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Finding an open spot at any Australian airport car park can be hard and stressful, but depending on where you live, the number of abandoned vehicles taking up space could make the problem worse.
In the case of Brisbane Airport, a spokesperson told Drive, “Over the last three years, approximately 80 vehicles have been abandoned on site”.
While the airport claimed it doesn't have a problem, as the number is just a small percentage compared to the more than six million vehicles legally parked there annually, last month it also told Brisbane's Courier Mail that these vehicles are allegedly left by travellers who use the car to get around the state before they dispose of it.
“Every year, a number of vehicles have been abandoned, often by tourists who finish their lap around Queensland, park their car and jump on an overseas flight never to return again,” they told the news outlet.
“Vehicles appear to be abandoned for a variety of reasons, but it's impossible to know the intent behind every abandonment, or the identity of each person responsible," a spokesperson also told Drive.
“Some of the more obvious assumptions are that vehicles are going to be repossessed by financiers, or are in very bad condition,” they said.
The issue is not limited to Brisbane, however, with Sydney officials previously publishing a list of 98 deserted vehicles at its airport car park in a bid to find the responsible owners.
According to a September 2023 report by the Sydney Morning Herald, some deserted vehicles – believed to have been left by tourists – were unclaimed at the airport for more than five years, with authorities reportedly selling them through an unspecified auction house.
According to NSW state legislation, airport authorities must submit a list of abandoned cars to certain media outlets, and any affected owner wanting their vehicle back must notify the airport within 14 days and pay any outstanding fines before it's released.
Paul Pascoe, a car evaluator at Autograb, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the vehicles equipped with licence plates could be worth an estimated $700,000 in total.
And that was not the first time Sydney Airport authorities have called out offenders for violating car park rules, with officials previously sharing a list of 60 abandoned cars in 2010, 29 in 2011 and 61 in 2018.
Flash-forward to 2025, and on average, there are one to two vehicles abandoned at Sydney Airport each month, a spokesperson told Drive, with authorities submitting all relevant information to state and federal police for further investigation. Any proceeds generated from the sale will go to the Federal Government.
While the problem appears to be less prevalent across other parts of the country, Perth Airport has also identified it as an issue, with an airport spokesperson telling Drive, “Perth Airport currently has 15 abandoned vehicles onsite. These will be advertised in the coming months”.
According to the spokesperson, the last notification prior to that was submitted to local newspaper The West Australian in February 2023, with 12 deserted vehicles listed in the report.
Between 2014 and 2015 Perth recorded as many as 100 abandoned vehicles, according to the local news outlet.
Meanwhile, an Adelaide Airport spokesperson said that finding deserted cars at its parking facilities is rare, with only two to three examples identified per annum in recent years.
“While it is difficult to pinpoint who is responsible, our anecdotal evidence suggests backpackers are among those who leave vehicles at the airport,” they told Drive.
Unclaimed vehicles found at Adelaide Airport are checked by police, and if authorities can't find the owner, the vehicles are then sold through auction.
A spokesperson for Melbourne and Canberra airports told Drive that abandoned vehicles are not an issue at its sites, while Darwin Airport declined to comment.
Drive has reached out to Hobart Airport, as well as the Australian Airport Association, and will update this story if a response is received.
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
