Powered vs unpowered campervan sites Australia: sleep smart, not sideways

A powered site is the classic holiday park pitch: park the van, plug into a 15 amp outlet, and run the creature comforts without watching the battery gauge like a hawk. In summer north of Geraldton or Townsville, that little orange power lead can be the difference between sleeping and slowly becoming jerky.

Most hire motorhomes use a 15 amp external lead, not a household 10 amp extension cord. Powered sites commonly cost more than unpowered sites, often sitting around $35–$75 a night depending on season, location and facilities. Peak beachfront parks in January can be dearer; inland showgrounds can be much kinder.

• Do: ask for a site long enough for your vehicle, especially if you are in a 6 berth motorhome around 7 m long.
• Do: check whether the site is grass, slab or gravel; a wet grass site after 60 mm of rain is not romantic.
• Don’t: run household adaptors or tangled leads under the van. Use the approved lead supplied with the vehicle.

Powered sites suit first nights, hot climates, longer stays, laptop work, CPAP machines, and anyone who wants the fridge cold before tackling 450 km of road trains and servo pies.

An unpowered site is still usually inside a holiday park or campground, just without the plug. You may get access to showers, toilets, camp kitchen, laundry and sometimes a dump point, but your van runs on its house battery, gas and water tanks. It is not roughing it; it is just asking your battery to do a proper day’s work.

Modern campervans can handle a night or two unpowered if you are sensible. Lights, water pump and fridge are usually fine; hairdryers, kettles, toasters and air-conditioning are not. In 35°C heat around Katherine or Mildura, battery and fridge performance can drop faster than enthusiasm at a full dump point.

• Do: arrive with the house battery charged after a decent drive, ideally 2–3 hours.
• Do: use LPG for cooking and keep fridge doors shut.
• Don’t: assume air-conditioning works off-grid; in most hire motorhomes it needs mains power.

Unpowered sites are good for shoulder seasons, national park-style stays, and travellers who prefer space over a concrete slab. If you are new to van life, try one powered night first, then graduate to unpowered once you know what every switch does.

Australia does not have one kind of campervan stop. You will find glossy coastal holiday parks with pools and boom gates, dusty inland showgrounds with coin laundries, national park campgrounds with drop toilets, and pub paddocks where the publican may point at a patch of shade and tell you to mind the emu.

Holiday parks are the easiest for first-timers because they usually offer powered sites, water taps, amenities, laundries and clear arrival instructions. National parks can be spectacular but often require online permits, have no powered sites, ban generators, and may have vehicle length limits. Some remote campgrounds are reached by corrugated dirt roads that hire agreements may restrict, especially after rain.

• Coastal holiday parks: convenient, book early, often tight for larger motorhomes.
• Inland showgrounds: practical, affordable, good for dump points and a quiet reset.
• National park campgrounds: scenery wins, facilities vary, generators and pets often banned.
• Pub or station stays: big-sky camping, check access roads, fuel range and opening days.

Do not roll in after dark expecting someone to rescue your reversing skills. A 2.9 m high motorhome under low branches sounds expensive before it even becomes expensive.

Free camping is a beautiful Australian thing: riverbanks, roadside rest areas, old railway sidings, and town RV stops where the bakery quietly benefits at 7 am. But it is not a universal right, and councils enforce it differently. A sign saying day use only means just that, even if an online comment from 2019 says Gary stayed there for three nights.

Many free camps require a self-contained vehicle, meaning onboard toilet, grey-water storage, fresh water, and the ability to leave no trace. Some places allow 24 hours; others allow 48 or 72. Fines vary by council but can land around $100–$300 or more, which is a grim way to save a site fee.

• Do: arrive early, park inside marked bays, and keep awnings clear of traffic lanes.
• Do: spend money in the town if it provides an RV stop; fuel, groceries and a pub meal count.
• Don’t: dump grey water on the ground unless signage clearly allows it. Usually, it does not.

Free camps are best treated as short, tidy stops between proper service points. If the next dump point is 280 km away and your toilet cassette is already sulking, pay for a park.

The Big Lap is not just beaches and sunsets. It is also knowing where to empty the toilet cassette, top up fresh water, and refill LPG before the next long empty stretch. On the Nullarbor, in the Pilbara, and through western Queensland, towns can be 200–300 km apart and not every servo has what you need.

Holiday parks often have dump points and drinking-water taps, but some reserve them for guests. Public dump points are common at visitor centres, showgrounds and roadside RV stops. LPG availability varies; swap bottles are easy in bigger towns, while refill points can be less predictable. In the Top End wet season, access roads and campground openings can change after one decent storm.

• Do: carry a potable-water hose and fill before remote legs.
• Do: empty the cassette before national park stays where facilities may be basic.
• Don’t: plan fuel to the last 20 km. Headwinds and road trains can lift fuel use noticeably.

As a rough habit, start looking for fuel once the tank drops below half in remote country. A campervan doing 12–16 L/100 km needs more respect than a city hatchback with delusions of range.

You do not need to book every night of a three-month lap, but you should lock in the bottlenecks. Christmas on the NSW coast, Easter near national parks, July school holidays in Broome, and the Red Centre from May to September all fill early. Grey nomads are not slow when there is a good powered slab at stake.

When checking availability online, match the site to the vehicle: length, height, slide-out if fitted, need for power, and whether you can reverse comfortably. Some parks list sites as 6 m, 7 m or 8 m; a motorhome with bike rack or rear spare can need more room than the brochure length suggests.

• Do: book first and last nights near the depot so handover and packing are calm.
• Do: reserve powered sites in extreme heat, cold, or when staying more than two nights.
• Don’t: assume late arrival is okay. Many parks close reception by 6 pm and use gate codes.

Leave the middle flexible if you like wandering, but secure the obvious pressure points. The best compromise is a skeleton plan: booked nights where supply is tight, loose nights where the road can decide.