17 June, 2021

Belmont Wetlands State Park located in NSW Hunter region is a popular nature park which attracts thousands of visitors each year. The Park features over 500 hectares of sand dunes, walking tracks, wetlands, and beaches. Visitors to the Crown reserve enjoy recreation activities such as camping, swimming, walking, bird watching as well as four-wheel driving (4WD) on the beach.

Vehicle access to the park is managed through a permit system, giving 4WD access to the wetlands including the beachfront.

For many years the Park’s management committee had relied on an outdated, paper-based system to issue permits. The committee identified that the manual system was costly, inefficient, labor intensive and needed to be overhauled.

Nicole Dunn, Administrator at the Park explains the challenges of the paper-based system.

"The Park was incurring large costs to manage the paper permits system. The manual data processing of applications by staff was very inefficient, not to mention the safety concerns for staff handling cash payments with a system that was not flexible and was not user friendly", says Nicole.

‘We knew it was time to investigate how the use of modern technology could improve the management of permit sales, assist rangers to manage onsite access and safety, and improve the overall experience for our visitors’.

Following the initial engagement with the eCommerce vendor instigated by the committee, Crown Lands has supported Nicole in her role managing the project.

Nicole led the development of the system working closely with staff at the Park and the vendor, resulting in a final product that could meet current and future operational demands for the reserve.

When developing the new system, the project team not only wanted to address previous inefficiencies, it also looked at ways the technology could be used to improve overall operations and importantly, safety of all those working and visiting the Park.

After an eight-month project build time, the new online permit was launched by the Park. The system, now integrated with the existing Belmont Wetlands website, is accessible by mobile devices and includes a payment system with a range of permits available to visitors.

“I am extremely excited with what has been developed. The quality of the system, the ease of application within our operations, safety improvements, access management and the ability for visitors to purchase permits at a time that suits them has been very well received”, says Nicole.

“It’s been a great project to be a part of and what’s also exciting is the way in which the platform has been built. It allows us to continue to improve and modify the system to meet the changing needs of the business.”

The system also includes a “Range App” that gives staff direct access to all permit holders, categorised as ‘active’, ‘non-active’ and ‘suspended’. Rangers can identify any vehicle at any time that does not have a valid permit, simply by clicking a button.

“The App is a valuable resource for our rangers to be able to do their job effectively, maintaining permitted access as well as recording illegal trespassing.”

The online permit system has been running for eight months and has significantly changed the Parks management of operations. Since its introduction, 11,432 permits have been issued, with over 80% bought on mobile devices. It takes an average three minutes to complete the transaction, with the highest permit sales being Annual Beach passes with over 5,000 permits purchased. And pleasingly, a 77% reduction of permit related fines being issued by park rangers.

“For other land managers out there considering an online permit system, I highly recommend it”, says Nicole.

If you are interested to learn more about an online permit system, please contact your local Crown Lands Office.

Ranger at Belmont Wetlands show using the permit app.