The "ultimate" campsite is part skill, part luck. Sometimes you roll up at golden hour with the prime spot already taken; sometimes you arrive in driving rain and somehow snag a beauty under the only piece of shelter. The luck is the luck — but the skill part can be learned, and a bit of pre-planning dramatically improves your odds.

These are the ten things to think about before you drop the awning and crack the first beer. Run through them in your head as you scout the site and you'll end up with the campsite the rest of camp quietly envies.

Photo by Mounish Raja on Unsplash

Everyone wants the elevated spot with the view. Just remember that an elevated spot is also the windiest, most exposed spot — magnificent on a calm sunset and miserable in a 50-knot southerly. Pick a view-and-shelter compromise where you can.

Other things to factor in:

• Don't park yourself directly between someone else and their view
• Stay back from rivers — flash floods can sweep "prime real estate" away faster than you'd think
• East-facing for sunrise people, west-facing for sunset people, north-facing if you want all-day sun (or all-day shade in summer)

Beaches, rivers and lakes are the most popular camp spots in Australia for obvious reasons — fishing, swimming, the soothing sound of water at night, easy access for washing up. But nestle in too close and you'll cop:

• Mosquitos and midges (worse near still water at dusk)
• Damp, condensation-heavy mornings
• Flooding risk if rain comes through
• Increased foot traffic from people walking past

Sweet spot: 30-50m back from the water. Close enough to walk to, far enough to avoid the worst of the bugs and damp. Above the high-water mark always.

Midday shade is non-negotiable in summer Australia. Tree cover is the best shade you can have — but with one major caveat: never camp directly under a river red gum or any large eucalypt. They drop massive limbs without warning, on still nights, on hot days, whenever. It's called widow-maker behaviour and it kills Aussie campers most years.

Alternatives if there's no safe tree cover:

• Vehicle awning (the easy default)
• Free-standing shade shelter (pop-up gazebo) — anchored properly with weights or stakes
• Tarp pitched between two safe trees or off the vehicle

Avoid using occy straps to anchor tarps — they're flying objects in strong winds and can take an eye out. Use proper rope and pegs.

Photo: Chris Gresham-Britt / Unsplash

Wind is the silent campsite ruiner. It picks up at 4am, the awning starts flapping like a sail, and your night is over.

• Look for natural windbreaks — rock faces, tree groves, dunes
• Use the vehicle or caravan as a windbreak if there's nothing else
• Always face tent doors / van doors AWAY from the prevailing wind
• For coastal sites, that usually means doors face inland (south-east in much of Australia)

Rain shelter is harder to engineer — but a tarp angled to drain water away from camp, anchored taut so it doesn't pool, makes a huge difference. Many established camps have a central roofed picnic shelter; use it for cooking and meals when the weather turns.

Most people are camping to escape the rat race, then end up squeezed in next to someone playing Cold Chisel through a bluetooth speaker.

Strategies that actually work:

• Travel midweek. Tuesday-to-Thursday camping is dramatically less crowded
• Travel outside school holidays. Always
• National park bush sites generally have more space between sites than commercial caravan parks
• Limited-access destinations (4WD-only, walk-in, boat-in) cut visitor numbers automatically
• Pre-bookable parks often pre-allocate and space out the sites

The small comforts add up. Look for sites with:

• Grassy tent area, gravelled vehicle parking
• Toilets within an easy walk (not 400m through bush at 2am)
• Drinking water — or at least a tap. River water can be boiled if needed but it's never ideal for tea
• An existing fireplace or fire ring (saves you building one)
• A nearby firewood source — or signs that it's all picked clean within 100m

For self-sufficient bush camps, the calculation is different — bring your own toilet/shower tents, your own water, and your own firewood (if it's allowed). Plan for it before you commit to the site.

Photo: Trevor McKinnon / Unsplash

The gear that consistently makes the difference between average and "ultimate" setups:

• A proper 12V fridge or quality icebox — cold food and cold drinks for a full week
• A 2-burner stove on legs (not a tabletop) — cook anywhere, stand up, no back pain
• A solid camp chair with proper lumbar support — you'll spend hours in it
• Decent lighting — head torch, lantern, fairy lights for atmosphere if you're feeling fancy
• A folding table for the kitchen + a smaller one for the chairs
• A camp shower bag if facilities are limited — fills, hangs from a tree, gives you 5 minutes of hot water

The "ultimate" campsite for a fishing trip isn't the same as the "ultimate" campsite for a hiking weekend.

• Going fishing? Camp on the bank, near a launch ramp
• Going hiking? Closer to the trailhead than to the river
• 4WDing? Bigger flat area, room to manoeuvre
• With kids? A clear, flat area for ball games is more important than the perfect view
• Cycling? A bike-able loop or trail nearby beats a remote bush camp

You can't control the weather, but you can absolutely choose when not to camp.

• Check the BoM 7-day forecast before locking in dates
• Check fire ratings — Total Fire Ban days mean no fires, no gas stoves in some parks
• Avoid summer holiday weeks in the High Country (storms) and the Top End in wet season (Dec-Apr)
• Have a "Plan B" location 1-2 hours away in case you need to relocate

Camping in less-than-ideal weather is character-building, sure. But "ideal" weather + "ideal" site is the whole point of planning ahead.

Final ten percent that separates a good camp from a great one:

• Pitch on level ground — even a small slope is misery in a sleeping bag. Use the natural slope to drain rainwater away from your living quarters
• Locate the fire central to the tents (but not too close)
• Gather firewood in daylight — stumbling around with a head torch after dark is how toes get broken
• Set up the kitchen first, then the bedroom — that way you've always got somewhere to make a brew while you finish the rest
• Park the vehicle so you can leave easily — no need to do a 17-point turn at 5am to get out for sunrise

The ten above are the framework — your own ultimate campsite will lean harder on some than others depending on what you're chasing. View matters more for sunset chasers; shade matters more in summer; activities matter more with kids.

The trick is going through the list deliberately when you arrive — not just dropping the gear in the first clearing you see. Five minutes of scouting saves ten hours of wishing you'd parked over there instead.