Buchan Caves, Bear Gully and Mount Buffalo camping bookings

Tidal River and Cape Conran get most of the attention, but four other Parks Victoria campgrounds need the same planning for summer and Easter. They are Buchan Caves Campground in East Gippsland, Bear Gully Campground at Cape Liptrap, Lake Catani Campground on Mount Buffalo and Wingan Inlet Campground in Croajingolong National Park. All four are booked through the same Parks Victoria system, on the same quarterly release calendar, under the same refund policy.

Summer stays up to 28 February 2027 have been bookable since the July 2026 release, so for the school holidays the realistic play now is a cancellation. Stays from 1 March to 30 June 2027, including Labour Day and Easter, opened for these campgrounds at 10am AEST on Wednesday 30 September 2026. If you want Easter at Buchan Caves or Wingan Inlet, book it now, while the release is fresh.

When can you book Parks Victoria campgrounds for summer and Easter?

Parks Victoria campgrounds are booked in four releases a year, each about six to nine months ahead, through the Parks Victoria booking system. The bookings release schedule sets out the current round:

On busy release mornings Parks Victoria opens a lobby before 10am. The lobby is not a queue. At 10am everyone in it is sorted into the Virtual Waiting Room in random order, and anyone who arrives after 10am joins the back. You can book at most three campsites in the same campground per transaction. There is no ballot for peak season.

The peak-season stay rules, camp by camp

The four campgrounds on this list don't share the same stay rules. That changes how you search. Parks Victoria's release schedule lists these peak-period rules for 2026 and 2027:

Where a Saturday rule applies, search from a Saturday. A cancellation at Wingan Inlet over Christmas comes back as a week-long block that starts on a Saturday, not as a stray Tuesday night.

Buchan Caves campground

Buchan Caves Campground sits inside Buchan Caves Reserve in East Gippsland, about an hour's drive north-east of Bairnsdale or Lakes Entrance. Parks Victoria's Buchan Caves page lists 34 powered and 16 unpowered sites, each for up to six people, with hot showers, a laundry and a camp kitchen.

The summer minimum-stay rule on the release schedule applies to Buchan Caves Accommodation, which is Caves House, not the campground. The schedule sets no peak-season minimum for Buchan Caves Campground itself, so a short summer stay is worth searching for. Cave tours are booked separately and at least 24 hours ahead, so a campsite doesn't get you into the Royal or Fairy Cave. Pets aren't allowed at Buchan Caves. If Buchan is booked out for your dates, you can set an alert for Buchan Caves Campground.

Bear Gully, the basic beach camp at Cape Liptrap

Bear Gully Campground is in Cape Liptrap Coastal Park, next to Walkerville on Waratah Bay, about two and a half hours' drive south-east of Melbourne. It looks across the water to Wilsons Promontory. Parks Victoria lists 32 campsites, 30 of them suitable for camper trailers or medium-sized caravans, with a maximum of six people per site.

Bear Gully has non-flush toilets and communal fireplaces, but no drinking water. Bring all your water and your own firewood, and leave the dog at home. The surf beach is unpatrolled and Parks Victoria doesn't recommend it for swimming. The nearest patrolled beaches are Sandy Point and Venus Bay.

Like Buchan Caves, Bear Gully has no minimum-stay rule on the release schedule, so it suits a short summer weekend. It also means a cancellation can be as short as the booking it came from, sometimes one or two nights. An alert on Bear Gully will pick those up.

Lake Catani, the seasonal camp on Mount Buffalo

Lake Catani Campground is on the Mount Buffalo plateau, 28km from Porepunkah, among snow gums beside the lake. Parks Victoria's Lake Catani page lists 47 campsites, with flush toilets and hot showers. You need to bring your own drinking water.

The booked summer season at Lake Catani runs from Melbourne Cup weekend in early November to the end of April. The campground is closed from 31 August to 30 October 2026. From Saturday 26 December 2026 to Saturday 9 January 2027, stays are 7 to 14 nights with Saturday arrivals and departures. Outside those two weeks there's no listed minimum. If Christmas is gone, I'd look at late January or the Labour Day weekend in March. To wait for a Christmas or January opening, set an alert for Lake Catani.

Wingan Inlet, the remote one in Croajingolong

Wingan Inlet Campground is on the western shore of Wingan Inlet in Croajingolong National Park, about six and a half hours' drive east of Melbourne. You turn off the Princes Highway about 17km east of Cann River and follow West Wingan Road, which is unsealed, to the end. Parks Victoria's Wingan Inlet page warns there is little or no mobile reception, so download your booking before you leave.

Wingan Inlet has the strictest rules on this list: from Saturday 19 December 2026 to Saturday 23 January 2027, stays are 7 to 14 nights with Saturday arrivals and departures only. Labour Day 2027 needs three nights from a Friday, and Easter needs four nights from a Thursday. Easter Sunday 2027 is 28 March, so the Easter arrival is Thursday 25 March 2027. The Fly Cove walk runs from the campsites to the beach, but Parks Victoria lists the Wingan Inlet Rapids Walk as closed. For Wingan, an alert is worth setting for the exact Saturday-to-Saturday week you want.

What Schnerp saw at Tidal River after the summer release

Schnerp doesn't have enough scan history at these four campgrounds to publish numbers yet. The nearest evidence is Tidal River, which runs on the same Parks Victoria system and the same refund rules.

Between 8 July and 22 September 2026, after the summer release, Schnerp saw 67 cancellation-like openings at Tidal River for arrivals between December 2026 and February 2027. They turned up in 8 separate weeks, across 35 different sites. Of the 58 we saw booked again before the arrival date, 35 were gone within an hour.

So summer cancellations do happen months ahead, not only in the final weeks. They also don't last. Tidal River is far bigger than any of these four, so I'd expect fewer openings at Buchan Caves or Bear Gully, and the same short lifespan.

How do cancellations work at Parks Victoria campgrounds?

A cancelled Parks Victoria campsite goes straight back into the live booking system for anyone to book, and there's no waitlist. The refund policy sets when people have a reason to cancel:

• 100% refund if you cancel 30 days or more before the first night
• 50% refund if you cancel 8 to 29 days before
• no refund if you cancel less than 8 days before

Camping bookings can also be moved to other dates or another campground, subject to availability, up to check-in time. There's no refund on a changed booking.

My read of those rules is that people holding a backup booking have the most reason to let it go just before the 30-day line and just before the 8-day line. For a Saturday 26 December 2026 arrival, the 30-day line falls on 26 November. For Easter, a Thursday 25 March 2027 arrival, it falls on 23 February 2027. Check more often in the days before those dates. The Tidal River openings came in 8 separate weeks, so keep checking in between, too.

Refreshing four campgrounds by hand doesn't scale. Schnerp watches Parks Victoria campgrounds for the dates you choose and sends an alert when a matching site opens up. It doesn't hold the site for you, so keep your Parks Victoria login, car registration and card ready.

For the two big names, see our guides to Tidal River cancellations, how the Wilsons Prom summer release works now and Cape Conran at Christmas. Some Great Ocean Road campsites moved to the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority on 1 July 2026, so the Great Ocean Walk guide covers that separate booking path.