Phil Wyatt  - Tasmania, Australia

Tent platforms

These have created quite a bit of interest and have been installed in both high use and low use walking areas. We were all a bit skeptical about how well these would work but they have proved extremely popular with walkers. 

An interesting snippet from the campsite monitoring program appears to be that people are now pitching tents in more open areas. Tent design has come a long way from the old Paddy Pallin Sou'westers and these days it is not uncommon to see tents pitched in open areas were the user is seeking to maximise the view they get when they wake up in the morning! 

In most cases the platforms have been built on already degraded sites. The poor state of the sites meant that walkers were beginning to look for alternate sites rather than camp on denuded or boggy areas.

On a couple of occasions entire campsites have been moved to more appropriate locations and old sites revegetated. Most sites in high use areas also have toilets of some form. It is also possible to build them in clusters to suit larger group sizes. These can be placed in more discrete locations if group noise may be a problem.

The treated timber is not cheap and in low use areas we have tried other techniques such as local materials and recycled rubber tiles.

Most people soon figure out how to pitch their tent. On the Overland Track most platforms have a clip system that makes it even easier. More remote sites often just have a series of cords around the perimeter. The small plates are designed as a safe area for use of fuel stoves.