Some grey nomads just prefer free camping
The popular grey nomad destination of Mount Gambier is looking into the possibility of establishing free camping areas.
Grant District Council is considering developing a framework and bylaws to set up free overflow camping sites
However, the issue has raised ‘some passion’ in the community with some supporting the move and others worried about the impact on caravan park operators.
The Border Watch newspaper reports that Mount Gambier caravan park operators are already concerned about low-cost camping at the city’s showgrounds, which they argue is stripping away their business and threatening jobs.
The council however is eager to attract more tourists to the area.
“It is acknowledged that there is room in the industry for both forms of camping – free and within caravan parks,” said council chief executive officer, Trevor Smart
Cr Shirley Little has welcomed the initiative, but is also keen to ensure that free campers don’t leave rubbish behind..
“Quite a few people use the site at Tarpeena, I think it has benefited our community,” Cr Little told the Border Watch. “They have supported local businesses because they have a wander up the bike track and have a meal at the pub.”
However, peak caravan park representative body SA Parks has called on all councils to consider the effects on caravan parks operating in close proximity to free sites.
Association President Richard Davis believes councils are misinformed to believe that offering low cost camping spots is the only way to encourage caravan and camping enthusiasts into their area. He said research showed persons staying in commercial caravan parks spent more per visit than those who camped for free.
“SA Parks and the caravan park industry fully support the idea of bush or freedom camping and also the provision of roadside stops for safety reasons,” he said. “However, we do have an issue with the provision of non-compliant camping areas in close proximity to existing caravan parks.”
SA Parks has called on council not to establish free sites less than 20 kilometres from a commercial facility and focus on areas off the beaten track.
A recent move by the nearby Wattle Range Council to develop free camping areas also triggered a strong backlash from caravan operators in that district.
* Do you support the Mount Gambier free camping proposal? Do you think the idea of free camping should have to be at least 20km from commercial van parks? Comment below.
As usual, the caravan park operators assume that if there is no free camping, we will all just queue up to go into their van parks like docile sheep. We are becoming rather fed up of saying the same thing over and over – many of us will just bypass the town and go somewhere else. We are self contained and do not need all of the facilities of a van park, so we will not pay out for something we do not need or want.
20 K from the town is too far for a free camp if they want campers to patronise the local businesses. We usually do not want to unhitch at free camps, and like to walk to the shops and get what we need.
good comment Bev. Well said
20 kms!! Good grief, it’d be closer to go back to the last town!!!!! How about on the town fringe or maybe 2k out. That’s a good distance for some exercise with a shopping bag on the return.
Totally agree with Bev’s comment.
“SA Parks has called on council not to establish free sites less than 20 kilometres from a commercial facility and focus on areas off the beaten track.”
Why don’t SA Parks get its members to have sites in their parks for say $15 a night and then see what happens I don’t think they will be complaining no more.
Stevo
$15 a night for power or $10 no power that’s all it should be come on wake up we are not going to pay your highway robbery!!! get with it or shut up your complaints, We are have been telling park owners far to long now but they just play the same old record.
That’s my view anyway Thanks for reading.
Stevo
WE ARE PRESENTLY CAMPING IN NSW BATHURST SHOWGROUND AT PRESENT, $150PW WHICH IS AFFORDABLE TO SOME BUT NOT TO OTHERS…WHY NOT KEEP IT AT $10 PER NIGHT WITH A TERM OF NO MORE THAN 3 TO 4 WEEKS PER VAN NO LONG TERMERS ALLOWED! SO AS TO GIVE EVERYONE A CHANCE!
I get sick of greedy park owners having this mentality, ban the camping and this place will be full….NO it won’t! We used to exclusively use caravan parks, now with the prices they charge, for a bit of grass and $1 worth of power a day, we now free camp only using van parks for a night when we need to do the washing and have a hot shower. For too long councils have ignored the fact that free campers still buy fuel, food, drinks, etc etc go on tours, but I can tell you that where I strike a town that is against free camping I don’t stop or buy there, fairs fair in my book, if you don’t want me there then I guess you don’t want my money either….
Take a look at the small towns that have tried this, is only a matter of a month or two after they are black banned by the travellers via the web and word of mouth that the councils are pleading for the travellers to come back and “bugg.r the greedy van park owner who was never going to get these people in the first place. Lots of people just like peace and quiet, they don’t want to be packed in like sardines listening to loud music, yelling kids etc. so to recap we used to use parks all the way but now you have priced yourself out of my market.
Fully agree Gary, times have changed with sites overpriced at mostly in coastal areas, a lot of free & low cost camps are being used a lot more now where the councils have opened up more freebies & these towns businesses a reaping the rewards from us grey nomads that stay & spend our dollars
a lot of the caravan parks have cabins, isnt that taking away motel business, We stay in caravan parks and showgrounds and the rest of the time we free camp, we feel like we are being told what to do, like what other people said we will by pass the town. We need to ban together and try and be able to have a choice.
We use free roadside camps when en route to our destination, most of which are not close to towns.
We recently free camped at Kingston for a week. We had meals and drinks at the hotel, fish and chips, op shop purchases, Foodland, iga, bought a book from the information centee and a gift purchase. take a leaf out of their book, what a wonderful welcoming town..thankyou Kingston we will be back
Kingston SE is awesome. The council employed managers for the caravan park they own, it’s not a privately run business now. Yet a large free camp RV site is no problem for them. All we want as self contained travellers is a neat and “secure” place for a night or 3 and a dump point. Provide them and visitors will come! We dont spend 10’s of thousands on a self contained rv or van to pay $40 to $100 a night for facilities we dont need!
Many caravan parks have extra space. They could easily set up very cheap sites for self contained vans. We don’t need pools, jumping pillows etc. if you want to do washing you pay for that any way. Every one good win. No free camps, a lot less grey nomads then see who starts to complain.
They do have self contained sites. They’re called unpowered sites? But at only $5 -$10 less than a powered site it’s a rip off. But unpowered site users still use the showers and toilets etc. We wouldn’t have to. Just dont give us an amenities block key and only charge us 10-15 dollars
If caravan park operators were really smart they would see the opportunity to utilise under occupied unpowered camping sites within their parks by offering parking to caravans and motorhomes for $10-15 per vehicle per night. These customers only require access to water and a dump point. Would it not be better for the business to have these spots earning money? But no they just have a whinge about the competition which really is not competition because they do not offer low cost/low services sites. The towns that have seen that there is more than one market for accommodation and provided that level of facility are the ones that will win come the end of the day.
I think you pretty much said it all. other very good comments from others as well.
Sounds good to me $15 for an unpowered site, You only need 160 litres of water for your tanks and empty your toilet, charge up all your rechargeable gear at the camp kitchen and cook dinner as well. Park owner is making a killing. I love free camping but as another post said in transit. and no I am not a park owner and yes some do charge too much but someone has to pay their bills.
And so say all of us
Why don’t c/p put in pay for use water and power then and shut up
We stayed at the Mt Gambier showgrounds for a week. The grass was long, the ground was muddy, the shower was gravity fed, the caretaker was a grump and the cost was minimal. It suited us. We had a counter meal for lunch and bought fresh supplies for dinner. We bought a queen size latex matress to replace our old foam one. We bought fuel and toured the district. If there had not been a reasonably priced place to stay, we would have stayed one night only. Can’t councils grasp this.
Tony Thorne , you hit the nail on the head , this is what lots of us have been saying for ages , we do spend money , a sometimes lots of it , why should the parks demand that we stay there , would the pubs , and restaurants demand that we all spend our money there , and not have a picnic in a park , with our own sandwich and a drink ?
Where/how was this research done “research showed persons staying in commercial caravan parks spent more per visit than those who camped for free.” I find this unbelievable, unless they are comparing backpackers with a family on holidays.
Dunno Tom, The research may be right. There’s a lot of us doing it tuff. I can only afford my trailer with my tent. Hardly enough to fill the tank to get there….. BUT wherever I go and recommend I have THREE children and their families ready to “glamp” for a week. Everyone please consider the knock-on effect. Please someone and they’ll recommend you to the end of the earth. —> Rik
The extra money is spent on the accommodation in the van parks and the cost of the facilities needed to do washing etc…now we beat that by carrying a generator and a little portable washing machine plus a portable shower etc. etc etc if the van parks believe they have it all they should try the nomad style a while!!!! then see reality…No more van parks for me and I am veteran at the nomad life..
Lets face it. Many vans today have the ability to be self sufficient with at least their power requirements so don’t always need a commercial site for that aspect of their travels. Dumping is another issue. However not all Grey Nomads have the capacity to pay for camping and then spend spend as Mr Davis suggests.
KFT and Geoff Hunt, are right on the ball, ALL SELF CONTAINED TRAVELLERS , want is a safe place to park, and access to a fresh water tap, and a dump point, I am sure if the park owners would get off their high horses,and wake up to the fact, ? that we cannot, and will not be forced into High priced Caravan Parks, In a Town like Mt Gambier, I challenge just ONE PARK, to offer a Cheap area [ say, $10-15 ] to safely leave the van on site to tour the district, and only allow access to the fresh water and dump point, only, ??? Then i feel sure that you will get a lot of budget travellers staying for 2,3,4, nights or maybe even a week or two ?? and in that time the whole community can and Will benefit from the travellers dollar,
Sure 10 dollars a night is not a lot for one van ?? and even if they stay a week it is only 70 dollars, But then you are only supplying a park spot, NOT use of showers, toilets,swimming pool, playgrounds, power, etc etc — $70 Just to let someone park on your property for a week, ??? Who Knows ?? the word may get around,, ?? and you may get 10 Vans staying a week,, that would be $700 Just to supply a safe park space ?? God forgive !! you may even get 20 vans staying a week, That would be $1400 a week just to let them park safely — OR ?? you can just carry on as usual, whinging and wondering, WHY we don’t flock to high priced parks we cannot afford, ?? you have been told before, ?? But you keep reading the same page, ?? turn the page over and move along with the story, ?? It could be a Win, Win for all, The Parks, The Traveller, And most importantly, All the other businesses in your town will also get a share of the travelling Dollar,
or we can all pull up somewhere in Mount Gambier, have a quick look around town, then move off without spending ANY money at all ??
”THINK” ?? about it ??
Hear , hear , a very good post .
All comments most valid especially those offering a joint benefit solution. Note that the responses from CP operators are DEAFENING! Excuse the upper case but they might actually listen
Well said. Been saying the same for years.
We quite often free camp but decided recently to use a caravan park for a week due to an event that we wanted to attend. The park was booked out for two of the seven so we would have to move to an unpowered site. The park operator then told us it would be $28.00 per night for an unpowered site. Guess who didn’t get our business. We are fully self contained. Didn’t even need to use his amenities.
I agree with most of the above comments. We travelled for six months last year supporting many small town communities if they provided free or low cost camping. If it wasn’t for free camping we would have only been away maybe half the time! For the six months we were on the road with free camps and caravan parks when required we averaged a total cost of $14 per night average. No way could we have afforded $30 to $40 pn. So bring on more cheep or free camps!
So Mount Gambier caravan park operators are concerned about competition. Nothing new in that it is the same old story Australia wide.
I do however have a question, do these caravan parks operators who fear competition have small shops, fuel and gas sales and have cabins in there park ever considered that they are in fact providing unwanted competition?
Would they not be competing against fuel outlets, small enterprise shops and motels?
Yet how often do we hear of fuel outlets, motels and shops whinging about it when faced with competition?
As a genreal rule they don’t, they work on the old principle of why get mad, get even.
To get even they make their business enterprise more attractive to the consumer.
Yes and in todays economy with large fuel tanks or dual fuel we dont have to really stop in Mt Gambier DO WE! so take a lesson Caravan Park Owners…cough up on the reality or choke on a lost business life..
I was in Tarwin Lower yesterday, saw the NO Camping signs on the empty parking areas around fishing platforms and the river, and thought about the saying “cutting off your nose to spite your face”, maybe if they weren’t sucked in by the greedy caravan park, some of the other businesses might be open, the pub and petrol outlet and general store would be more profitable etc etc. There were a steady stream of grey nomads in self contained vehicles coming thru and checking out the Venus Bay beaches and then GOING.
YES! This happening across Australia unfortunately, or is fortunately! The Grey Nomad is getting Younger and Younger too!
We recently stayed in a small towns sports ground for $8 a night with WATER & POWER! Wake up or shut up CP owners!
I get angry with the caravan park bodies attempts to fight against councils opening up free camp sites or low-cost camp sites in sports grounds. In my case where the caravan is home for me and my 2 little four-legged companions, my caravan park options are often very limited because so many park operators themselves exclude me because they do not allow pets. If caravan park operators want more business, they could look at ways that they could welcome people travelling with pets, rather than turning away their business thus forcing such people to seek out the showground or a free camp, or else to just move on to another town.
I would rather have dogs next to me than kids any day parents now days ,I don’t know but they just let their kids do what ever they want .
Of course “persons staying in commercial caravan parks spent more per visit than those who camped for free.” They had to pay the $35-$45-$55 per night to the money-grubbing CP owners. I recently stayed in the (LargeNumber) CP in Port Hedland for $54/night and to tell the truth it was pretty ordinary.
The CP owners (particularly the chains) say that they have to recover their costs – I have a strong suspicion that the reason their costs are so high is due to most CP’s now having more cabins than van sites, thus needing to pay large wages bills for the housekeeping staff and laundry/replacement costs for linen etc. Perhaps they should separate the cabin/chalet/villa side of the business from the caravan sites and run them under separate business palns. Come on, if the Shire of Windorah can run a (site-only) caravan park with power, hot showers, coin laundry, treated water etc for $5 per night then private enterprise must be able to do it for a reasonable sum of, say, $20-$25
So true Mike. The only time they fill all the cabins is in peak season. Caravan owner growth has blown out of of all proportions in the last 20 years but the caravan parks are using sites for more cabins. Go figure
We are travelling around Australia in our motorhome, most van parks don’t cater for the size of our vehicle, and the prices are ridiculous, we are totally self sufficient and don’t want need pools, kids play areas and noisy drunks around us. The moment we hear about unfriendly R.V towns and greedy park owners, we don’t even stop to spend our money.AND MY WIFE LOVES TO SPEND !! So wake up councilors and van park owners.. do the right thing by us and you will reap the rewards .
A prime example of a win win is Ravenshoe in the Atherton tablelands you can free camp on the main street of the town almost next to toilet blocks and a gold coin donation will get you a hot shower and most people visit the 2 supermarkets and bakery etc. They closed the free camp for a week at one stage and the town lost $14,00.00 income in that week, the free camp was quickly re-opened. Smart thinking.
It ain’t rocket-science is it. So what’s the first step? How about making it mandatory for every CP owner to read the GN feedback !!? EVERY COMMENT ON THIS thread could (more or less) be replaced with one line – ATTENTION COUNCILS : CHEAP/FREE PARKING = MORE BUSINESS ACTIVITY. CP’S NEED LESS STARS – NOT MORE!!
We recently camped at the Sale Showgrounds in VIC for $19 a night powered. That was great but thought I would mention one of the local parks there actually offered us a site for $10 a night…. Unpowered, no water and no code to the amenities block. I thought this was a fair option given we have our own amenities onboard. Would like to see more of this around the country. Best thing was, it was in an area away from the concrete slab sardine sites! Plenty of grass surrounding the area.
I live in Mandurah W.A, a beautiful area surrounded by 1000s of acres
of waterways and estuaries,which could have dozens of lovely o/night
free or nearly free campsites.Unfortunately our stupid council has erected
NO CAMPING signs everywhere.I think it is quite embaressing not
to allow free camping around our waterways.The Head Honcho of the
local Chamber of Commerce owns a C/P so I imagine the pressure
would be on Council to restrict free camping in our area. What a loss
this must be to our business community overall
Hi I’m a boandik womben and also homeless right now, free campsites are needed both for struggling people as well as for connecting to the natural landscape of boandik country.
Some businesses need to start letting go and return to uniting together as a loving community somehow.
Also not all people own caravans and some of the rules of having a self contained caravan needs altering as it is quite discrimitory, camping is camping.