IF you’re planning a picnic this summer, get ready to pay for the privilege as the State Government rakes in millions of dollars in fees for prime pieces of parkland.

Expensive exercise ... Bernadeth Caslangen, holding daughter Dianne, celebrates a family member's birthday at Parramatta Park yesterday. Picture: Craig Greenhill Source: The Daily Telegraph

The tradition of sending out a family picnic scout at dawn to reserve a barbecue shelter, and taking turns to guard it zealously until the rest of the party arrives, is all but gone.

The Government and its relevant statutory authorities are the biggest beneficiaries when it comes to hiring public open spaces for private use.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Sydney Olympic Park Authority, the Botanic Gardens and the Parramatta Park Trust rake in millions of dollars annually from the exclusive hire of shade.

Many parks already ban portable structures such as shade tents that need to be pegged into the ground.

At Parramatta, picnickers can hire shelters and tables at any number of the council’s 300 parks and reserves from $82.50 a day.

The Caslangens, who paid $110 to reserve a gazebo in Parramatta Park yesterday, said it was expensive but worth it on crowded days.

But the Hopkins family, who have had an annual picnic at the popular park for 34 years, did not know it cost to reserve the space and said that if portable structures were banned they would end their picnic tradition.

“That’s definitely wrong. It’s a public place,” family member Wayne Katen said.

Picnic shelters at sprawling Fagan Park or the Galston Recreation Reserve can be held from $95 a day.

And anyone keen to secure the gazebo in Swain Gardens, at Killara, or the rotunda in Wahroonga Park can arrange it through Ku-ring-gai Council from $40 for four hours.

The rotundas at Observatory Hill Park, Millers Point are so popular that Sydney City Council charges $570 a day for them.

And it’s not only local councils charging for shade.

Barbecue shelters cannot be reserved at Bicentennial Park, Homebush,  but from $195 families can book the large furnished shade sails at the Egret, Heron, Hill and Lake pavilions.

Even the jewels of Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay can be booked. Bare Island at La Perouse, Clarke Island, off Darling Point, and Rodd Island, in Iron Cove, can be yours for $236 for a few hours or up to $2200 for the day.