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Mt Arapiles Campground Host program 28-Jan-2012 At 3:33:26 AM strerror

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Actually I'll speak up on the camping in the visitor area. To be clear I was at araps last year around easter and camped there, completely ignorant of the fact that it was off limits. No one mentioned it to us, and while we did see SOME signs, they were well over to the right (as you're walking away from the toilets) and we didn't think that it was applicable to us. Fast forward to the 1st when i arrived with a friend this year and we started to setup camp at 1210 (the party was in full swing and we'd just arrived) in the same spot. Lee walked over to us and told us that we shouldn't be camping there as it was the visitor section and there was the red gum near us (we'd already seen the red gum but frankly it looked fine and where we were camped in relation to it I wasn't concerned). At any rate we did the right thing and moved. Amusingly though, the next morning as I walked to the toilet I noticed Lee's tarp and tent all set up about 2meters from a no camping sign, whereas where I was setting up the night before was no where NEAR a sign. I assume that was the sign that was removed, but I have to say it irked me that Lee had told us off for setting up where we had, but there was her setup less then a couple of meters from a no camping sign herself, one which she'd clearly decided was inappropriate (much like I would have if there had in fact been a sign near where I'd tried to setup!).
Another thing that struck me about this was that for the 1st-3rd it was quite packed at the pines, to the point that there really wasn't much room around, and when you look at the percentage of ground that is actually marked out for "visitors" which i assume means people coming out for a day trip or something, it seems disproportionately large. Has there been any kind of measurement of just how many day visitors there really is to the pines? I know if I was heading to araps for the day, I'd not be setting up anything at the pines and I'm surprised that there is so much room allocated to that.