Bunbury to trial new RV overnight rest areas

Published: November 1, 2018

The City of Bunbury could be starting a two-year trial of several overnight rest areas as early as November 1.

The local council has just approved the trial for RV stops at Wyalup Rocky Point, Ocean Drive and Scott Street, and Maidens Reserve.

The Bunbury Mail newspaper reports that, of the 35 submissions provided to the city by community members, 20 supported the proposal, 11 were against the idea, and four were neutral.

Issues raised during the submission phase included the potential impact on ratepayers and local caravan parks.

However, City of Bunbury Mayor Gary Brennan, said controls would be in place.

“It’s not made so that everybody can go and camp there … they’ll have to have a fully self-contained van,” he said. “Two years is a reasonable period considering some travellers are seasonal travellers.”

Mr Brennan acknowledged the concerns raised issues regarding security, but was confident the three rest areas would remain safe.

The Bunbury Mail reports that Mt Brennan said the trial would help the council sort out any issues.

“Maidens Reserve is a protected picnic area and the other two are more exposed and very close to the CBD,” he said.  “I don’t see any issues with crime, but the benefit of doing a trial is that if there are issues we’ll know about them.”

Mr Brennan said that anybody wishing to stay in Bunbury for more than two nights would have to book into a caravan park.

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Its great to see that these stops are available noting the exorbitant price the caravan parks charge. As a grey nomads we like visiting the country towns and we prefer to spend our limited budget at the shops or at the local pub to support the community. We have noticed especially in WA that the prices for caravan parks remains high even in the off session so offering limited stay areas is a great benefit for us.And another issue we all are affected by is the price of fuel so having free stop overs helps all.
Congratulations Bunbury Council we will be using the ares and spending our money in town.

Well done Bunbury! We will certainly be giving them a try next year!

I take from different comments that Caravan Parks in these places are not local businesses. It appears that only “shops” & “pubs” are local businesses. Ever thought that spending some money in a Caravan Park also helps a local business in that town & helps keep people employed & helps that towns local economy. Me thinks it is a whinge by tight **** Grey Nomads.

Obviously you are a Caravan Park owner. If all the so called Grey Nomads came to your caravan park we would not all fit, but the biggest issue is pricing. Grey nomads only need very basic amenities and do not want any fancy waterslides or bouncing pillows. When caravan park owners wake up to this fact and charge a fair price you may get more of us using your parks.

Sheryl, sorry to burst your bubble, but no, I am not a Caravan Park Owner just a caravan traveller. My theory is that if I spend money at a Caravan Park for their conveniences, the money I spend will go to the Park Owner, then onto employees, who will spend their money locally. Either way, my money still ends up in their town. I do think Ralph may have a very valid point with regards to some travellers.

Not correct.
What if a c.p owner doesn’t spend money in their own town or employees. They might spend it overseas. Or interstate. Why pay 30 40 50 or more a night to just one business when that amount can be distributed across numerous business and you know for sure your cash is going directly yo the township

Well said Jed, plus they can only spend their limited funds for two days, then must move on. I like to stay in most towns for at least a week, to have a good look around.
I still spend money at local businesses like supermarkets, restaurants and service stations, as well as the caravan park.
It seems to me that these whingers have not got sufficient funds to be touring around this great country, and maybe should stay closer to home, and not have to spend so much on fuel.
And for the record, I am not a business owner, just a Grey Nomad, that loves traveling all over the countryside.
Cheers, Ralph.

Guess They are Doing it on their Budget.and It seems we have an will to travel.so what is your point so the people with a lesser income should stay home.would be nice to tell you to go but it is not allowed on this site

I agree with both Jed and Ralph. We have just returned 31st Oct from a trip up to Broome and back and managed to fund the 9 weeks from our income, just on $700 per week. We stayed at Cable Beach CP for 5 weeks in one hit at $350 per week. The rest of the time we asked for deals mostly stay 4 pay 3 nights. Carnarvon was the last on the way back stay 5 pay 4. By the way I have stayed in many parks in QLD NSW and SA over the years and they don’t miss you either unless you go bush. Too many want freebies everywhere. We owned accommodation in the Sth West for a number of years and in the winter months from mid June to end September we didn’t make ends meet.
We had to make it in the busy months.

Well said

Its not a winge if cp’s were a reasonable rate we would stay longer but sometimes just one or two nights is all we allow in the budget in a week so if it’s to expensive we go to a town where we can stay 2 nights. Also pubs, shops, mechanical repairs, supermarkets, fuel tourism activities & cp’s are business’s but we don’t give to RIP OFF owners that are only thinking about there $$$$

as above lol

The way I see it is that WA pricing is based on everyone being a highly paid FIFO worker or miner – I have generally found the pricing very expensive in WA – not only caravan parks, but general groceries have a premium price compared to the Eastern States. I think it is a good idea that Bunbury is trialling lower cost options for GN’s.

I was a resident of WA. Left 6 years ago because of high costs. When I had interstate visitors grocery shopping they all would immediately comment what is wrong with this place,,so expensive.

We live in country NSW & have recently returned from a trip to WA via the Gt Central Road up to Newman, Denham etc the back home taking 3 months to complete our trip this time. We have been to WA 3 times & have purchased our Explorex Caravan which was built in Wangara WA. We noticed that over the 3 trips the last one was very much more expensive than the previous trips. We heard this reference more than once that WA was an abbreviation of Wallet Attack & Margaret River is now know as Mark Up River. We are lucky that we have an extremely well constructed off road caravan that handled to WA outback with ease so we didn’t have to spend too much time in caravan parks, however we did support the locals wherever we went by eating out & purchasing fuel & groceries.

Sadly not all our grey nomads have a home to stay close to as some have sold whatever they had to fund their travel rig. I do agree with Ralph in some parts though, paying for a caravan site is expensive, but if you look at what people pay having a counter meal and a drink at the local hotel to support a town,in recognition of use of a free site you have paid for your site either way. So why not stay in a park, charge your batteries, fill your water tank, do your Laundry go for a swim or whatever you want,

Ruth, we have washing machine on board, gene for power and to charge batteries, alway get water, never had a problem yet, so would sooner spend money on groceries fuel etc, than be in a confined space paying for what we don’t need in caravan park. Time of year most of us travel swimming is not on our mind…to cold

Lock everything up nothing is safe

When Caravan Park owners realize that there are more then one kind of camper & they start to model there businesess to suit, they will all do better. Nobody wants to pay for something they don,t need or use. Think outside the box.

I think there is room for both. The CP now called a resort park in most places in eastern states I have noticed market themselves to a particular client at a price….while the many free sites around Australia are fine for the person on a budget.long live choice

Old jetty site would be better as is close to town centre need to have toilets and campers checked for grey water tanks

A free camp in Bunbury sounds ok, but there was no mention of a dump point to be put in anywhere nearby.

I go with Allen no mention of dump point.
Why is it though if I use all biodegradable product’s do I still need a grey tank?

We started our trip in WA. We have a 40ft bus that doesn’t fit into caravan parks.over east we stay in Showgrounds and sporting clubs that charge between $70 and $120 a week. They provide big spaces and showers and toilets. We now know why not many nomads come to WA.

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