Camping gear beyond the tent: what to buy in what order

A first family camping trip does not fail because the camp chairs were cheap. It fails because somebody was cold, or because nobody slept.

So the buying order is sleep, then light, then cooking, then comfort. Buy the first two properly and the rest slowly.

This guide compares published specifications and Australian retailer listings. Nothing here was slept in, cooked on or tested by us.

First: the sleeping setup

This is where a first-trip budget belongs, and it is the part people economise on.

Off the ground beats padded on the ground. A stretcher keeps you off cold ground, out of any water that runs through, and at a height you can actually get up from at 2am with a child. OZtrail’s Australian listings on 13 September 2026 ran from an Aluminium Stretcher Large at $94.99 to an Easy Fold Stretcher Single at $119.99 and a Jumbo at $144.99.

If not a stretcher, then a proper mat. A self-inflating or insulated air mat, not a foam camping mat and not an air bed. An air bed is a large volume of cold air under you and it is the most common reason people are cold on a summer night.

The sleeping bag rating is the part everyone misreads. A bag marked +15°C is not comfortable at 15 degrees for most people; European-standard ratings publish separate comfort, limit and extreme figures, and the number on the front is often the limit rather than the comfort figure. OZtrail’s Kennedy Hooded +15°C bag was $34.99 on 13 September 2026, and it is a warm-night bag.

The practical rule: find out the overnight minimum for where you are going, in the season you are going, and buy a bag rated comfortably below it. Inland Australia gets far colder overnight than visitors expect, in summer as well as winter.

A liner adds warmth cheaply and keeps the bag clean. Cotton and silk-substitute liners were listed at $30.99 and $34.99 on 13 September 2026.

A pillow. The single cheapest upgrade to a camping trip and the one most often forgotten.

Second: light

• A lantern for the table and a head torch per person. Head torches matter more, because a child walking to the amenities block needs their hands
• Warm light rather than bright white in the tent, because a white LED at 9pm wakes everyone up
• A red mode, if the torch has it, for moving around without blinding anyone
• Spare batteries, and charged power banks. This is a genuinely important item on a hot trip because phone batteries fail in heat

Third: cooking and cold storage

• A cooler sized to the trip. Companion’s Hard Top Cooler 30 Can was $49.99 on 13 September 2026. Bigger is not better if it will not fit in the car with everything else
• Two coolers beat one on a longer trip: one for drinks that gets opened constantly, one for food that stays shut
• Block ice lasts far longer than cubed, and frozen water bottles are both ice and drinking water
• A table. Underrated. OZtrail’s Ironside 120 cm Fold In Half table was $77.99 on 13 September 2026, and having somewhere to prepare food changes a campsite more than most gear does
• Keep food cold and covered. Australian food safety guidance is to keep perishable food out of the temperature range where bacteria multiply, which on a hot day means the cooler stays shut and in the shade

Fourth: comfort and moving things

• Chairs. Buy them last. Cheap chairs are fine and the expensive ones are a luxury, not a fix
• A wagon or a cart, if the site is a walk from the car. OZtrail’s Off Road Wagon was $189.99 on 13 September 2026. At a drive-in site it is unnecessary; at a walk-in site it is the difference between four trips and one
• A tarp or shade shelter. Shade is the most valuable thing at an Australian campsite between October and March
• A doormat for the tent door, which halves the sand and dirt inside

What to borrow rather than buy

Before the first trip, borrow what you can. The list of things you will never use again is longer than the list you will.

• Chairs, tables and lanterns are the easiest things to borrow
• Camp ovens and specialist cookware are almost always a second-trip purchase
• Hire a tent for the first trip if you can, which tells you what size you actually need before you spend

Safety

• No stove, lantern flame, fuel heater or barbecue inside a tent or an enclosed annex. Carbon monoxide from fuel appliances in enclosed spaces is lethal
• Check fire restrictions and total fire bans with the state fire authority before every trip, and again on the day
• Check weather warnings, and know whether the site floods
• Keep fuel, matches and lighters away from children, stored outside the sleeping area
• A first aid kit that includes a compression bandage, because snake bite first aid in Australia is pressure immobilisation and it needs the right bandage
• Know where the nearest medical help is before you need it

The order, summarised

1. Sleeping: stretchers or mats, bags rated for the real overnight temperature, liners, pillows
2. Light: head torches first, then a lantern
3. Cold and cooking: a cooler, block ice, a table
4. Comfort: chairs, shade, a mat at the door
5. Everything else, next trip

What to pack for a family camping trip is the checklist version of this, family tents is the purchase that comes before it, and camping with kids for the first time is the part that is not about gear at all.