K'gari (Fraser Island) camping permits and bookings

K'gari (Fraser Island) is the world's largest sand island. Camping there takes two separate Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) permits: a camping permit for every night and a vehicle access permit for every vehicle. Both are bought online before you arrive, and QPWS strongly recommends booking well in advance for school and public holidays.

Since 1 July 2026, a QPWS camping permit costs $7.75 per person per night or $31 per family per night. In September 2026 a K'gari vehicle access permit cost $61.80 for up to 31 days. The sections below cover how the booking works, what's closed in 2026, and what to do when your dates are gone.

For how Queensland's permit system compares to other states, see our state-by-state guide to Australian camping bookings.

Two permits, not one

A K'gari camping trip with a vehicle needs both of these QPWS permits.

1. Camping permit. You need one for every night you camp, at every camping area, and you must buy it before you set up camp. Since 1 July 2026 the rate is $7.75 per person per night or $31 per family per night.

The family rate covers one or two adults with their children under 18, up to eight people in total. Children under five camp free. QPWS says its fees rise slightly each July or August.

2. Vehicle Access Permit (VAP). Every vehicle needs one before it drives in the K'gari (Fraser Island) Recreation Area, whether you're camping or just visiting for the day. Number plate cameras check vehicles against the booking system, so the registration on the permit has to be right.

The combined permit carries a 20% discount and makes sense if you'll also drive the Cooloola beaches near Rainbow Beach. Both permits are booked through book.parks.qld.gov.au. Rangers on the island can't sell you a permit, and mobile reception on K'gari is unreliable, so buy both before you leave the mainland.

Types of camping on K'gari

QPWS lists 35 K'gari camping areas: nine numbered beach camping zones plus 20 named camping areas, six of which it lists twice, once for tent sites and once for trailer sites. They fall into two groups.

Fenced campgrounds

The fenced campgrounds sit behind wongari (dingo) deterrent fences, and QPWS recommends them for families with children 14 and under. The fenced list is Central Station, Dundubara, Waddy Point Top, Lake Boomanjin, Wathumba, and four small coastal camps: Cornwells, Eli, One Tree and Wongai.

• Central Station. Rainforest camping inland from Eurong, about 8.6km from the Eurong township, with flushing toilets and $2 coin-operated hot showers. Its tent and trailer sites are closed for works until 8 November 2026 (see below).
• Dundubara. A large fenced campground with toilets and showers, and one of the few places on K'gari where campfires are allowed.
• Waddy Point Top. Fenced sites in coastal woodland near a rocky headland on the north-east coast, near Champagne Pools. Campfires are allowed here too.

The four small coastal camps work differently in the booking system. In Schnerp's catalog of the QPWS booking service (September 2026), Cornwells (12 sites), One Tree (10), Wongai (9) and Eli (6) each sell individually numbered sites. Twenty-five of those 37 sites are tent sites for up to four people. Central Station, Dundubara and Waddy Point Top sell space by site type instead: you book "tent sites" or "camper trailer sites" rather than a particular pitch. With so few sites, I'd treat those four camps as the hardest fenced option to get in peak weeks.

Beach camping zones

Nine numbered camping zones run along the eastern beach from Dilli Village north to Sandy Cape. More camping areas sit on the western beach and at the southern end. The eastern beach zones have no toilets, no showers and no dingo fencing, and you camp in the signposted areas behind the foredunes rather than on a numbered site.

Beach camping still needs a QPWS camping permit. You book the zone you'll camp in, and you can't camp in a different zone on those dates unless you change the booking first.

How does Fraser Island camping booking work?

You book a Fraser Island campsite online through the Queensland National Parks Booking Service at book.parks.qld.gov.au, up to 12 months ahead. That 12-month horizon applies to every camping area in Queensland, and QPWS suggests booking at least six weeks ahead for popular spots in school and public holidays. Your permit arrives by email, and you display the tag, or the permit details written on paper, on your tent or vehicle. This booking service replaced QPWS's previous booking system on 6 February 2025.

Each camping area is its own booking. If you're planning two nights at Central Station and then two nights at Dundubara, you book each one separately, and the booking service groups them under one itinerary. You can check the island in one go, though: on the service's camping page, enter your dates and type "Fraser" in the name search. It lists the K'gari camping areas and marks each one "Book now" or "Change Dates" for those dates.

The K'gari Great Walk camps have their own rule. From 1 November to 28 February each year, QPWS only takes Great Walk camping bookings 14 days ahead, because high fire danger can close the track at short notice.

QPWS strongly recommends booking K'gari well in advance for school and public holidays. I'd expect the demand to bunch up at the three fenced campgrounds with showers, Central Station, Dundubara and Waddy Point Top, for the June-July and September-October Queensland school holidays and the December-January summer break. I'd expect the beach zones to be easier to get, but they still need a permit.

2026 closures that affect K'gari bookings

QPWS is upgrading power and wastewater treatment at Central Station and Waddy Point in 2026, and it closed camping areas while the work runs. The QPWS park alert lists these dates:

• Central Station tent and trailer sites are closed from 13 July to 8 November 2026. The Great Walk walkers' camp at Central Station stays open.
• Waddy Point Top was closed from 27 April to 31 August 2026. Waddy Point beachfront stayed open.
• Waddy Point beachfront has booking restrictions for dingo management from 14 August to 15 December 2026.
• Beach camping zone 9 (Diray and Carree, the northern tip up to Sandy Cape) is closed until 29 January 2027.

QPWS says campers with bookings in a closure period can change dates or apply for a refund in their online account. If you want Central Station this spring, check the QPWS park alerts before you plan around it. Dundubara and Waddy Point Top are the other fenced campgrounds with showers.

Getting there

K'gari's sand tracks are only suitable for high-clearance 4WD vehicles with low-range capability. QPWS doesn't recommend all-wheel drive vehicles. The island is about 300km north of Brisbane and 15km off the coast of Hervey Bay and Maryborough.

Vehicle barges run from two places on the mainland:

• Inskip Point, a 15-minute drive from Rainbow Beach, to Hook Point at the southern tip. The crossing takes about 10 minutes, barges generally run from 6am to 5.30pm, and you don't need to book.
• River Heads, east of Maryborough, to Kingfisher Bay or Wanggoolba Creek on the western side. The trip takes 30 to 50 minutes, and you do need to book.

What to do if K'gari is booked out

The QPWS refund rule is simple. If you cancel more than two calendar days before your permit starts, you get an automatic refund. For a Saturday start, the last chance is midnight on Wednesday. Inside that window, QPWS only refunds for extenuating circumstances such as a closure or severe weather.

The refund doesn't shrink as your dates get closer, so nothing pushes people to cancel at one particular threshold. I'd expect cancellations to keep turning up right until the cutoff. If I were chasing a school holiday weekend, I'd check hardest in the few days before the cutoff for my dates.

QPWS doesn't run a waitlist for any camping booking. A cancelled permit goes straight back on book.parks.qld.gov.au for whoever happens to be checking.

Schnerp can watch the QPWS booking service for K'gari camping areas. You pick the camping area and dates, and when a matching permit becomes available, you get an alert so you can book it before someone else does. You can set up a K'gari availability request in under a minute.

Quick reference