The Queensland town of Gladstone is actively engaging with the community as it seeks new ways to encourage grey nomads and other RV travellers to stay in the area.
One of the areas that Gladstone Regional Council will be looking at is potentially offering more RV friendly parking in the region.
“Council would like to see more RV tourists turning off the Bruce Highway and exploring all that our region has to offer,” said Mayor Matt Burnett. “The Gladstone City area has plenty to offer for tourists and, in February 2021, a black and grey water RV dump point was installed along Cemetery Road in West Gladstone.”
While highway townships such as Miriam Vale, Bororen, Benaraby, Calliope and Mount Larcom are already convenient stopover points for travellers in the area, the Mayor said he would like to see those travellers branch out into other locations within our region.
“Traditional tourist locations such as Agnes Water, Seventeen Seventy, Boyne Island, Tannum Sands and areas within the Boyne Valley are also attractive options for RV travellers,” he said. “But council is keen to hear from the community regarding the best parking options for the Gladstone City area.”
The council is seeking feedback from the public to help it make a more informed decisions regarding how to progress with both the interests of the local community and travellers in mind.
“The aim of this community engagement exercise is to help inform future planning decisions and to further support our region’s position as an RV friendly region,” said Mr Burnett. “We hope to determine where the community and RV travellers feel the parking is best situated.”
Anyone interested can offer their thoughts on RV parking here.
We as nomads like something by water a river or the ocean or a dam. preferably with a dump point and toilets. Huge amounts of money is spent in towns we stay. For example food, fuel, alcohol just to name a few.
That’s fantastic. I rented in Gladstone for 6 months in 2020 because of the covid and couldn’t get back to Victoria. Love the place.
RV friendly. Parking dump point easy access as everyone is travelling within Australia. There are not enough places eg shiwgrounds cp ets so relax rules allowing travellers to stay in buil5 up areas legally, also allow more private homes averages, farms etc to be allowed to open their areas
Well done Gladstone, hope other shire’s follow suit
Funny, Gladstone council didn’t want Grey Nomads previously given the campaign waged against free/ low cost camping by local caravan park owners.
Must now realise what it has cost other local businesses will still not go there.
We rarely frequent $aravan Parks as we prefer the convenience of travellers camps (ie calliope) we look for dump points, water, wildlife, river or dam is good, away from highway (noise). For us restrictions such as ‘self-contained’ means there will be no toilet paper around and bush/walking tracks will be safer… also less zombie vans and more mature clientele. Near to a town means we will stock-up and walk the town, visit cafe’ and restaurants…might even take in a movie and/or museum
It is a great idea for Gladstone. ATM the closest is Calliope. If a dump point is already there why not use some suitable land. Calliope township does very nicely from us when we stay at Calliope. There is attractions to be seen which is missing now for a lot of travellers.
We travel with a camper trailer so toilets would be appreciated.
We have a fee friends thst also travel with camper trailers .
Port-a-pote is your answer .. essy to carry.. easy to use.. easy to empty in a dump point..
Making use of the Showgrounds would be a good start, with a dump point therein. Being close to town, the flow on would be great for the area.
Hi, we have found that there isn’t any caravan parking in town. Even the info centre doesn’t cater for caravans so you can’t find out info on what to do. RV parking at the shops for groceries would be handy aswell. We came into town to get info on what to do in the area and get food and alcohol and left with non as no parking. Next time we will bypass
Good on you Gladstone. We like most grey nomads like to stay in free spots. Dump point and water plus space. Caravan parks are too crowded together and Showgrounds are becoming very expensive. We always buy from the local butchers, bakery and other small local shops.
We usually stop at bearable, always very noisy and toilets always dirty and smelly, therefore we just continue on. Opening the showgrounds up would make a pleasant stopover and more inclined to stay and explore the town , a moderate fee is acceptable and expected.
gladstone did not want to know you when the mining boom was on. some of us long time travellers remember.they can do what they like we wont return. stevo
There is already a perfect, but under utilised, location for low cost camping in Gladstone – the SHOWGROUNDS. Central and plenty of room. The current showgrounds could be refurbished to improve what’s existing atm. Some camping has been happening there this year. Previously Gladstone was known as RV UNFRIENDLY to the grey nomad community. Good on them for this review of the situation.