Four-wheel drives and a swag camped among coastal sand dunes at dusk, the sea behind them. This is the photograph that opens the Camping Australia home page.

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Photo: campingaustralia.com.au home page

Camping Australia

Where to camp and what to take, sorted on one site. It's a gear store and a directory of over 3,300 free and paid campsites, on the web, iPhone and Android.

Visit campingaustralia.com.au (opens in a new tab)
App Store (Camping Australia for iPhone, opens in a new tab) Google Play (Camping Australia for Android, opens in a new tab)
What it is
Outdoor gear store and campsite directory
Directory
Over 3,300 free and paid campsites
Platforms
Web · iOS · Android
Status
Live
Camping Australia's home page: 'Find the spot. Pack the gear.' over the dunes photograph, with buttons to shop camping gear, shop caravan gear and plan a trip.
The same home page on a phone, with search, a Campsite Explorer shortcut and the dunes photograph.

Fig. 0The home page, on a laptop and a phone. The same dunes photograph opens both, with gear search, the Campsite Explorer and the store underneath it.

(01)The problem

Where to camp and what to take belong on one site.

Every trip comes down to two questions: where are we sleeping, and what do we need to bring? Camping Australia answers both, with the campsite directory, the map and the gear store on one site and in two apps.

Camping Australia answers both, in the order people ask them. Once you know where you're sleeping you know what to pack, so the campsite comes first and the gear follows, on the laptop at home or the phone at the servo.

On campingaustralia.com.au the campsite directory, the map and the gear store share one address, with trip planning and gear advice beside them.
(02)What we built

We built the site to start from where you're sleeping.

Search a town or a region and its campsites come up on a map and in a list. Add the ones you like to a trip. The store is on the same site, so buying whatever that spot needs doesn't mean opening another website.

Over 3,300

free and paid campsites in the directory, from free camps to caravan parks, and each one is a different answer to where you're sleeping.

Melbourne Grampians
An illustration of the directory spreading out from Melbourne, with the working map of the Grampians below it.
Campsite Explorer zoomed to the Grampians region in Victoria: the region outlined on the map with individual campsite, free camp and caravan park pins, filters for campsites, free camps, caravan and stays, and a list of parks with add-to-trip buttons alongside.
Fig. 1Pick a region such as the Grampians and its campsites, free camps and caravan parks are pinned on the map, each with a button that adds it to your trip.
Campsite Explorer search: 'Pick the road. We'll find the camps.' over a photo of Uluru, with a place search, a plan-a-road-trip button, filters and popular regions such as the Grampians and Great Ocean Road.
Fig. 2If you know the town or park, search for it. If all you have is a start and a finish, the road-trip planner lets you choose where to stop on the way.
A gear advice article, 'Camping Solar Panels: How Much You Need + What Actually Works', over a photo of a campervan with a solar panel set up on the grass.
Fig. 3Gear advice on the store, such as how much solar a camping setup needs, sits on the same site as the panels.

iOS · Android

For whoever is planning from the passenger seat.

Camping Australia has native apps for iPhone and Android, for the person holding the phone while someone else drives. We build and release both alongside the website.

Open in the App Store ↗ (Camping Australia for iPhone, opens in a new tab) Get it on Google Play ↗ (Camping Australia for Android, opens in a new tab)
'Where to next' on a phone: popular regions with photos, including the Grampians, Blue Mountains, Great Ocean Road, Flinders Ranges, Gippsland and Hunter Valley.
Popular regions
Plan a road trip on a phone: 'Pick a start, then where you're headed', above a list of caravan parks with add-to-trip buttons.
Plan a road trip

(03)How it runs

We built it, and we still run it.

A wrong price on a product page gets sorted with a refund. A wrong campsite listing gets found out at the gate, with the light going and the kids asleep in the back.

  1. The store

    Checkout is the worst place to break

    If search or checkout on campingaustralia.com.au stops working, people leave with nothing in the car, so fixing it is our job.

  2. The directory

    A listing has to be right

    A fault in the directory matters as much as a fault in the store, and when something there breaks, it's ours to fix.

  3. The apps

    Apple and Google each review every update

    We take the iPhone and Android apps through both app stores ourselves, alongside whatever is changing on the website that week.

  4. The content

    Advice published on the store

    The gear articles live on campingaustralia.com.au, so someone working out what to take can finish the reading and the shopping in the same place.

(04)For your store or app

Some stores need a reason to visit before they need a checkout.

Planning a store, an app or both? Tell us what it needs to do, or see everything we do first.