One of the underrated joys of camping is the long evening with no Netflix. Dinner's done by 7pm, the sun's down by 8, and there's three or four hours to kill before bed. The kids run out of fireside chat by hour two, and "what should we do now?" becomes the question of the night.

Here are nine campsite games that work for kids and adults — no equipment required (or only a torch), and tested across hundreds of Aussie campfires. Tech off, eyes up, brains on.

Photo by Kevin Woblick on Unsplash

Early evening (just after dark) is when most Aussie wildlife comes out to feed. Grab a powerful head torch or hand torch and walk slowly around the camp perimeter — possums, wallabies, gliders, owls, sometimes echidnas all show up.

Rules: stay together, adults at front and back, watch for snakes (they're cold-blooded so quieter at night but still around), don't shine the torch directly into animals' eyes for more than a few seconds — it can damage their night vision. The trick is letting the wildlife come to you while you walk slowly.

Bush camps away from cities have ASTONISHING night skies. Most Aussie kids have literally never seen the Milky Way. Show them.

• Naked eye: easy to identify the Southern Cross, Pointers, Orion, the Pleiades
• Binoculars — bring out detail in the Magellanic Clouds, Jupiter's moons, lunar craters when the moon is up
• Free apps — Star Walk 2, SkySafari (use offline mode + red filter to preserve night vision)
• Look out for: the ISS (visible passes 3-4x a week, check NASA Spot the Station), shooting stars (best after midnight), occasionally Aurora Australis from southern Tassie

Old-school but never out of style. Two ways to play:

• Inside the tent: kids make finger puppets visible through the tent wall to the audience outside
• Outside the tent: set up a torch behind the tent wall, audience inside guesses what shape the puppeteer is making

Cardboard cut-outs from cereal boxes (made earlier in the day) take this from "okay" to "Oscar-worthy". Kids absolutely love this one.

Photo: Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash

One person uses a narrow-beam torch to "draw" the outline of an animal, object or person on a tree canopy or tent wall. Other campers guess what it is. The narrower the beam (head torch on focus mode), the more challenging the drawing — anything from a kangaroo to the Sydney Opera House works.

The classic. One person thinks of an animal, person or object. Others ask up to 20 yes/no/don't-know questions to figure it out. Whoever guesses correctly chooses next.

Camping-specific variants: "Aussie animals only", "Things you can find at this campsite", "Famous explorers". Adapts brilliantly to age and group.

Brilliant for groups of 4+, ages 8 and up. Setup:

1. Tear paper into pieces equal to number of players
2. Mark one piece "ASSASSIN", another "DETECTIVE", rest are blank
3. Everyone draws one secretly
4. The Assassin "kills" players around the campfire by winking at them subtly
5. "Killed" players have to wait 5-10 seconds (so the Assassin isn't immediately revealed) then dramatically die — slumping, theatrical groans, etc
6. The Detective tries to identify the Assassin before everyone is killed
7. Anyone (other than the Detective) can guess the Assassin — but a wrong guess and you're out

Roles rotate. Genuinely funny and genuinely tense.

Photo: Mihály Köles / Unsplash

One person starts a story with a single sentence. Each person around the fire adds the next sentence. Continues until the story collapses or someone wraps it up. Hilarious with kids — almost always ends with dragons, ninjas, the family dog and chocolate. Adult versions can run for hours and become surprisingly elaborate.

For kids, but adults love it too. Make bingo cards in advance with things to spot at camp: kangaroo, kookaburra, ant trail, gum nut, three different leaf types, a feather, etc. First to tick all squares wins. Variants: bingo card for the drive in (cattle, dam, windmill, road train), bingo for the night sky (Southern Cross, satellite, shooting star, the moon).

The original campfire activity. A few classics worth knowing — the Min Min lights of QLD outback, the Yowie of the Blue Mountains, the missing miner of Maldon. Plus every Aussie kid eventually wants to hear "the dropbear story" — the one where dropbears attack tourists who don't say "G'day" properly.

Pitch level matters. Too scary for the under-8s and you'll be shifting their swag closer to yours all night. Lean comedic for the kids; lean atmospheric for the teenagers.

The kids who fall asleep best at camp are the ones who've genuinely had fun in the evening — not just been bored into bed. Run two or three of these per night, mix wildlife walks with wordy games with theatrical games, and you'll have kids begging for the next camping trip before this one's over.

Plus you'll be the cool dad/mum/uncle/aunt who knows the games. Worth its weight.