In a shock move, tents have been banned from three campgrounds on Queensland’s North Stradbroke Island over the Easter period.
Minjerribah Camping, the organisation which manages the island’s eight camping grounds, has barred tents at Home Beach, Adder Rock, and Amity Point … and it has imposed stiff limits on camper numbers elsewhere.
Its website tells campers no tent bookings can be taken at the three beauty spots due to Covid restrictions to protect campers and the local indigenous people.
Campers can still book a caravan, camper trailer site, cabin or a specially-designed eco tent at the three grounds.
The Courier-Mail reports that Minjerribah Camping has also capped the number of campers at each site elsewhere to four, forcing larger families to book and pay for two sites.
In a statement on its website, Minjerribah Camping said tent camping had not been permanently banned from Minjerribah Camping and had not cancelled any bookings for Easter.
“Minjerribah Camping remains a financially robust and efficient entity,” the statement said.
However, one long-time Straddie camper, Grant Anderson, told the Courier-Mail he was unable to book his regular tent site at Home Beach for the annual Easter family holiday.
“This is rubbish,” he said. “Cylinder Beach campground is packed with tents and is not very Covid safe,” he said. “This is very disappointing for my family and others … I assume they are looking at putting in eco tents to make more money, I find this discrimination against people with tents.”
The president of the island’s Chamber of Commerce, Col Battersby, has said it was a ‘curious decision’ just weeks out from the Easter holidays
“All of a sudden, we find two days ago there has been a unilateral decision, without any real consultation and the bottom line is … the Easter weekend there is probably 3000 less people that are going to be staying overnight on the island,” he said. “That’s really going to make a difference to the small little businesses over there, the fish and chip shop, the pub, the bowls club … and, at the end of the day, that costs jobs.”
If people were unified they could simply boycott the Island completely to send a powerful message to those discriminatory greedy parasites…
Its all in line with Labors anti citizen policies They seem to be cutting us off at every turn.They have been systematically preventing us from all activities that we assumed were human rights, Travel, assenmbly, protest, usual holiday periods and travel . Why I dont know but there appears a definite control and management agenda at play.
Im not a civil libertarian.. but I remember my Dad saying that Govts slowly make restrictions and choke the freedoms that were our rights that our forefathers fought for. And over the years Ive seen it happen more and more.
Any excuse or reason, including Covid, seems to give the people in power the right to restrict or limit our way of life as we knew it.
Slim Dusty sang “Big frogs in little puddles laying down the law..
Tieing bows in red tape and don’t know what their for….I thought our soldiers went to war to keep Australia free..but big frogs in litte puddles are choking you and me”
It won’t be long before the powers to be, start demanding self contained tents and banning c.vans and campers that are not self contained at Nat. Parks and bloodywell everywhere. Before long, camping witl become a rich mans sport/.activity.
Seems reasonable to me – a long-time camper – tenters rarely have toilets, or much in the way of personal washing facilities. “down to the creek” for a wash! But I don’t agree with the bs blaming china virus either.
follow the money?
I agree with Ric Moffet
lol,won’t bother us,since Qld hospitals “for queenslanders”,we decided Byron to the boarder is now our summer run also don’t have to worry about boarders closing.
saves fuel and gives more time to relax,I’m loving it.(ok were loving it)
Maybe these camp sites all of a sudden have become “SACRED SITES”
qld has been winging about lost tourism because they shut the border everytime someone sneezes, and yes they didnt want to share there hospitals.. now they are gouging money out of anybody going there..let them sink i say they are doing it to themselves plenty other states will welcome the tourist dollar..i for one wont be giving my dollars to qld
Crikey, you guys all sound like Trump supporters.
No facts just conspiracy theory’s.