Ningaloo Coast fairer access to camping trial FAQs - May update

SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE NARELLE 

How will the impacts of Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle effect the trial?

Due to the significant damage sustained by all campgrounds in Nyinggulara National Park (Janes Bay, North Lefroy, Point Billie, South Lefroy Bay and Winderabandi) and some of the 46 campsites at 14 Mile Campground on the Warroora Coast, Nyinggulara Coastal Reserves, they remain closed with no current timeframe for reopening. 

Those campsites will not be released for booking on Tuesday 5 May. An announcement on when they will be released will be made when a reopening date can be confirmed. 

ABOUT THE TRIAL 

What is the purpose of the trial?

The trial is to evaluate whether changing the schedule of releasing campsites for bookings reduces the very high rate of cancellation at Ningaloo Coast campgrounds, and its impact on fairer access to camping. 

Which campgrounds are included in the trial?

All Parks and Wildlife Service-managed campgrounds in the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area are included in the trial. A full list is included at the end of this page.

How will the release schedule change?

Dates will be released for booking monthly: at 10am AWST on the first Tuesday of each month, the latest departure date that can be booked will advance by one month. 

Prior to the trial, the latest arrival date that could be booked was 180-days in advance and would move forward by one day, every day at midnight AWST. 

Will released periods correspond to a calendar month?

No. Dates will be adjusted to prevent weekends, public holiday weekends and WA public school holidays being released at different times.

When did the trial commence? 

The first trial monthly release was at 10am AWST on Tuesday 3 February, when bookings opened for stays between Monday 3 and Thursday 27 August 2026. 

Why has the trial been extended from the previously announced three months? 

The trial has been extended into the low-demand season for Ningaloo to allow for the evaluation of the impact of the trialled change. 

Why are bookings opening at 10am, and will that time be changed?

Opening bookings near the start of the working day maximises the availability of customer service and technical staff to prepare and support the very high demand. As with all aspects of the trial, the opening time will be reviewed and may change in the future. 

Have fees changed? 

No. Camping and park entry fees remain the same. 

Do the same Online Booking Terms and Conditions apply?

Yes. Full terms and conditions are available on the Explore Parks website 

How can changing the schedule of releasing campsites effect cancellation rates and make access fairer?

The change closes a loophole in the previous release schedule that was exploited by some to gain a competitive advantage. Dates were booked for periods people never intended to camp. Those dates would later be cancelled, usually well in advance, but in the meantime, others were prevented from making a booking for those dates and often could not understand why they were unable to do so. The exploitation made the previous release schedule unsustainable. 

Will the trial address no-shows?

Changing the release schedule will not affect no-shows directly. 

No-shows will continue to be actively managed the same way they are currently. An explanation of the process, and data on the scale of the issue, is included at the end of this document.

Will any other changes be made? 

We are continuing to monitor booking and camping behaviour and to explore options for improving equity of access to camping. Further changes will be made. Details of those changes and when they will be implemented will be made available as the research and development progresses. 

MAKING A BOOKING DURING THE TRIAL

How do I make a booking during the trial?

The booking process remains the same, only the time and date when campsites open for booking will change. Book at: parkstay.dbca.wa.gov.au 

When can I make a booking during the remaining period of the trial? 

  • For stays at Ningaloo Coast campgrounds between: 
    Friday 30 October – Monday 30 November 2026 
    Bookings will open Tuesday 5 May 2026 at 10am.
     
  • For stays at Ningaloo Coast campgrounds between: 
    Tuesday 1 December – Wednesday 16 December 2026  
    Bookings will open Tuesday 2 June 2026 at 10am. 
     
  • For stays at Ningaloo Coast campgrounds between: 
    Thursday 17 December 2026 – Sunday 31 January 2027  
    Bookings will open Tuesday 7 July 2026 at 10am. 
     
  • For stays at Ningaloo Coast campgrounds between: 
    Monday 1 February – Thursday 25 February 2027 
    Bookings will open Tuesday 4 August 2026 at 10am.
     
  • For stays at Ningaloo Coast campgrounds between: 
    Friday 26 February – Wednesday 31 March 2027 
    Bookings will open Tuesday 1 September 2026 at 10am.

What can I do before the first Tuesday of the month to help me prepare?

Be ready for a potentially long wait and be prepared to be flexible. With such high demand, and reduced capacity, you may not be able to find a vacancy for your first-choice campground and dates. 

Research the various campgrounds, have back-up plans, and consider if, and how frequently you would be prepared to move campgrounds or even campsites within the same campground for the duration you’d like to stay.

If your preferred dates are not all released on the same day consider whether you can, and would be prepared to, adjust your itinerary. 

If you don’t already have a customer account, create one in advance. Select ‘login’ from the Park Stay WA main menu to begin the process. If you need help or advice, contact us early. 

Have everything you need ready: 

  • how many people will be camping
  • what vehicles (including towed: caravans, camper trailers and other trailers) you will take and their registration numbers
  • your payment card details. 

Can I make bookings for my family and friends? 

You can help others to create their own customer account and help them make their own bookings with that account, but you must not make a booking for anyone else using your own account. 

This is because its impossible to distinguish between bookings made for friends or family who are committed to travelling together and those made by someone with little or no intent to camp on any or all of the booked campsites or dates. 

Requiring all bookings to be made with the camper’s own customer account means we can more effectively monitor for, and act on, those who act in bad faith and disadvantage other’s access to camping. 

When can I join a queue? 

Join the queue from 10am on the first Tuesday of the month. Note that the number of positions available in the queue is limited. If you receive a ‘queue full’ message, you can try again later.  

If you go to the Park Stay WA website before 10am, you will join a queue (or get the ‘queue full’ message), but that queue will be cleared at 10am and new positions in the queue will be allocated at random. Holding a position in a queue before 10am will not give you a place at 10am. 

How long will I have to complete a booking after I get to the front of the queue? 

When you get to the front of the queue you will be allocated a 30 minute ‘session’.

Have the issues some reported with queueing on the first trial release in February been fixed?

Following the first release, changes were made to the queue process and the messages displayed on screen. Further changes will be implemented for future releases.

Why does availability information change from one step of the booking process to the next?

Availability changes very quickly when bookings open. In the time between the webpages for the different stages of booking loading, other bookings will have been started, changed, completed, abandoned and cancelled. You may see availability that disappears or appears as you progress through the booking stages. 

Can I enter how many nights I want to stay and have the website show me which campsites have availability for a stay of that duration at any time during the period that is open?

That is not currently possible, however, there is alternative to find those windows of availability for each campground individually. From a campground page: 

  1. Select the full range of dates that you could stay and are currently open for booking.
  2. Hover your cursor over/tap on the black ‘check availability’ box for any campsite to reveal availability calendar for that campsite only: available nights will show in green, unavailable nights in red.
  3. Change your selected dates to an available period to reveal the ‘Book now’ button. 

If I need to move between campsites or campgrounds to stay for consecutive nights, can I combine them and make one payment?

No. It is not currently possible to add more than one campsite to a booking (or itinerary, cart or trolley) and then make a single payment for all of them. 

How can I cancel or change my booking?

To change a booking or cancel a booking select ‘My Bookings’ from the main menu and follow the prompts. You can change and cancel up to the day before arrival only. From the day of arrival, you can change your departure date only, and only to a date after you make the change. 

Will the trial affect me if I want to make or manage a booking for somewhere not on the Ningaloo Coast? 

The release schedule for all other Parks and Wildlife Service campgrounds remains the same: the latest arrival date that can be booked is 180-days from today and the latest departure date that can be booked is 28 days later or, if any date of the stay is during a WA public school holiday, 14 days later. 

However, you will be affected if you go to the Park Stay WA website on the first Tuesday of the month: from midnight to 10am the website will be closed for bookings for all campgrounds; from 10am you will join the same queue as those booking for the released period on the Ningaloo Coast. 

You can avoid a potentially long wait by making and managing bookings before or after the first Tuesday of the month.

When can I make a booking to stay from Thursday 1 April 2027? 

An announcement on the release of campsites for stays from Thursday 1 April 2027 will be made in September 2026. 

What tips do you have for the day?

  • Try not to panic or rush.
  • Don’t open the Park Stay WA website in multiple browser tabs, windows, browsers or devices. That increases the chance of errors, including losing your place in the queue and booking failures.
  • Don’t refresh or reload the page when you’re in the queue or you may lose your place.
  • Don’t stay away from the queue or your 30-minute session for too long. If you don’t interact with the website for one minute during your 30-minute session an inactivity warning will pop up on screen and a countdown from 30 will start. If you don’t follow the prompt to confirm you are still active before the countdown reaches zero, your session will expire.
  • Keep an eye on the session timer to the top right of the screen. If your time expires, you can start again, but you’ll join the back of any queue or get the ‘queue full’ message.           
  • Don’t tap/click ‘Book now’ before:
    • checking the conditions that apply at the campground.
    • entering your campers and vehicles (including towed: caravans, camper trailers and other trailers) in the sections above (when you do that, the suitable and available campsites will be listed first, and the ‘book now’ button will show for only those).
    • reading the campsite description.
  • Take care that you don’t breach of the terms and conditions by:
    • making more than one booking for any date
    • exceeding the maximum stay of 14-nights in any park if any night is during WA public school holidays, 28-nights at other times 

We may cancel bookings in breach of the terms and conditions to make campsites available to others.

HOW NO-SHOWS ARE MANAGED

Each morning volunteer campground hosts report any booked campsite that was not occupied the previous night to staff at Milyering Discovery Centre.

Staff contact the booking holder. Depending on the circumstances, they may then cancel or change the dates of the booking to make the campsite available to other campers. If the booking holder does not respond within 48 hours, staff will cancel the booking. The 48-hour grace period is applied in case of breakdowns or other unplanned delays when travelling in a very remote region with limited mobile phone and data service.

Analysis of bookings and stays, including the winter and spring school holiday peaks, shows that 2% of booked campsite nights were not occupied. The perception of unoccupied campsites may appear much higher to an observer, with campers arriving late in the day and departing very early due to the long travel distances. Campers, particularly those in campervans and rooftop tents, may leave no sign of their continued occupation of a campsite as they visit places away from the campground. 

CAMPGROUNDS INCLUDED IN THE TRIAL 

Cape Range National Park 
  • Boat Harbour
  • Bungarra
  • Kurrajong
  • Mesa
  • Neds
  • North Mandu
  • One K
  • Osprey Bay
  • Tulki Beach
  • Yardie Creek 

Nyinggulara National Park (ex-Ningaloo)

All currently closed following significant damage sustained during Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle.

  • Janes Bay
  • North Lefroy
  • Point Billie
  • South Lefroy Bay
  • Winderabandi 

Warroora Coast, Nyinggulu Coastal Reserves

  • 14 Mile – some campsites currently closed following significant damage sustained during Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle
  • Amherst Point
  • Black Moon Cliff
  • Elles Beach
  • Lagoon
  • Maggies
  • Nicks Camp
  • Sandy Point
  • Stans Camp – overflow camping
  • Stevens Camp
  • The Ridge