SHARLENE PENNEY has travelled from Blacktown to Myall Lakes National Park camping ground with her husband and two boys for the past three years, but she is thinking twice about her holiday plans for next year.
With Myall Lakes on the mid north coast named as one of the 79 national parks, reserves and conservation areas where shooting will be trialled from March, Ms Penney is worried about the safety of her family.
She said her children, Nicholas, 7, and Bradley, 6, had no sense of danger.
''If people are drinking and stuff, they're going to get lazy and leave their guns around, and if the kids find it they're going to think it's a play gun, and then bang,'' she said.
''Where do you go from there? And who is going to care?''
And after a draft risk assessment warned that a gun fatality or serious injury was a ''major risk'' and urged park staff to wear high-visibility clothing, Ms Penney said she was also worried about the potential for park visitors to be accidentally shot,
''But what should the civilians wear?'' Ms Penney said.
''Do we have to wear caps that have little white fans on it to say 'Here we are. Don't shoot!'?''
Clodagh Carroll regularly visits Australia from Ireland and is also camping with friends at Myall Lakes.
The solitude, cleanliness and safety of the campsite is what drew them to the place.
''We're just camping, hanging out, chilling. I don't want to be walking here worried about a bullet,'' she said.
One of her companions, Cal Savage, is sceptical about the changes designed to assist with pest control.
''We had a goanna in our tent, and we don't have any food or anything in there. But if you're going to be leaving dead animals around, you think that more pests would come.''
