Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Kakadu and Booderee National Parks will have free entry from March 16 until the end of the year to counter tourism loss from coronavirus.
Tourists will be able to visit Australian landmark locations such as Uluru without paying for a park pass as part of the government's coronavirus response.
Entry fees to Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Kakadu and Booderee National Parks will be waived from March 16 until the end of the year.
The usual cost for a three-day family pass for the parks is $65.
Tourism in the NT has been declining for years, but sure
Was gonna say the same thing. Would have happened anyway even if bushfires and coronavirus didn’t.
I highly recommend the climb after coming off the open speed limit but ufortunately the NT doesn't offer that sort of entertainment anymore.
Yeah nah, the hotels there are still way too overpriced.
Camp. There is something special about that red soil. I have camped here before and its cheap.
Care to share name of camping ground? Planning to visit.cheers
Ayers rock resort campground. Or you can stay for free in the sand dunes about 30mins from the rock. The former has toilets and showers etc, the latter you need to be self sufficient.
@oldrocker: It gets cold at night, take adequate warmth for whichever season you are travelling in. During winter, overnight temperatures below ten degrees are not uncommon.
Yep, Ayers rock resort campground. Its nice. You can go to the bar as they give you a certificate for drinking in the dry community.
the hotels there are still way too overpriced
Don't stay at the rock. Fly to Alice Springs (470km away) and stay there, lots of cheaper accomodation options. Spend a couple of days in Alice Springs so you can get used to the heat and the flies, then take a day trip to Uluru/Katatjuta. Here's a typical one-day-bus tour, leaving from Alice Springs at 6am: https://emurun.com.au/1-day-uluru-tour/
Perhaps take a day trip to King's Canyon before seeing Uluru, or do a tour of the MacDonnell Range: https://emurun.com.au/1-day-west-macdonnell-ranges-tour/
If you decide to hire a car and go exploring, make sure you know what you are doing. Getting lost in the bush in Central Australia can kill you. Mobile coverage is pretty much non-existent outside Alice Springs, so you can't phone for a rescue. For $60 you can hire an EPIRB or PLB for a few days, it's cheap life insurance, recommended.
$225 for a bus tour… I mean, seriously? Some will say oh but the lunch is included! No thanks… almost $500 bucks later per couple. Are they still surprised that Aussies prefer travelling overseas? I thought all those 1 day tours from Las Vegas to GC were expensive. Nope, I was wrong.
It's priced for the tourist market, and they seem to have no difficulty filling their bus. There are many bus tour companies, I just picked the first one I found that didn't seem incredibly overpriced. Some may be cheaper.
Keep in mind the bus tour price also includes the charge to enter the national park, so the tour+food comes to $200. That works out to just over $11 per hour per person which doesn't seem terribly expensive when some of the tours may only have six passengers or so, paying the wages of the bus driver plus (expensive) petrol plus maintenance.
If you are going in a group, there's always car hire available, but try to only drive during daylight. There are unfenced cattle farms in the area, when driving at night you need to keep a sharp eye for black cows standing in the middle of the road. I never drove above 80kph at night, and that was with the benefit of experience.
I worked in the bush near Alice Springs, and often had to drive at night. I don't know if hire vehicles will come fitted with as many spotlights as our work vehicles had, if you only have standard headlights I'd recommend driving slower than 80kph.
Last I check most of the staff for those hotels are living in house. That's what you get for been isolated with Australia.
At Uluru, there's no other place to stay. There is only the campground and the resort, and the resort has difficulty retaining workers, because of the remoteness, so I doubt they would ask the workers to stay in the campground.
I've been there twice in the last 2 year's. It's a beautiful place even without the rock climbing.
Doing the Valley of the Winds walks is an absolute must do. One of the most beautiful walks I've ever done.
Agreed, that's actually why I went back for the 2nd trip - to walk it again.
This is good, especially considering the price was set to rise from $25pp to $38pp this year.
Great idea encourage people to travel meeting and mixing with different people everyday when we have a bad strain of coronavirus going around.
If anything, the desert is the best place to go.
Not on buses and planes.
Wish the Europeans heeded your advice 230 years ago.
Might book my 2 week isolation to this place after i return from asia
People pay money to climb rocks?
You're going to shit your tits off when you see how much a permit to climb Everest is.
Can't really compare a 8500m mountain to a rock
I saw that photo of the final ascent to the peak and it looked like a train station. Literally shoulder to shoulder all the way up.
Clearly they aren't charging enough.
Can never charge enough when there is too many people with less sense than money.
Pretty sure this will end up being the case for all national parks.
I love Greenpatch Beach!!!
I'd be happy to continue paying the fee at Uluru Kata Tjuta (even as a donation). It's a beautiful place.
Imagine if this was the second pandemic for Corona virus given forigners loved it up there. That meaning you.
Great timing - got a prebooked trip flying tomorrow.
Looks like it doesn't work yet even for specifying a start date of 16 Mar, so I guess it has to be bought on the day when 16th rolls in.
This is great, I’ve got holidays booked in for May and somehow I’ve decided to not buy the pass in advance online,
Thank you!
Thanks, just got a couple for Kakadu :)
I don't think this is valid anymore. If I select any date it redirects to the main page.
Love how they went from blaming the bushfires to corona virus when numbers started to go down when they closed Uluru for rock climbing