Bushwalk Australia

Hi,

I’m heading to Tassie soon and have read some reports of theft and vandalism to cars pried overnight in certain trailheads. Has anyone got any experience, thoughts, wisdom on this?

Cheers

We don't have trailheads down here, so it's not a problem.

Oh, you mean trackheads.
There are some places where there have been issues in the past - the main Walls carpark and Frenchmans being the most common - but I haven't heard of such areas being specifically targeted for some time. I've never had any problems, but then my cars always look like they're not worth the trouble of breaking into.
There's always a possibility, however, no matter where you leave your vehicle. Make sure that nothing valuable can be seen from outside and try to have as little as possible in the car while you're away.

There was a Land Rover that was decked out for camping with solar panels and such stolen from the Frenchmans Cap carpark a while back, that was probably stolen for the Land Rover parts and/or the solar panels and deep cycle batteries it contained, I think it's fairly unlikely a generic vehicle would be stolen from these remote locations...

I've left my aging 4x4 and campervan in many places around the state and never had an issue, often just on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere... The campervan I always leave with all the curtains closed in the hope a thief would assume someone is sleeping in there...

As above, leave NOTHING in view that may tempt a thief to break in..

My 30yo Nissan Patrol has been broken into and stolen twice from outside our home in a nice upper middle class Melbourne suburb in the last 3 years, but never in the bush. Don’t leave anything of value in your car, and leave everything that isn’t of value hidden. Apparently old cars like mine are easy to break into with screwdrivers/scissors etc. I’m getting tired of replacing the ignition lock set and door locks….

A

No place is immune from the chance of break in. There are some common factors aligned with such behaviour.
The only real insurance you can provide yourself is leaving the vehicle looking less enticing than any others. I know people who leave compartments open and empty.
More extreme measures are having nothing inside the car and leaving windows down.
I personally minimise the practice of purchasing insurances and have never taken travel insurance however i frequently travel and live from the car and spend maximum time out walking. This usually means taking my own measures for insurance and i have no losses to date.
Having some bear traps buried outside the car doors would be my preferred measure. Chances are they wouldn't even get their hand on the door handle.

It seems that incidents are fairly infrequent, but are generally well publicised when they do occur.
Frenchmans Cap and Walls Car park issues go back decades and you only really hear about something happening every few years.
Frenchmans has the problem of being next to the highway so its an easy target for opportunistic thieves.
Going back a while the story goes that the Walls was specifically targeted by a local who was eventually caught.

Some places are far enough out of the way that trouble can't be bothered driving out there.

I wouldn't say you need to be paranoid, but don't go inviting trouble unnecessarily.

Arrived on 16.11.23 at 9am - Only 4 cars in the car park, 2 of them with back window smashed. Looked like a straightforward opportunistic smash & grab...

Niels H wrote:Arrived on 16.11.23 at 9am - Only 4 cars in the car park, 2 of them with back window smashed. Looked like a straightforward opportunistic smash & grab...

Where was this?

One was our hire car I'm guessing... At the frenchmans cap car park, decided last minute to do this beautiful hike (for a 3rd time). Was a huge bummer for the holiday ☹️.

Man that really sucks. Unfortunately the Frenchmans Cap carpark is more of a concern for this type of thing, as others have already mentioned, because it is so close to the highway.

A highly visible CCTV set up monitoring the car park honestly would be a good use of state funds (assuming they could make it work in an area with little/no cell coverage).

Invest in a trail cam and hide it in the bush pointing at your car.At least you might have a chance of getting some footage of the person or a vehicle number plate.