FreeCamps

Moreton Bay: sleeping in your car

Vehicle camping: prohibited (exceptions)

Under the City of Moreton Bay's Camping on Public Land Local Law 2023 it is unlawful to camp on public land outside certain circumstances. Camping is defined as staying in an area with the intention of remaining there overnight — including in a vehicle, a caravan, a tent, a boat or with no shelter — and public land includes any land, water or fixture controlled by council, including all council roads, parks, reserves, gazetted foreshores, jetties and canals. Council may declare camping grounds and grant approvals to camp, and the law provides a defence of reasonable excuse.

The prohibition covers council-controlled land; state rest areas sit on the state-controlled road network. The local law lets council declare camping grounds and grant camping approvals, and it carries a defence of reasonable excuse.

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 Moreton Bay Regional. 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 (28)

Where this comes from