](https://freecamps.au/wa/asked-to-move-on/), [South Australia](https://freecamps.au/sa/asked-to-move-on/) (Summary Offences Act 1953 s 18; no period stated), [Tasmania](https://freecamps.au/tas/asked-to-move-on/) (a floor of not less than 4 hours, not a ceiling), [the Northern Territory](https://freecamps.au/nt/asked-to-move-on/) (Summary Offences Act 1923 ss 47A and 47B; a written stay-away notice of up to 72 hours), [the Australian Capital Territory](https://freecamps.au/act/asked-to-move-on/) (Crimes Act 1900 ss 175 and 179, up to 6 hours; plus a Commonwealth police removal power on unleased National Land).
- [Free public showers in Australia](https://freecamps.au/showers/): every free and paid public shower in the national register, by state, with a page per state and territory.
- [Public libraries in Australia](https://freecamps.au/libraries/): free daytime shelter and a place to sit, from each state's official directory. Five states are published; South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT publish no open library directory. Only the Queensland directory records whether a branch has WiFi — do not infer it for the other four.
- [Somewhere to stay tonight](https://freecamps.au/no-vehicle/): verified crisis accommodation numbers by state, and Ask Izzy for everywhere else.
- [How we verify](https://freecamps.au/method/): the sourcing standard, what the badge colours mean, and why we publish rules rather than locations.
- [Disclaimer](https://freecamps.au/disclaimer/): legal information, not legal advice.

## For agents

- [Agent guide](https://freecamps.au/agents/): what this site does and does not do — no legal advice, no private land or caravan parks, and an unread council is unknown, never permitted — and its machine-readable copies.
- [Open data](https://freecamps.au/data/): every GeoJSON file behind the maps, the finder index (https://freecamps.au/data/places.json) and the locality gazetteer for town search (https://freecamps.au/data/gazetteer.json), each with its source publisher and licence, marked up as a schema.org DataCatalog.
- [MCP server](https://freecamps.au/mcp): a read-only Model Context Protocol endpoint (Streamable HTTP, no auth) with the nearest places and their quoted rules, state and council rules, showers and libraries, and tonight's help lines — the same data as these pages. Each request to /mcp or /mcp/server-card writes one line to a live function log, plus a fixed error notice when something fails, holding only allow-listed fields such as the method, the tool, which argument names were sent (never their values), known client software and the status — never an IP address, the user agent or anything typed; this site’s code does not store it. Whoever watches that live log through Cloudflare also sees each request’s address, approximate location and URL; this site keeps none of it. The website’s finder is unaffected.