Grey nomads and other travellers are being told to stay away from the WA tourist mecca of Exmouth … unless they’ve booked accommodation ahead of time!
In a statement, the Shire of Exmouth said that, while it was great to see the region so popular, visitors were ‘at risk of loving it to death’.
Acting Shire President Matthew Bird told the ABC that the decision to deter tourists was necessary to preserve the region’s pristine environment.
“Our community feels very strongly that if we are going to maintain a premium tourism destination and experience for the visitors, then we need to make sure people are appropriately accommodated,” Mr Bird said. “It’s a difficult decision for the council to make, obviously because we are the state’s top tourism town, and we are regularly rated as one of the premium destinations in Australia.”
Accommodation provider Sheila Beer said the town could not currently handle the massive tourism numbers.
“Last year, a lot of people came up, and for a lot of people, it wasn’t that good an experience because there were just too many people in town,” Ms Beer told the ABC. “We just didn’t have the facilities to cope with thousands and thousands of people.”
Ms Beer said that some tourists camped illegally because campgrounds were packed to capacity.
“At one stage, I reckon there were about 20,000 people in town, which is a huge amount — there’s two and a half thousand normally,” she said. “People woke up and found people camping on their front lawn.”
The council is warning that tourists who chose to camp illegally this season will face fines, and they say ranger services have been upgraded to enforce compliance.
Mr Bird told the ABC that the decision to deter tourists who did not have accommodation booked was a short-term solution to an ongoing issue, and that the community was working hard to improve infrastructure to support growing tourist numbers.
“The issue for us is the next three years, and we have to manage that in terms of being able to keep delivering a quality, premium tourism experience, but also making sure we don’t erode that experience through negative impacts to the natural environment,” he said. “We’re very mindful of getting that balance right, and if you can’t get accommodation for this season, then we certainly encourage you to plan ahead and book for next season.”
Well that is a shame for we will never go to this town that do not want our tourist dollar.
It’s not that they don’t want your tourist dollar. Their point is that with the place so overcrowded people won’t get value for the dollars they spend. If you have a booking come and enjoy it, but if you don’t you will be disappointed.
It is becoming a national pastime to tear Australia apart and slam up borders. OK then go to hell. When you cry for lack of easy tourist money to fuel your layback lifestyle all you will get is a big laugh. This selfish nonsense attitude is everywhere now. Im getting ill at the attitudes of theses ahem, fellow Australians. that have slithered out of obscurity under the cover of covid hysteria.
We went to Albany a few years ago and found after visiting the ANZAC Memorial, a Museum and a few nice ocean views, other than a stroll around the town that there was not much else to keep us coming back anyway. Must have changed since then!
Hmmmm
Maybe just avoid the place. Not really a great destination anyway much like rest of boring WA
Totally agree.
Overpriced and overrated
We managed to get a booking only because we booked 6 months prior to when we wanted to be there ,but you have to be quick
So, the council/community have known about the lack of accommodation for at least 6 months. Open up a couple of acres of bush, a few Portaloos and we have a free camp for as many as needed. Oh boy! How long does it take the locals to react!!! Instead they say “don’t come here”. Brilliant.
I’ll be back. Swimming with the whale sharks was one of the highlights of my life.
Well lucky you Andreas, we tried to do the swim with the Whale sharks 10 years back and were told that if they could not find a Whale shark on the day that we did not get a refund of our $400.00 each but would be put on a “wait list”.
But that wait could take a week or more as the swim was almost booked out continuously. Due to the fact that the Tourist Operator could not say if we wait listed we both could get on the boat together; and at the price of a site at the Ned Kelly Caravan park; we decided to move on. We found WA; as one other writer said; to be expensive and most operators had a “Take it or leave it” attitude.
Yep, very boring over here in the West. The state with the best economy in the world as recently reported. But please continue to enjoy all the gst all other states “leach” from us :):) Rest assured those that do not visit us will definitely NOT be missed.
Maybe this so called fantastic WA should find their own vaccine and not “leach” it from others
Good one but, we more than likely paid for the vaccine with the gst we handed over :):):) At the end of the day I agree with Winston Churchill’s quote “I’d rather argue with a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me”.
The vaccine is being supplied by Federal Government to all Australians free of charge.
How pray tell is WA “leeching” from others?
Please explain!
Craig, They just don’t get it over there eh Cobber :):)
Wow Ray, you’re a good ambassador for your state.I hope your attitude isn’t an example of WA hospitality.
Michele, Michele, Michele, I do consider myself a good ambassador for beautiful Western Australia. But I do not tolerate whingers and whiners from the Eastern States. I would love folks like yourself to come over and enjoy our wonderful hospitality. Take care and travel safe.
Pretty typical these days. Destinations now only want those who can pay big money. Anyone like a humble motorhomer on a budget is not wanted.
Wouldn’t waste the time going in there. We went there a few years ago and couldn’t get into a caravan park. They have an overflow park that you can arrange through the information centre but it didn’t open until 6pm. When you get there before lunch and can’t buy lunch there at the weekend and there’s nowhere to park a van. It’s not an RV friendly town.
I think the article is good re Exmouth not negative just looking after their town. Lots of places in Australia are flogged to death. Will be more so now as overseas travel is out.
At the moment WA is booked solid at most of the popular tourist destinations. With Covid everyone is staying home and holidaying here so you can no longer just turn up and hope to get a bay in a park.
If we ever get back to anything approaching normal then it might ease up a bit but for now it’s a bit of a boom time for accommodation in WA.
I don’t particularly like the situation but we just have to live with it until this disease is over.
Sometimes I read these pages and I am amazed at all the whining. The town says they are full, so it seems to be OK to abuse them because it doesn’t suit YOU. There are now so many of us that we can’t all go where we want to, when we want to. I don’t much like it either, but surely we just need to adapt and get on with it
Hold on Ray, It was the eastern states revenue that supported WA for over a century before you lot were able to pay your way. Where would you be without the red dirt?
True, and WA has repaid that support many times over a,nd still is.
Exmouth has had this lack of infrastructure for at least 7 years that we have travelled around through WA avoiding excessive caravan park fees.. I would of thought that something would be done to capture the extra revenue rather than tell us to bugger off . Time will come….
We will continue to travel beautiful Australia including WA just avoiding unfriendly RV towns . Clovis permitting
I lived in the town for a short time many years ago and have visited several times since yet still enjoy.
Accommodation has always been an issue especially in peak time and everyone wants to be there at the same time.
Last year we were travelling back from Broome and heard that accommodation was fully booked but while disappointed, appreciated knowing in advance thus avoiding the 400kms plus deviation.
Have found many places fully booked over the years of travel but the current virus has just added to the problem.
I worked in the travel industry for nearly 30years and similar issues of booking worldwide was often experienced.
It’s plan ahead or take your chance.
Stop knocking Australia just because you cannot get what you WANT When You Want It.
I am travelling again shortly probably for a couple of months to Queensland and back across the north and down the west coast.
Personally I think it’s a good idea. You don’t want to turn into a ‘dump’ like the Gold Coast or other places that get overcrowded and ferals camp anywhere.
It’s gonna take the Council 3 YEARS to come up with a solution…….My suggestion in 2 MINUTES: Open the showground and put on shows and entertainment. Markets with local produce to feed the 20,000 grey nomads who will be free camping there. Sundowners at 5.00pm every day. The occasional free BBQ. Grey Nomad talent contests. Meet ups for single travellers. Use you imagination. Don’t be greedy. Most places are struggling to get visitors. You are going to think for 3 YEARS how to put 1 and 1 together to get 2. God help us all.
Typical response from many people here. First tell the town it isn’t worth visiting anyway as it is overrated and over priced, then tell them the solution is to put in a major free camp so everyone can go. And the image of retired travellers as freeloaders and self entitled gets perpetuated again. I am yet to see RV Unfriendly towns, but I see a lot of town unfriendly RV Travellers.
PS, we liked Exmouth and the area
Why go there…totally packed and very expensive. Self passed thru there.. Stayed off grid just north at a place called Boodojooroo at $ 10 nite and right near the surf…brilliant. I hate crowds..
Wow, I thought Grey Nomads were nice, friendly people. There are some here I hope never park next to. So Exmouth is full, get over it. There are places all over Australia that are bursting at the seems, due to no overseas travel. A lot of the free camping spots are overflowing with campers. I don’t complain, they got there before me, so I just move on. I am lucky. as I can set up in the bush anywhere, but I do plan ahead when I can. Really, if you don’t like it and just want to whinge, please stay home.