The COVID-driven popularity of Queensland's national parks has more than doubled visitor numbers to some south-east locations, bringing fresh challenges for managers and users.
Camping nights statewide in national parks dropped during 2019–20, when 470 camping grounds closed and much of Queensland was in lockdown.
But by the second half of 2020, parks reopened and people were ready to head outside again — although not all national park camps are back to 100 per cent pre-pandemic levels.
Coastal parks such as Bribie Island, Cooloola and Inskip Point saw a 30 per cent rise in camping nights booked in 2020–21, at the height of the pandemic, compared to 2018–19 figures.
Further south, parks such as Girraween, Bunya Mountains and Sundown on the NSW border more than doubled both camping nights and remote camping permits, according to figures collected by the Department of Environment and Science.
Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said visitor numbers had dropped slightly this year but were still above pre-pandemic levels.
"We've got over 500 parks, so we do have an awful lot of experiences for people to enjoy," she said.
"But of course we need to make sure that we're managing the numbers so that experience is sustainable."
Four-wheel popularity
Vehicle permits for Bribie Island rose almost 30 per cent in 202–21, Cooloola Recreation Reserve 34 per cent, and K'gari 8 per cent compared to 2018–19.
Four Wheel Drive Association Queensland president Shane Rose said the fact that some sites were still closed put more pressure on popular family beachside spots such as Cooloola.
Mr Rose said public toilets and other facilities in coastal sites were not meeting demand.
"If you go to Cooloola, there's still only one lot of public toilets; that's it, there's nothing else.
"[QPWS] are now saying to take your own port-a-potty … but realistically, surely you'd think with the amount of money being raised, they could actually provide some better facilities which would in turn mean there's less rubbish, less environmental damage and less pollution."
Another problem, he said, was people booking camp sites months in advance and then not turning up, leaving in-demand spaces empty.
With the increase of vehicle-monitoring cameras, Mr Rose said it should be feasible for the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) to monitor high-demand camping areas and open up booked but unused camps.
Remote popularity
Inland, national parks south-west of Brisbane recorded some of the biggest jumps in visitor numbers.
Across the south-west region, which covers parks such as Girraween, Sundown and Bunya Mountains, 2018–19 camping nights totalled 43,869.
In 2020–21, that figure jumped 120 per cent to 97,008.
Girraween ranger-in-charge Greg Keith said the visitor boom was immediately noticeable.
"On a weekend like Easter or another long weekend or during the school holidays … we might roster on two staff and we'd know we probably are going to have to look at some overflow car parking, we'll have to check the toilets twice a day and check the barbecues," he said.
"Once people were able to move in the second half of 2020–21, every weekend was like an Easter weekend.
"That was something I could never have predicted."
Across just seven months of 2020–21, Girraween alone welcomed an estimated 105,800 visitors — more than all of 2017–-18.
Many visitors were inexperienced hikers or completely new to national parks, requiring the rangers to educate on good park behaviour such as leaving the dog at home.
One Girraween camping site was permanently closed recently due to ecological impacts and replaced with another campground and more parking.
Internet attractions
Mr Keith said many more people were going off track, inspired by photos or videos of remote hikes posted online.
"A lot of these people are getting their information off the internet … they're not actually formal track walks that we maintain, they're remote walks," he said.
"I've had people come up to me asking about it and expecting that it will be a walk and it will be signed and they don't have a map.
"There's a bit of concern for their safety, but there's also this impact that's happening in the remoter parts of the park where we are definitely seeing a noticeable increase in compaction on trails, fires where they shouldn't be.
"I'd say we haven't actually successfully worked out how we're going to get on top of that one. That's probably a management challenge going into the future."
'Loving one park to death'
National Parks Association of Queensland conservation manager Simone Maynard said the nature tourism boom was not unique to Queensland.
"Visitor numbers to national parks is actually a global phenomena; it's happening in the UK, across America, in the states of Australia," she said.
"It's happening across the world now that people are coming out of lockdown and looking for improvements to their mental and physical wellbeing."
Dr Maynard said her 90-year-old environmental organisation welcomed the state's record spend in national parks but said increasing ranger numbers was a priority.
Queensland has about $30 million of national park projects budgeted this year, including new camp facilities and toilet upgrades.
Ms Scanlon said her department wanted people to visit new parks to avoid "loving one park to death".
"Hopefully we continue to see strong numbers, but of course we also want to make sure that the ultimate goal of protecting these parks is the priority, so we need to balance that," she said.
