Highway travellers and national park visitors are increasingly expecting to find a better standard of facilities than they have become used to … and improvements are slowly taking place.
In Tassie, for example, work on a new picnic shelter and toilet facilities at the Franklin River Nature Trail within Tassie’s Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park has just been completed.
Minister for Parks and Environment, Nick Duigan, said the spot was a key State Emergency Service Driver Reviver site and provides a stop for travellers to rest, rejuvenate and enjoy the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
“This site now includes a one-kilometre loop accessible walk through mixed mature eucalypt and rainforest species, following the Surprise and Franklin Rivers,” he said.
Picnic shelter and toilet facilities at the Franklin River Nature Trail. PIC: Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service
“The new facilities also include two new toilet cubicles which also provide wheelchair and ambulant access.”
Minister Duigan said the upgrades also paid homage to the area.
“Recovered celery top pine from the old facilities have been used to line parts of the upgraded facilities, including the new picnic shelter,” he said. “It not only looks fabulous but is a great re-use of Tasmanian timber.”
Minister Duigan said the Government recognised the need to continually invest in national parks to keep the state’s ‘competitive advantage’ in its natural environment
“Improving accessibility in our Parks and Reserves is a key part of our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future,” he said.
Away from facilities within national parks, there has also been a lot of attention focussed recently on the apparent shortage of adequate rest areas for grey nomads and other motorists on highways.
This clearly has safety implications.
In NSW, for example, driver fatigue is one of the top three factors leading to fatal crashes on the state’s roads, contributing to at least 21% of heavy vehicle fatal crashes in regional areas in the five years since December, 2019.
Are you a Grey Nomad member yet? Click here to find out about the discounts, competitions and other benefits on offer
A decent clean unisex drop toilet would be our minimum requirement, we don’t have an ensuite.
Travellers with ensuites in their RV should actually use it for what its supposed to be used for.
It always amuses me that when travelling from Sydney to Canberra the first park as enter the capital of Australia has one only LONG DROP toilet
Nothing wrong with a l9ng drop. Cheapest way to provide a convenience. Saves a lot of energy and materials.
We started caravanning in 2014 so by some standards we we are still newby’s. But we we have covered over 100,000km in our old Regent Royston 21.5 footer, lovely caravan which did us well and towed by a Holden Colorado. We only used rest stops as a rest area to have a cuppa and something to eat as we had our own facilities onboard.
However, about 3 years ago, we had a lightbulb moment. Why are we towing this huge 2.6 tonne van around using 13.5L/100km, when we use it mainly for sleeping in?
So we sold it and bought a 13 footer which over time we converted it to a fully electric van. It has all the mod cons, toilet/shower, reverse cycle aircon, induction hot plate, airfryer, hot water system, fridge/freeze,r240v supply and the infrastructure to support it all. Just the other week added Starlink internet so we can keep in contact anywhere in Australia and watch our favorite TV shows.
Back in May we got our Electric Vehicle (EV) after waiting 9 months from the order date. We had been hoping to be the first to do the big lap with an EV+caravan but that’s been done now and then there is the family of 4 doing the same thing and will be home soon after a 9 month holiday, towing a 2T van with an EV.
More than any other facilities at rest stops I’d like to see an EV charger at the the rest stops were possible even if solar powered, as that is the future.
In a couple of weeks we are heading off to East Gippsland from Yeppoon taking an inland route which means stopping in a lot of small towns at caravan parks to charge the EV overnight and as we head into NSW & VIC we will have enough chargers on the way, our total cost including caravan parks and charging will be about a 10th’s of taking our Colorado.
So much looking forward to our adventure.
Sorry for the long post but I’m passionate about nature and what we can do to help.