a b s t r a c tThere is a sizable literature about the factors shaping park visitation and use e especially for urban parks, including (i) geographic (e.g. proximity), (ii) socio-cultural (e.g. population characteristics) and to a lesser extent, (iii) individual psychometric factors (e.g. attitudes and values). Yet comparatively little is known about how factors related to distance may affect peri-urban national park use, particularly outside the United States. This paper reports on research investigating distance-related factors affecting use of a periurban national park in Brisbane, Australia. This study found that older visitors live closer to the park while younger visitors travel further to use it. Surprisingly, travel distance did not vary with the type of recreational activities that users were conducting in the park. These results have implications for park planning and management including user demand for different recreational activities in peri-urban national parks. Results are useful for scholars using distance decay models to explain travel behaviour, evidencing the empirical veracity of the model in different places and across different service types. The findings are especially important for geographers because they demonstrate that assumptions about uniform park catchments may be unsupported and need to be empirically validated.

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People's reasons for visiting national parks have been well researched. So too have their park activities and how diverse activities potentially affect visitors' park experiences (e.g. perceptions of overcrowding). Far less research has examined how park users' environmental values might affect their perceptions of other users and the appropriateness of different activities-a potential source of conflict. Relationships between personal environmental values and environmental and social perceptions are complex and interactive in the context of park visitation. Visitors' encounters with other users can powerfully affect their experience and enjoyment of parks, in turn reflecting such factors as values-related expectations and judgments in the context of national parks. Personal and social values may also play an important role in influencing whether different activities are perceived as 'out of place' in the context of national park place meaning, yet the conceptualization of values within geographic literature on parks remains comparatively weak. This paper utilizes a definition of values, derived from a concise review of the geography and social psychology literatures, to explain the results of survey research we undertook within national parks in Queensland, Australia. We use a 'values-behavior hierarchy' conceptual framework to consider how the personal environmental values of a sample of park visitors (n=404) potentially affected patterns of park visitation, user activities, and user conflicts. Findings suggest that visitors' environmental values shaped how they perceived other park users and the appropriateness of their activities. This has international implications for geographic research and other disciplines and professions involved in national park visitation, park use, and human impacts, on and of these powerful places.

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