Talk:National parks in Australia

How do we pick which parks go on this list?

I probably should have never started this article, but as there are around 500 national parks in Australia, how do we pick the parks that should go on the list. There are some ways to limit this list, but here's some that I thought of:

• Only list the World Heritage Parks – it works and is a good way to limit the list, but some world heritage parks such as Mebbin NP are pretty insignificant when compared to Port Campbell National Park – Victoria's most iconic national park. This would also somewhat defeat the purpose of Tasmanian national parks in which around 50% of them are world heritage sites.
• Suggested by @Ground Zero: here, group parks that are close to each other into an article that highlights key points – this could work for NSW, where it already has its own article and Queensland (needs an article), both which have too many "national" parks and only list the key ones
• Create an arbitrary list of which national parks are the best to go to – I know Qantas has a list, but we shouldn't copy theirs. We can however, look at their guide and see if there's any that belong here. That would of course, lead to disputes as to which ones belong here. This AFR article also has a small list which could also be listed
• Add parks based on visitor numbers and international fame. Some like Uluru or the Blue Mountains have probably already earned their position into going here. However, visitor numbers are not easily available online while fame would be location dependant. Mungo National Park is known to most Australians, but as to how internationally well known is a question mark.

There may be some other ways to organize this, but these are all that I can think of. Comments? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 23:47, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

If anything, I would generally favour the arbitrary list one, but this could be a biased one. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 08:20, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

For reference

There's an experimental template: Template:NRS that I'm just mentioning here for self-reference. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 11:24, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

Is National parks in Australia usable?

Swept in from the pub

Title. Only reason why I'm asking is because we've never had an article of that kind on Wikivoyage before. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 06:42, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

Fees and permits, Get around, Sleep

I think there should be Fees and permits, Get around and Sleep sections, and a bit more at Get in.

Do you have to make some reservations or buy a ticket before driving to a park? Is there a fee to some or all parks (seems to be at least at some)? In what range? Does it depend on season, what you are going to do in the park, or how you are grouped? Is there an entrance (or a few) where you pay?

Do you get around by bus, car, bike or foot? (In Finland cars are off limits in all parks that I know). Are there usually tours available? What can you expect from them? Who should go independently? Are you confined to certain routes? What are you allowed to do? Leave no trace? Are there facilities? Do you need to carry out your waste? Toilet waste? Are dogs (in leash) permitted?

What about accommodation? Are most visits daytime only? On a hike, do you sleep in cabins or your tent?

I assume many of these things vary, but what can you generally expect? I'd like to see a discussion on the typical cases and the extremes.

–LPfi (talk) 17:54, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

@LPfi: National parks in Australia are in reality, state parks, so fees and permits are or should be covered in the respective state topic article (see Tasmanian national parks#Fees and permits or New South Wales national parks#Fees and permits, for example). I realise that many of these articles don't have a "fees and permits" section, but I'll add the today.

The same could be said for "Get around". You can't take your car into most Queensland national parks – usually, there will be a carpark just a few hundred metres within and you'll have to walk from there. A national park managed by the NT could radically differ: on one hand, there's this highway with supposedly a speed limit of 130 km/h, but on the other hand, a road to get around in a NT national park might be an unsealed track. This is completely factoring out that conditions in Queensland or the Northern Territory have little to do with driving across the Tasmanian Wilderness.

Likewise, accommodation should be handled within the state articles. I realise that only Tasmanian national parks#Sleep has some travel content on sleeping, but I'll try and add some more content to the other state articles. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 22:44, 15 October 2022 (UTC)