Grey nomads could soon be free to legally stop for up to 48 hours at Coffs Harbour’s Jetty Foreshores.
The city council gave majority support to a proposal to allow self-sufficient motorhomes and caravans with their own water and grey water facilities to camp at the southern end of the Jetty.
However, they must purchase a permit from the Visitor Information Centre first.
The site is a hop, skip and a jump to the beach and across the road to pubs, restaurants and cafes. It has long been a popular spot for ‘illegal’ overnight campers.
Deputy Mayor, Councillor John Arkan hopes the initiative will allow Coffs to tap into the lucrative grey nomad market and to perhaps change the way some travellers think about the stunning destination on the New South Wales Mid North Coast.
The Coffs Coast Advocate reports that local RV enthusiast Jeanette Jones slammed the city’s record on attracting grey nomads.
“I travelled 42,000 kilometres last year and heard only negative comments from fellow vanners about Coffs Harbour,” Mrs Jones said.
She alleged the council was effectively chasing people out of town and denying local business a much-needed economic boost.
However, former mayor, Cr Keith Rhoades said the city had recently installed a dump point near the stadium for travellers. Nonetheless, he expressed concern over the possible impacts of the ‘free parking; plan.
“Give this and in 12 months and you won’t be able to find a local who will be able to enjoy the area,” Cr Rhoades said. “What we have here is a very poorly put together proposal that will be detrimental to the Jetty Foreshores. Where are the costs? Will we need extra rangers? Who will manage the area?”
Cr Garry Innes was also unhappy, slamming the behaviour of illegal campers in the area.
“The staff is sick and tired of cleaning up the mess they leave, and we have also sprung some illegally using and basically stealing our electricity,” Cr Innes said.
Despite gaining majority council approval there is still the possibility that the plan will not get off the ground. Council officers aid the council did not own the land in question east of the railway line and so could not make the final determination. It will need to apply for permission from Crown Lands.
Do you think Coffs Harbour is a welcoming city for grey nomads? Comment below.
Wouldn’t get too excited about this Council….They can’t see the forest for the tree’s….Still it would be good I’d go there for sure
We were inadvertently “stuck” on the foreshores of Coffs Harbour when one of our axles broke. We were there for 7 days waiting for the replacement and installing the new one. After 3 days of “illegal camping” we were told by the Ranger that we should be receiving a $355 (if my memory serves me correctly) fine for this indiscretion. By the way, we have a Crossroads Cruiser 5th Wheeler – completely self contained and on the road fulltime. Meanwhile, while we were waiting, we went shopping, visited some pubs, went to the cinema twice, ate out several times, took taxis when we had a flat tyre, bought new tyres for our Chev (which weren’t cheap!) and filled up with fuel when we were able to get out of there. We wanted to dump our black water, but was told that we could only do this at the local caravan park if we paid for one night’s stay! There was absolutely no access to the town water treatment plant. Definitely NO, they said. So we carried on to Grafton. What a welcome site that dump point was! It will be along time before we grace the foreshores of Coffs Harbour again. As a matter of fact, we tend to travel north via the New England Highway because we are appreciated more than if we traveled via the coast – much friendlier to nomads of any colour!
We have travelled 22,000 kms in ten months and are staying in a beautiful Coffs Harbour caravan park right now – love the place! Council should do everything possible to attract tourists to this beautiful City. Most Grey Nomads leave ‘free camp sites’ clean and take their rubbish with them. There is an element that give the G N’s a bad name – they are easily recognisable and should be dealt with accordingly. But please, go ahead and encourage more travellers to stay here…
The mess left at beach car parks is usually from feral locals or feral day trippers. Decent folk don’t dirty in their own back yard. Take away food bags and drink containers litter all foreshores and it aint the freedom camp people doing it.
Coffs Harbour is a great city, but we only visited the Big Banana for coffee on our way south. I am sure that give a council low cost camp area ( for fully self contained vans only) would see many $$$$ being spent in and around Coffs. And yes we like the ” welcome Mat” that greets us on the othr side of the Great Divide.
I love Coffs, one of my favourite destinations. Such a shame they move us on, they lose out on a lot as we move on and spend our money elsewhere. I was told by a local that the land at the jetty near the fishing club (not the tarmac side but the roadbase side) was aboriginal land therefore the council has no durisdiction over this site.I agree that free camping is being spoilt by those who treat Australia like a toilet. I have suggested to one ranger that a bond be imposed on the back packers before they arrive in this country. I have witnessed so many camping areas being closed down due to the filth they leave behind. If they can’t respect our country, don’t come here.