FreeCamps

Gold Coast: sleeping in your car

Vehicle camping: prohibited

On the Gold Coast it is illegal to camp overnight in a public place, and the City states this includes sleeping, or staying overnight in, a vehicle in a public place.

The City of Gold Coast regulates camping under Local Law No. 16 (Licensing) 2008 and Subordinate Local Law No. 16.6 (Camping Areas) 2008 — covering temporary or semi-permanent accommodation including occupying or sleeping in a tent, caravan or vehicle — and states it is illegal to camp on Gold Coast beaches, roads and parks, with officers patrolling public areas seven days a week.

The City states no exceptions in its published guidance beyond licensed camping facilities. State rest areas within the LGA are on the state-controlled road network; the state 20-hour fatigue rule applies there, but anywhere else in a public place the council prohibition applies.

Signs override this page. Whatever is signed at the site is the rule that applies, no matter what is written here.

Where this applies

The hatched area is the whole of Gold Coast City. It is the reach of the local law, not a survey of where a vehicle may park: the prohibition is on public places inside that boundary, and it says nothing about private property or a licensed caravan park. The dots are the state rest areas listed below — amber where there is a shower — and the state's own rule governs a fatigue stop at one of those even inside the hatching.

State rest areas here (23)

Where this comes from