About Us
Camps Australia Wide is mum-and-dad Aussie-owned business with a 20-year old history. Heatley and Michelle Gilmore are the third owners. The CAMPS book is Australia’s favourite camping and RV travel guide known as “The Traveller’s Bible” and the popular Camps Australia Wide App has been around since 2012.
Sites include rest areas, private campgrounds, farm and station stays, showgrounds, recreation hall grounds, national parks, conservation and nature reserves, state forests, pub and club stays as well as caravan parks.
The CAMPS book is for free and budget campsites, and the team also produce a CARAVAN PARK guide, a camping cookbook and digital downloads for your GPS.
1992
Creator of Camps, Phil Procter
Starts 8 years of travels
Creator of Camps, Phil Procter starts eight years of full time travels and research, he says, Our main sources then were various atlases, Smedley’s Bush Camps and Rest Areas Around, Through and Across Australia (a total of a few hundred sites in a black and white B5 publication) and other camping guides, which, although very comprehensive, weren’t that user friendly for travelling the highway’s.
Early 2001
Camps Australia Wide begins
Phil Procter said After eight years of travels I had amassed quite a collection of site notes, diaries and scribbled-on atlases, enough to put forward the idea of compiling a comprehensive database that could be shared amongst us motorhomers. He asks for contributions – with half a dozen replies, one member gave him a list of over 1,000 sites and CAMPS AUSTRALIA WIDE is founded!
November 2001
First edition is
now in print
3000 copies of the first book arrived – in hardcover with 2300 listings and hand drawn maps – with many pre-sold, and Phil said then the phone started ringing!
2001
Website updates included on the website to update your books.
February 2003
10,000 copies of CAMPS 2 released.
2004
Phil travels 50 000km in nine months, in an 8 foot Ross A-Class motorhome, with car and trailer – taking photos and updates.
February 2005
First edition of Camps Snaps produced
30,000 copies of Camps 3 with Hema Road Atlas and new symbols. Phil said, one forty foot container to HEMA Map’s and another forty foot container to our house. The books filled up our three bay garage, but within a few months
the pile had gone down quite a bit.
2006
New owners – Philip and Cathryn Fennell
New owners – Philip and Cathryn Fennell of what the first owner and creator of CAMPS describes as the most popular camping guide in Australia’s history and it has been the best selling publication for HEMA Map’s
2007
Camps 4 released
Camps 4 first produced with another edition:
Camps Snaps in a hardcover
2008
Cathryn and Philip travel about
50 000km every year!
February 2009
Camps 5 released with over 3500 listings
2011
Camps 6 released.
Philip and Cathryn have their
share of red dust and mishaps!
June 2011
Caravan Parks second edition released.
November 2012
Camps App 1.0 now available for
iPhone and iPad!
2013
Caravan Parks –
third edition arrives.
February 2013
Camps 7 released this is the edition current owners Heatley and Michelle took their family around Australia with six of them their six berth motorhome, making treasured family memories. Their lap was 23 000 km into every mainland state and territory!
June 2013
‘The Big Lap’ continues for the Gilmores
Wangi Falls, Litchfield National Park now our kids are a whole lot older but still hanging out at waterfalls together!
2014
Thousands of hours go into every book – here’s Cathryn working hard, updating sites.
February 2015
Camps 8 on sale.
2016
Camps Australia Wide App 2.0
is on the market
April 2016
Caravan Parks 4 –
this new edition
rocks a green cover!
February 2017
Camps 9 has over 4000 listings
November 2017
New caravan for the Gilmores
Even Roxy likes it, although she’s not sure why it is only 4 berth!
December 2017
Storming outside so it is board games at
Charlie Moreland Reserve, QLD – kids are
all grown up! Now it is swags and two vehicles
January 2018
Philip and Cathryn Fennell journeyed for 12 years, with
2 off road caravans, 2 4WDs and driving over 900 000 km,
in a dream job travelling this great country and
actually calling it work, an ideal lifestyle!
March 2018
New Owners: Heatley & Michelle Gilmore
New owners, Heatley and Michelle Gilmore continue on the tradition of travel and research to provide Australia’s most comprehensive and easy to use guides, to help you save money and travel further.
June 2018
Awarded Top 10
Australian Camping
September 2018
Direct orders grown so much we now have books packaged and fulfilled through in Sydney.
October 2018
Camps Australia Wide App 3.0 released and continues to be
updated with no monthly charge – just a flat $9.99 per year
for access to all the latest updates – there’s new symbols,
easier than ever navigation around the App
December 2018
Caravan Parks 5 arrived after Christmas – with the first fold out cover with a map of Australia inside and the very latest Hema maps.
February 2019
Camps 10 released
Camps 10 (the first time the Easy to Read edition with Camps Snaps
is available in a fold out soft cover) and the very latest Hema maps.
All CAMPS 10 books have the spiral bound now – and over 950 new
sites! The only difference is whether you want the “Easy to Read”
version with larger maps, slightly larger text and photos of campsites
OR the A4 CAMPS 10 without camp photos.
February 2019
Premium POI released
Premium POI released with Caravan Parks (to total 8088 locations) plus 3 updates – thats twice as many locations with updates every 6 months! Brian and Kirsten from GPSOz are great partners for CAMPS!
March 2019
App growth doubled February
2019 sales – people are loving
the easy to use format.
April 2019
Two months after the launch, CAMPS 10 is
on track to be even more popular than CAMPS 9
plus well have reprint CARAVAN PARKS 5
months earlier than expected!
Winter 2020
Sales continue to flourish whilst people plan through COVID restrictions. Once Queensland allows travel, Heatley, Michelle and family complete an epic Outback QLD trip to Cloncurry via Carnarvon Gorge – and they updated their vehicle and signage!
Early 2001
Camps Australia Wide begins
Phil Procter said After eight years of travels I had amassed quite a collection of site notes, diaries and scribbled-on atlases, enough to put forward the idea of compiling a comprehensive database that could be shared amongst us motorhomer’s. He asks for contributions – with half a dozen replies, one member gave him a list of over 1,000 sites and CAMPS AUSTRALIA WIDE is founded!
2001
Website updates included on the website to update your books.
February 2003
10,000 copies of CAMPS 2 released.
2006
New owners – Philip and Cathryn Fennell
New owners – Philip and Cathryn Fennell of what the first owner and creator of CAMPS describes as the most popular camping guide in Australia’s history and it has been the best selling publication for HEMA Map’s
2008
Cathryn and Philip travel about
50 000km every year!
June 2011
Caravan Parks second edition released.
November 2012
Camps App 1.0 now available for
iPhone and iPad!
2013
Caravan Parks –
third edition arrives.
June 2013
‘The Big Lap’ continues for the Gilmores
Wangi Falls, Litchfield National Park now our kids are a whole lot older but still hanging out at waterfalls together!
February 2015
Camps 8 on sale.
2016
Camps Australia Wide App 2.0
is on the market
November 2017
New caravan for the Gilmores
Even Roxy likes it, although she’s not sure why it is only 4 berth!
January 2018
Philip and Cathryn Fennell journeyed for 12 years, with
2 off road caravans, 2 4WDs and driving over 900 000 km,
in a dream job travelling this great country and
actually calling it work, an ideal lifestyle!
June 2018
Awarded Top 10
Australian Camping
October 2018
Camps Australia Wide App 3.0 released and continues to be
updated with no monthly charge – just a flat $9.99 per year
for access to all the latest updates – there’s new symbols,
easier than ever navigation around the App
February 2019
Premium POI released
Premium POI released with Caravan Parks (to total 8088 locations) plus 3 updates – thats twice as many locations with updates every 6 months! Brian and Kirsten from GPSOz are great partners for CAMPS!
March 2019
App growth doubled February
2019 sales – people are loving
the easy to use format.
Winter 2020
Sales continue to flourish whilst people plan through COVID restrictions. Once Queensland allows travel, Heatley, Michelle and family complete an epic Outback QLD trip to Cloncurry via Carnarvon Gorge – and they updated their vehicle and signage!
2020
Based on Queensland’s Cooloola Coast, Heatley and Michelle travel every chance they get.
You’ll see us in our Jayco Starcraft Outback towed by a Toyota Hilux, and hope to meet you on our travels!
More on our team
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