Editorial policy

Who writes and who checks

Every page on Clear Horizons is written by one of the three people named on our about page: Naomi Vale, Tom Ridley or Priya Raman. There is no outside contribution, no syndicated content and no material generated on our behalf by anyone else. Each guide is read by a second member of the team before publication, primarily to check that the figures in it agree with the figures elsewhere on the site.

Internal consistency is treated as a hard requirement. If the Northern Territory guide says the dry season runs from May to September, then the trip planner, the seasonal guide and every route description must say the same thing. Where a figure appears in more than one place — a distance, a driving time, a seasonal window — the discrepancy is a defect, not a difference of opinion.

How facts are established

Route descriptions are based on driving the route. Distances are road distances along the route as described, rounded to the nearest ten kilometres, and driving times include the stops a reasonable traveller makes rather than the theoretical minimum. Where a member of the team has not personally driven a route in the last few years, the page relies on the relevant road or park authority for anything that could have changed, and the description stays general rather than specific.

Anything set by an authority — fees, permits, opening dates, closures, booking systems, ferry arrangements — is described structurally and attributed to the body that sets it. We describe how a state's park pass system works; we do not quote what it costs. That is a deliberate limit, explained below.

What we do not publish

• Prices and fees. Park fees, camping rates and fuel prices are reviewed regularly and vary by park, season and vehicle. A confident stale figure is worse than none, so we tell you which authority sets it and to check the current schedule.
• Business hours and phone numbers. For the same reason. Roadhouses, visitor centres and ferry operators change their hours seasonally.
• Reader reviews, star ratings and testimonials. Opinions on this site carry the name of the person who holds them and the reasoning behind them. We do not publish unattributed ratings, and we have never published a quote from a person who does not exist.
• Other people's photographs or text. All copy is written in-house. We do not reproduce descriptions from tourism bodies or other publications.
• Advice outside our subject. We write about driving, camping and national parks. We do not give advice on health, medical matters, finance, insurance, visas or any government process, and we will not start.

Review cycle

State and territory guides are reviewed at least once a year, and always before the start of the relevant travel season — northern guides before April, southern and Tasmanian guides before October. Practical guides are reviewed annually. The trip planner dataset is checked against the individual guides whenever either changes.

Guides carry a published date and a last-reviewed date. A review means someone has read the page against current authority information and either confirmed it or changed it; it does not necessarily mean the page was rewritten. If a page has not been reviewed within its cycle, that will be visible from the date rather than hidden.

Corrections

We correct errors of fact as soon as we can verify them, and we verify against the relevant authority rather than against the report. When a page is corrected, the last-reviewed date is updated. Where a correction changes something material — a route that is no longer passable, a booking system that has been replaced — the change is described in the text rather than made silently.

To report an error, email hello@clearhorizones.com with the page and what you found. Our contact page has the details and our usual response time.

Commercial relationships

There are none. As at the date at the top of this page, Clear Horizons has no affiliate links, no sponsored content, no paid placements, no commission arrangements and no advertising on any page. Nothing on this site earns us anything if you follow it, and no operator, park service or tourism body has any influence over what appears here or how it is ranked.

The trip planner orders results by the filters you apply and nothing else. There is no promoted position and nothing has paid to be included.

If that changes, this section is where it will be disclosed, before the arrangement appears anywhere on the site, and any affected page will carry a label saying so. We will not retrofit disclosure after the fact.

Independence and safety

Where our judgement conflicts with what a region would prefer visitors to hear, we publish our judgement — that a road is unsuitable for a caravan, that a park is unpleasant in a particular month, that a well-known route is worse than the quieter one beside it. Nothing on this site is written to promote a destination.

On safety-related matters, we defer to the authorities entirely. Road closures, fire danger declarations, park alerts and swimming closures come from state road authorities, fire services and park services, and we tell readers to check those on the day they travel rather than to rely on us. In an emergency, call 000.