The Weekly Times is reporting (paywalled) on a forthcoming bill which will see the Victorian Parliament consider opening up access to Crown Land water frontages for camping.

This change is bound to cause controversy and public debate. It will, quite naturally, cause some concern for adjacent landholders; these concerns will need to be taken on board and addressed as much as possible.

As part of their 2018 ‘Fishing and Boating’ election commitments, the Victorian Government committed to ‘guarantee access to fishing and camping on Crown land that has grazing licences and river frontage’. The law currently enables a person to enter and remain for recreational purposes on a water frontage which has been licensed but prohibits a person from camping there.

To enable camping on licensed water frontages, the Land Act 1958 is being amended. This legislation recently passed through the Lower House of the Victorian Parliament, and regulations are being developed to support camping at these locations. Our understanding is that these regulations will include reference to camping distance from the water, campfires, etc. There are already regulations in place that govern recreational activities on crown land reserves, including environmental protections, etc.

Access to Crown water frontage for various recreational users has been limited by poor provision of infrastructure and information regarding access points. Access has also been limited by abutting landholders by padlocking gates and erecting misleading signage indicating that the land is private property.

For many of these sites, there is an underlying issue with a (false) perception of private ownership by the licensee or adjoining private landholder.

We have encountered similar issues with State Game Reserves and with licenced land in the Victorian Alps, both of which the Government has been working productively with stakeholders to address.

To support the changes, government will be installing access gates and signage at the entry points to Crown Land, will create a map that specifies each access point and will install directional road signs, directing the recreational user from the main road to the access points which will be created.

These changes are increasingly important as the management of public land evolves to support the, at times, complimentary and, at times, competing needs of rural land landholders and of a growing urban population. 

Editors Note:

The land in question here is "Licenced" under the Land Act, it is not "Leased". 

There are significant differences between "Licenced" land and "Leased" land - whilst a "Licence" includes varying obligations it is typically limited in the rights it infers (this is reflected in the low cost) which esentially come down to the ability to legally graze livestock but not to exclude other users. A

"Lease" on the other hand is closer in practice to the treatment of land on which the landholder has a freehold title.