As grey nomads abandon their long-planned trips and park up their rigs, caravan parks and camping areas that are normally bustling hives of holidaymaking activity are becoming veritable ghost towns.
Like so many others, the owner of the River Gum Tourist Park in St George, Queensland, Ivan Bradley, is shell-shocked.
“We’ve currently got three caravans left in our park, with two of them who live on the road and have nowhere to go,” he told the Balonne Beacon. “We are still operating for the moment, but it’s nearly a waste of time because hardly anyone is coming through.”
Mr Bradley said while one of the grey nomads has booked in for the next couple of weeks to “wait it out and see what happens,” the high rates they are paying for electricity and operating costs is not making it financially feasible.
“We had heaps of bookings for the season and were so excited at the start of the year for how promising it looked, but obviously now they’ve all been wiped out,” he told the Balonne Beacon. “It’s one of those things because everyone’s in the same boat but it’s disappointing to see that there’s not much support for small businesses … there doesn’t seem to be any packages for those self-employed and that’s a big problem.”
While Mr Bradley and his wife Ann rely on travellers and grey nomads passing through town for their livelihood, they said they would support the Balonne Shire’s decision if they decided to ban tourists like other south west towns have implemented in the past week.
“Of course, I would be feeling disappointed that I would have to close my business but the safety of the town is the main priority,” Mr Bradley said. “You wouldn’t want the tourists bringing any viruses to town and feeling like you’re responsible.”
We are at home, our planned trip to the gulf is off this year. But on the bright side, well for us anyway, we downsized to a small beachfront cottage. So it’s walking on an almost deserted beach each morning and pottering in the vegetable garden. Next best thing to travelling.
We are one of those travelling grey nomads with no permanent address and are holed up in a caravan park for the duration in a little town in Western Queensland. The park is full – that is the maximum number of vans are here that correctly adheres to the distancing rules (which makes it barely half full) and the reason we came here is that we are all on en-suite sites which gives us all security. We are so grateful that we are one of the ‘chosen few’ that are allowed to stay in considerable safety during this difficult time.