That’s weird, that’s queer, that’s crazy, that deserves a long hard look.

Bizarrely, here in Vic we have had free NP camping but lots of sites that were booked were no shows. Plenty of vocal "I told you so"s weighing in.

Blackers, Ya reckon it’s peeps booking out neighboring sites for free so the real patron doesn’t have any neighbors whilst camping.

Nah, even though that sounds like a pretty smart move. Regular campers are the ones flagging the issue. Its more likely a case of "lets book it" and forgetting or something else turning up. The argument against seems to be that by making it free it becomes worthless. For example, Tidal River at the Prom, which used to require you to enter a ballot a year in advance to get a site over Christmas holidays, was half empty. It has been oversubscribed for decades, but plenty of space this time. There has to be a happy middle ground.