Check Current Conditions Before You Hike

Track closures, fire danger ratings, weather warnings and river levels change faster than any written guide can keep up with, so rather than describe conditions that will be out of date by the time you read them, this page points you at the organisations that publish the current information.

Every link below goes to the agency itself. That matters, because a lot of the condition information circulating in hiking groups, on forums and in trail apps is second-hand, often months old, and usually impossible to date. Going to the source normally takes no longer and tells you what is actually happening now.

The harder part is working out whose source to check. The agency you need is the one responsible for the land you’re walking on, and that isn’t always the state you live in, or even a state agency at all. If you drive from Adelaide across to walk in the Grampians, Parks Victoria is the authority. If you’re heading to Kakadu or Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa, those are Commonwealth reserves managed by Parks Australia, so neither the Northern Territory government nor any state agency will tell you what you need to know. Work out who manages the land first, then go to their alerts.

It’s also worth checking more than once. A check a week out tells you whether the walk is realistic and what you’ll need to carry, which is the part that affects your planning. The check that matters more is the one you do the morning you leave, because fire danger ratings are issued daily, weather can turn overnight, and a park that was open when you planned the trip can be closed by the time you reach the gate.

National sources

These apply wherever you’re walking. Most trips need the first three.

Weather

The Bureau of Meteorology publishes forecasts, radar and warnings, and its current warnings summary lists severe weather, thunderstorm, flood and fire weather warnings by state.

The thing worth understanding is that a town forecast is not a mountain forecast. The nearest forecast location is often in a valley, at a lower elevation, and sheltered from the wind you’ll be walking into. On an exposed ridge or a plateau you can reasonably expect it to be several degrees colder than the town figure, and considerably windier. If your route climbs, read the forecast as the best case rather than the conditions you’ll get.

Fire danger ratings

The Australian Fire Danger Rating System explains what each rating level means and what you should do at each one. It’s worth reading once, properly, because the ratings changed in 2022 and a lot of people are still working from the old six-level scale.

The rating itself is issued by your state fire agency, and it’s published daily. A fire danger rating and a total fire ban are two different things, declared separately, so check both. You can have a Moderate rating and a total fire ban in force at the same time, and some parks close on Catastrophic days regardless of whether anything is burning. State links are in the jurisdiction sections below.

Commonwealth national parks

Parks Australia manages six national parks directly: Kakadu, Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa, Booderee, Christmas Island, Pulu Keeling and Norfolk Island. These are not managed by the state or territory they sit in, so if you’re walking in any of them, the state park authority will have nothing useful to tell you. Conditions, closures and permits are published on each park’s own pages.

Topographic maps

Geoscience Australia publishes free topographic maps covering the whole country at 1:100,000, 1:250,000 and 1:1 million, along with partial 1:50,000 coverage concentrated in northern Australia and along major transport routes. They’re released under Creative Commons, so you can download and print them yourself at whatever size your printer handles.

There’s no national 1:25,000 series, which is the scale most useful for off-track walking, so for finer detail you need the relevant state agency. Those are listed under each jurisdiction below. Availability and cost vary a good deal between states, and it’s worth knowing before you plan: New South Wales and Queensland publish their topographic maps free, while Victoria and Western Australia charge per sheet.

Emergency beacons

Registering a personal locator beacon with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority is free and takes a few minutes. An unregistered beacon still transmits and will still be detected, but the rescue coordination centre gets a position and nothing else. A registered beacon gives them your name, your emergency contacts and whatever trip detail you’ve recorded, which lets them start working out what they’re responding to while they’re still organising the response.

Update the registration when your phone number or your emergency contact changes, and again if you sell or lend the beacon. Registrations need confirming every two years, and a beacon registered to someone you last spoke to in 2019 is not much better than an unregistered one.

Trip intentions

Telling someone where you’re going and when you expect to be back is the cheapest safety measure available, and it’s the one most often skipped. Trail Hiking Australia has two free forms: a quick version that takes a couple of minutes, and a detailed version that records your route, gear and emergency contacts and emails a PDF summary to you and your nominated contact.

Whichever you use, the part that matters is the late-back time, because that’s what turns a silence into a search.

First aid training

A workplace first aid certificate assumes an ambulance is on the way. Remote first aid assumes it isn’t, and that you may be managing someone for several hours or overnight before help arrives. That difference is the whole point of the course, and it changes what you’re taught about assessment, improvisation, patient movement and when to activate.

The unit you want is HLTAID013, Provide First Aid in Remote or Isolated Site. Searching that code on the national training register returns every registered provider in the country, which is a more durable way to find a course than any single provider link. Several bushwalking clubs also run the course for members at lower cost.

If something goes wrong

Call 000. A mobile call to Triple Zero is carried on any available network rather than only your own provider’s, because Australian carriers are required to carry each other’s emergency calls, and it works without a SIM or with no credit. Dialling 112 instead does exactly the same thing and gets no priority, despite what you’ll often hear. What neither number can do is reach a network that isn’t there, which is the gap a beacon exists to cover. The Triple Zero website also lists 106 for text-based emergency calls, 132 500 for State Emergency Service assistance in storm and flood, and 131 444 for non-urgent police.

For snakebite, spider bite or suspected poisoning where the person is stable, the Poisons Information Centre is 13 11 26 and operates around the clock. If the person is deteriorating, call 000 first.

New South Wales

• Park alerts and closures. NSW National Parks publishes current alerts for every park, viewable as a list or on a map, and you can subscribe to email alerts for the parks you walk in most.
• Fire danger and total fire bans. The NSW Rural Fire Service publishes both, by fire area, along with current incidents.
• Topographic maps. NSW topographic maps are free to download and print under Creative Commons, current and historical editions both. There’s a SIX Maps eTopo viewer if you’d rather browse the coverage on screen first, and a broader NSW map catalogue covering elevation data and aerial imagery.
• Road conditions. Live Traffic NSW covers closures and incidents, which matters for trailhead access after fire or flood.
• Bookings and permits. Camping and some walk permits are booked through the NSW National Parks site.

Victoria

Victoria is the state where it matters most to know who manages the land you’re on. A lot of walking near Melbourne and through the north-east is in state forest rather than national park, and those closures are published by a different agency.

• Park alerts and closures. Parks Victoria publishes a changes of conditions listing covering closed areas, damaged tracks and seasonal restrictions.
• State forest closures. Forest Fire Management Victoria publishes closures of parks and forests separately. If your walk is in state forest, this is the list that applies to you.
• Fire danger and total fire bans. The CFA publishes ratings and restrictions by fire district, and VicEmergency carries current warnings and incidents.
• Topographic maps. Vicmap topographic maps are sold rather than free. Land Victoria explains the three ways to get one: printed sheets from stockists, georeferenced PDFs, or in-app purchase through the Vicmap Viewer app, which lets you download maps and use them offline. You can browse coverage in the Vicmap Viewer before you buy.
• Road conditions. VicTraffic covers closures and incidents. Seasonal road closures in the alpine areas are listed separately by Parks Victoria, and they run through winter and into spring.

Queensland

• Park alerts and closures. Queensland publishes park alerts covering closures, planned burns and track works.
• Fire danger and total fire bans. The Queensland Fire Department publishes daily ratings and current bans.
• Topographic maps. QTopo gives free access to topographic coverage across the whole state and lets you generate and print a current sheet. The Queensland Globe adds aerial imagery and other layers over the same base. If you want to see how a track or a road has changed, the historical SunMap series is worth a look, though it’s a research resource rather than something to navigate from.
• Road conditions. QLDTraffic covers state-wide closures and conditions, which matters in the wet season.
• Bookings and permits. Camping is booked through the Queensland National Parks Booking Service, and most overnight walks require a permit.

Western Australia

WA publishes its park alerts on a separate site from its main parks site, which isn’t obvious if you start at the front door. Both are listed below.

• Park alerts and closures. The Parks and Wildlife Service alerts system lists current closures and warnings. General park information is on Explore Parks WA.
• Fire danger and warnings. Emergency WA carries current warnings, incidents and fire danger ratings.
• Topographic maps. Landgate sells georeferenced, print-enabled PDFs at 1:25,000, 1:50,000 and 1:100,000. These are ordered by email rather than downloaded instantly, and Landgate allows up to five business days, so order well before you need them. Work out which sheets you want from the map series coverage index first.
• Road conditions. Main Roads WA publishes a travel map with closures and conditions. In the north this is not optional. Unsealed access roads close for weeks at a time in the wet.

South Australia

• Park alerts and closures. National Parks and Wildlife Service SA publishes closures and alerts by park.
• Desert parks. If you’re heading to the Flinders or further north, the Desert Parks Bulletin carries access, track and water information you won’t find in the general alerts, and a lot of people don’t know it exists.
• Fire danger and total fire bans. The SA Country Fire Service publishes ratings and bans by fire ban district.
• Topographic maps. Mapland produces the state’s topographic, cadastral and bushwalking maps. Work out which sheets you need from the 1:50,000 series index. Digital versions of many are sold through the Mapland collection on the Avenza map store, which is useful if you want them on a phone as well as on paper. NatureMaps is the state’s online viewer for environmental and topographic layers.
• Road conditions. The Department for Infrastructure and Transport publishes outback road warnings, closures and restrictions, which is the one to check for anything north of Port Augusta.

Tasmania

Tasmania is worth reading carefully rather than skimming. The weather changes faster than most people expect, and several of the well-known walks have registration or booking requirements attached.

• Park alerts and closures. Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania publishes current alerts covering closures, track conditions and warnings.
• Fire danger and total fire bans. The Tasmania Fire Service publishes ratings and bans, and its explanation of the rating system is one of the clearer ones.
• Topographic maps. TASMAP is the state’s mapping arm and produces the 1:25,000, 1:50,000 and 1:100,000 series along with national park and walk maps. Buy them through the TASMAP shop, where the 1:50,000 series is listed by sheet. There’s also a tourist and recreation mapping index if you want to see the walk-specific titles.
• Walker registration. Several Tasmanian tracks still use logbooks at the trailhead. Fill them in on the way out and sign off on the way back. It is a genuine part of the search process there, not a visitor book.
• Passes and bookings. A parks pass is required for vehicle entry to most reserves, and the Overland Track and Three Capes Track are booked separately and fill months ahead.

Northern Territory

The NT publishes park closures by region rather than in a single list, so you need to know roughly where you’re going before you can check. That’s an oddity of how the site is built, not something you’ve missed.

• Park alerts and closures. Start at NT parks and reserves and use find a park to reach the regional “check if a park is open” page that covers your area. Remember that Kakadu and Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa are not in this system at all. Those are Parks Australia.
• Fire danger and bushfire alerts. Secure NT carries bushfire alerts, fire danger ratings and the declared fire danger periods.
• Topographic maps. Geoscience Australia’s free 1:50,000 coverage is strongest across northern Australia, so for much of the Territory the national series is your best option. NR Maps is the Territory’s own web mapping tool and is useful for land tenure, water and vegetation layers rather than as a walking map.
• Road conditions. Road Report NT is essential rather than optional. Unsealed roads close after rain and stay closed, and a closed access road is the difference between a walk and a long drive home.
• Bookings and permits. Camping is booked through the NT parks booking system. Some routes cross Aboriginal land and need a transit or entry permit from the relevant land council, which can take weeks, so sort that out early.

Australian Capital Territory

Namadgi shares a long boundary with Kosciuszko, and plenty of ACT walking runs across into New South Wales. If your route crosses the border, check the New South Wales sources as well.

• Park alerts and closures. Parks ACT publishes current alerts, including the reserve closures for pest control programs that happen most years.
• Fire danger and total fire bans. The ACT Emergency Services Agency publishes ratings, bans and current incidents.
• Topographic maps. The ACT doesn’t publish its own topographic series. Coverage comes from the New South Wales 1:25,000 sheets, which are free to download, and from the Geoscience Australia series.

Something out of date?

Agencies restructure, departments get renamed and pages move. If a link here is broken, goes somewhere unexpected, or an agency no longer exists under the name I’ve used, tell me and I’ll update it. This page is only worth having if it’s current.