The New South Wales town of Parkes is seeking to improve the facilities it offers self-contained travellers in a bid to attract more grey nomads to the area.
A recent meeting of Parkes Shire Council heard that the community was missing out on a big opportunity to generate local income … and it resolved to set up a task force to see how it can give caravanners and motohomers more of what they want.
“Parkes shire experiences a constant flow of this type of traffic on a daily basis because of its ideal location on the Newell Highway,” said Councillor Belinda McCorkell. “Issues need to be addressed such as the provision of suitable parking for RVs and caravans to access the CBD areas in Parkes including temporary ‘drop off’ points, plus adequate signage to allow these tourists to park, find facilities and tourism points within our shire.”
Cr McCorkell told the Parkes Champion-Post newspaper that offering short-term parking close to the main shopping area was vital. She warned that not to do so risked seeing grey nomads continue on to the next township.
The councillor recognised that there was a danger that her comments might spark a backlash from local caravan parks and other accommodation operators … but she remained determined.
“The market I believe we should be sourcing is the one we currently aren’t capturing because these types of travellers don’t stay in this type of accommodation currently available within the shire,” she said. “This market has made a considerable investment in their caravans and RVs so they are fully self-contained and don’t require power and water so they are only looking for somewhere safe to park up at little to no cost.”
Cr McCorkell said neighbouring shires have addressed the issues through the provision of free or low-cost camping and parking.
“Parkes needs to address this important issue,” she said. “Most of us would be aware of the constant stream of caravans and RVs parked in shire truckstops and rest areas as they venture on their travels.”
Parkes Tourism Manager, Kelly Hendry, confirmed that Visitor Centre staff regularly receive visitor feedback about the lack of facilities for RV and caravan tourists.
Do you applaud the Parkes initiative? Have you been disappointed with the facilities currently on offer there? Comment below
We stayed in the showgrounds early this year and felt the grounds were not up to standard of other showgrounds we had stayed in.
We will not use Caravan parks unless we are forced to and then we will drive on to another town
We are travelling around Nth Qld. and have stayed in a lot of RV friendly towns. Some supply hot showers, water to your van, but no power, and we are happy to pay $15-20 per night. It is fantastic, and gives us the freedom to travel and pick a site anywhere within reason. Caravan parks are getting too expensive, especially in Nth Qld. where a lot of Victorians camp for 3 mths every year. They are outpricing themselves, and also we lose the pick of some sites. Nominal/free camping is getting very popular in Qld, and councils are doing a lot to make us grey nomads happy and also spend money in their town.
If a little town like Forbes, which is just up the road can have free camping in the middle of the town why can’t other little country towns do it as well. By doing this it will generate more income into the whole town not just the caravan parks.
We also stayed at the Show Grounds…..charged $18 per night….we only stayed the one night as was over priced ……we had stayed at better and cheaper…….would have liked to stay longer in Parkes
I have stayed in Forbes at the free camp site, but have never stopped in Parkes. Says it all really.
Why can Home Hill Qld have a whole street for over night campers which includes free showers plus the show grounds has now opened for travelers including showers and power what is wrong with councils or do they only cater for one or two greedy people
Stayed in freebies 60 nights out of 65 – most now are excellent, clean with good clean toilets, water and garbage bins – Parkes is behind – Eugowra has the showground, Forbes excellent freebie Maybe the caravan park in Parkes should look at what it has to offer. We only want a clean area to camp – we stayed four to five days in some – with a lot less to offer in town than Parkes.