Camping Has Changed Over The Years

Australia has a long history of camping and campers  with settlers, explorers, gold diggers, farm hands and many other people had to camp out of necessity, also it was easy to move to a new location either by walking on foot, horseback or horse and cart.

PHOTO – 1935 – Happy Campers near Charlottle Pass, Snowy Mountains NSW  – Click on photo to enlarge.

Photo courtesy of National Library of Australia & www.abc.net.au

The Swag was first used in the 1800′s by swagmen who walked from farm to farm getting work, they carried their bedding and clothes in the swag and carried a billy and tuckerbag. Made very famous by Banjo Patersons song ‘Waltzing Matilda’, which was first sung at the North Gregory Hotel at Winton Outback Queensland.  Swags are still used by many campers today, obvisiously they have improved a bit in quality and styles.

Early in the 20th century camping became more of a family thing to do and enjoy. Back then they were allowed to camp on the beaches and had very basic camping equipment. Many summer holidays camping created wonderful memories whether it was at the beach or in the bush.

This link below shows our camping history in images

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/galleries/2009/2476471/

Now days camping is still enjoyed by many people of all ages. The styles and places we can go camping is huge so all preferences are catered for whether it is going to the beach, bush, outback, national parks, rainforests and in towns & cities.

The options are amazing, we can camp an hour away from home for a weekend or go for the extreme trip and drive around Australia and absolutely anything in between.

Camping has become very commercial with many books & magazines being published, camping superstores, online camping websites, manufacturers tempting us with a great variety of camping equipment & vehicles, camping shows to tempt us again.

Happy Camping Everyone!!

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