There is growing concern in some quarters – not just at the dwindling number of caravan parks in Australia – but at the way in which their character is changing.
Certainly in mining areas in states such as Queensland some parks appear to accommodate more workers than tourists as operators attempt to balance the books.
There are a number of parks in Central Queensland, for example, that are commonly booked out with workers for months at a time due to an accommodation shortage.
Caravanning Queensland’s CEO Ron Chapman says it has become an even more acute problem as some parks have struggled to attract tourists after last summer’s floods.
“The mining boom has certainly presented us with another real challenge,” Mr Chapman told www.thegreynomads.com.au. “If a van park operator is approached by a company which wants to book out the whole park and do so for the long term … what is the operator to do? He has to put bread on the table for his family?”
Mt Chapman said there was no way operators could realistically be expected to keep half the park ready for tourists … just in case they came.
There are fears also that this is not just a short-term issue. The Central Highlands Regional Council has recently discovered it is virtually powerless to stop so-called caravan park developers from building a new park in Blackwater which will boast a whopping 426-units and just 20 van sites.
The developers are apparently exploiting a loophole in the former Duaringa Shire planning scheme’s definition of a caravan park which states: “Any combination of the parking of caravans or relocatable homes, camping or pitching of tents, or the use of cabins with a maximum total area of 80sq m for each cabin, whether for the travelling public or long-term residents.”
The local council’s development services manager Luke Lankowski is not impressed.
“They’re planning a large cabin and van site… but for all intents and purposes it is workers’ accommodation,” he told the Central Queensland News. “It’s fair to say this is a major failing of that planning scheme document identifying workers’ accommodation accurately.”
Mr Lankowski said the planning department had pushed for 60% to be van sites in discussions with Neri Investments, but was hamstrung.
“In later discussion with the developer he was not keen on reducing the density of workers’ accommodation for the caravan park,” Mr Lankowski said.
Neri bought the vacant greenfield 3 hectare site in 2009. According to the Central Queensland News, its development application was lodged two days before the Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA), took over responsibility for the future development and master planning of Blackwater.
Mr Lankowski said the project would not have been approved under the ULDA interim planning scheme. A council-wide planning scheme to be introduced next year will redefine the definitions of caravan park and workers’ accommodation and development standards.
