Government, the Youcamp company says, should do more to ease regulations which hamper the growth of “adventure tourism” on farms.

Youcamp says it is “committed to opening up unique frontiers of the Australian outdoors, providing people with access to the best and most exciting, interesting places to stay.”

It says that if farmers opened up more of their land to paying tourists they could make more money and “future proof regional Australia”.

What it calls the “boutique tourism business” is a way to “not just supplement much needed on-farm income but also to create sustainable private land enterprises that are not subject to the vagaries of climate change.

“By bringing city Australians onto farms as visitors, it also creates a window into the lives of rural landholders and the challenges that they face.”

In some European countries, particularly France and Britain, farmers who face crippling pressure from the market have turned to tourism.

In some cases, accommodation on farms is the part of the business which keeps the whole venture afloat. It’s been a financial life-saver in rural areas.

But distances in Australia are much greater so what works in Europe may not work in Australia.

But Youcamp alleges that getting approval for land camping in Australia is too tough.  “It is not about replacing existing camping and accommodation options but rather creating a much greater mix”, said the organisation.

“One of our mottoes is that landholders should not just be farming sheep and wheat but also people,” it said.

The company sees itself as a kind of Airbnb of rural areas. Under Airbnb, people take over homes, unsupervised. It’s not clear how this would work easily in remote farms.