Should free camps be banned close to towns?
While the popularity of caravan and camping continues to boom, the debate surrounding the impact of free camping areas rages on.
Despite newly released data from NSW Caravan and Camping Industry Association showing a 19% increase in the nights people spent camping in the state, there are plenty of caravan parks which feel they are missing out.
The owner of Leeton Caravan Park in Leeton in the beautiful Riverina region of New South Wales is among those asking: ‘what about me?’
“What we have noticed is the impact of free camping,” Maree Dalzell told the local Irrigator newspaper. “People will use those facilities for three or four days and then come to us for a night to do their washing and use the showers.”
She said that while numbers ebbed and flowed throughout the year at different times, more people with a caravan were using free camping sites … and she has proposed a controversial solution.
“I think there needs to be a restriction on the sites,” she said. “They shouldn’t be allowed 50 to 100 kilometres from towns that have caravan park facilities.”
However, the owner of another van park in the town, David Dean from the Oasis Caravan Park said the problem of relatively low occupancy rates was a little more complicated.
“I think the free camping thing has a bit to do with it, but we’re not on a major road and Leeton has no big attraction,” he told the Irrigator. “I think we need to look at doing something tourism wise, we still probably need that one thing that’s going to bring people to town.”
And he acknowledged that the thinking behind offering free camping areas was basically sound.
“I understand with free camping, councils like Leeton have to match it with others in the area that are doing it,” he said. “Because you still want people coming to town and spending their money.”
· Do you think there should be a restriction on how close to commercial caravan parks free camps are allowed to operate? Comment below.
so maybe caravan parks should be banned from having cabins as they are taking away business from Motels. Small business’s besides caravan parks benefit from the free camps near/in towns. They should be making sure they are heard in the debate.
So sick of CV Pks whingeing about free campers affecting their business. Has anyone ever heard of the Moteliers whingeing about all the cabins/villas that C/Pks are putting in & charging around the same amount for? I don’t think so. More people might be inclined to use C/Pks if they didn’t cram people in like sardines & had realistic rates for the service they provide.
I agree with this person. Why should we be banned from being in or near a town if we want to free camp. Most of us will spend money in towns where we stay for a few days as we realise if we don’t then next time we call that way the town will have died.
No. If the towns services want patronage, they should be close to the services provided. A lot of families can no longer afford caravan park rates and still want to teach their children about other areas. It’s life education on a budget.
There should be no restrictions. If the caravan parks want the business they have to recognise the market and charge appropriately. All showers should be coin operated and timed for water conservation. Free campers are generally keen to support the towns which welcome them!
Maybe caravan parks should look at what they charge for the small amount of service they offer and make it more affordable for everyone
$30-35 per night is too expensive, especially when the service is often poor. We don’t owe the caravan parks a favour. They need to sharpen their pencil, maybe the council needs to reduce the parks council rates etc to help attract customers. Afterall we don’t limit our spending to the park operator.
There are lots of costs associated with caravan parks that some tourists are not aware of or consider. Shire rates, rubbish collection, electricity, gas and water alone are huge expenses. Then on top to this we have to pay insurances, public liability for $20 million is the going rate these days to ensure tourist are safe. Then on top of that are gardeners, cleaners, office staff. So please give the caravan park owner a fair go, we are doing it really hard these days, competing with free campers, free overnighters in towns and cities and reduced camping by our own shires. Yes, we have reduced our prices to compete. I have one flat rate all year round, I do not hike prices up at peak times. Please try to think of all these things. Us caravan park owners are not wingers, we are trying to keep afloat and in my case, keep the 8 staff employed. We have a large area for self-contained campers, at reduced rates. Use your generators, overlook the ocean.
Van parks say they doing it tough so are the motels since all the parks started putting all the Villers it you don’t see all the motels going on Park owners you can’t have it always
I whole heatedly agree. Grey Nomads in free camps are more often on Pensions but they still manage to share their money around in towns. Caravan parks are not the only small businesses in towns but they seem to monopolize the public debate. In some towns, caravan park owners have deliberately maneuvered their way onto Councils with the sole agenda of improving their business. What about the other businesses in town?
There is room for both. I know many caravanners who only stay in parks. Isn’t one night paying in a park better than none ? Plus the washing machine fees. I don’t want jumping castles, swimming pools and noisy kids when I travel. If parks don’t want me to stay for one night then so be it. Soon we will see a two night minimum !!!!
The Park Owner is not saying there are insufficient Caravaneers visiting the town, just that they are not spending nights at the CV Park. Perhaps the free campers could be persuaded to spend more nights at the CV Park if there was a two tier tariff system, where the top tier stay at a higher tariff and get all the facilities included whilst the second tier have to pay for each facility they want to use eg. pay per use for showers,laundry, water, electricity, play equipment etc.
There will be those full time Free Campers that will never spend the night due to their own reasons and some full time CV Parkers will always use the CV Park due to security or their van setup is not suitable for free camping. The remainder of Caravaneers usually spend some nights free camping and some nights in the CV Park. The good CV Park entrepreneurs out there will have a CV Park close to the town facilities so patrons can walk, or low cost transport, to town and offer reasonably priced tariffs and reasonably priced options for the part time Free Camper-CV Park market. By making rules to deter free camping away from the CV Park AND THE OTHER TOWN RETAILERS, this will not deter the full time CV Park patron which will already be there, but it will push away the remainder of Caravaneers you want to attract.
When the market changes, good entrepreneurs must change or their market share will reduce. Making rules to reduce competition usually does not work to gain more customers it mearly reduces the total market available to the town
Makes sense ?
At Julia Creek in north Queensland, the local Council limit free camping to four nights. They then offer a $15 night in the local Council run caravan park. Grey Nomads can then return to the free camp for another four nights. In the meantime, the caravan park (aka Council) put on Happy Hours or roast nights (fees donated to a Charity). Julia Creek has also upgraded its tourist facilities to attract grey nomads (and others) to stay awhile. Very proactive and progressive thinking.
This sounds like the solution so to the Caravan Park owners ?lease Get off your rear ends AND IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS
That sounds like a great idea, we will even consider visiting there this year. Maybe more towns should adopt this idea!
Agree. If grey nomads want to free camp they will go another 50 to 100 k’s and the whole town misses out.
If the amount caravan parks charged was half way reasonable, this perhaps would not be such an issue?
There is a basic business/economic formula which states (broadly) that if prices are low, you get ‘more bums in seats’.
If you like to get jammed in like sardines, then go to a caravan park,if not ,do free camping.
So where’s Leeton?
me thinks it is in one of them overcrowded eastern state places.
Leeton is near Wagga Wagga and has a population of 12000. Not so small and probably worth a few days visit. Its recent claim to fame is unfortunately, the murder of the primary school teacher Stephanie Scott by Vincent Stanford in 2015.
If the C parks want the Free camper types they need to instigate a Self Contained site area with grass only No Power, Access for water tanks to be filled, Dump Point only ($15/N). If wanting to use other Ammenities pay extra.
Then they might be regain some of their losses instead of empty sites.
We Bush/Freedom Camp at least 300 days of the year and prefer thus type of camping/travelling which is what we have done for 15 yrs FullTime Caravanning.
But we use CV Parks when requiring medical attention, as we are at the moment at Karrinyup Waters Resort WA for 4 weeks out of necessity.
What the CP owner is overlooking is that many people just don’t want to be in a caravan park and set their rigs etc up accordingly. There are many lovely areas in which to free camp. If you don’t want us within 50 or 100 kilometres of your town, so be it. The next welcoming town will get our dollars for fuel and groceries. Just because you are in business, you can’t force consumers to purchase your products or services and that applies equally to a bakery, an Internet provider or a caravan park. I think the CP owner should be grateful for the business received. I presume the tariff covers the hot water for the showers and most washing machines are coin operated so what is the problem if travellers only stay one night?
Best reply/comment Ive read.I have family who own a park,bloody license to print money in my opinion.Take Care.
Free camping, or low cost camping in or close to towns must generate income for the town. We tend to drive straight through the towns that discourage free camping. We always make sure we buy something from the towns that make us welcome. I find most caravan parks are crowded and noisy and find we are paying for facilities we don’t need or use.
it is about time that the councils put a bin like a postal box in town and invite the grey nomads to put their shopping dockets in it and then they will see how much money is spent in the town they will be amayzed at how much we spend in their town
We are fully self contained and prefer not to be “squashed” in side by side as is the case in most caravan parks. In saying that many others are not comfortable free camping! We tend to stay in parks near larger cities as free camps are generally a fair way out. Don’t need to use caravan parks to fill with water or wash as most towns have laundromats & information centres can generally let you know where to get water.
My husband and I only stay at Caravan Parks. We only stay for one night. If we are feeling a bit tired we will stay 2 nights. It would impact our travelling if we had to stay for a min of 2 nights. Then we would have to free camp which we haven’t done yet. We make a point of going into the towns for coffees, lunches etc.
I think $30 a night is reasonable if power and water is included. Runnnig an aircon, microwave, electric blanket etc chews a lot of power. Plus free, in most cases, water all adds up.
$30 a night is almost $11000 a year, we are full time on the road paying that amount of money would put a stop to our travels.
We’ve just started travelling, and already prefer free camping over cv parks. Free camping, we Woke up to a the sun rising over the lake. Took the dogs to the off-leash area for a run, etc. Everyone was chatting about where they were heading, and where they’d been.
The last cv park we stayed at was full of permanent/semipermanent vans, all cramped in together, and lots of grumpy old people. They ran out of hot water half way through my shower, so I went back to my van and had a nice hot shower there. We paid $30.00 for the privilege of parking there for the night. We won’t be doing that again.
Our electicity bill over summer without pensioner discount or service charges for a whole house is $2.22 per day. Therefore in my opinion a parks expences and profit is their fee less a max (and probably a fair bit less) of $2 a day for power
In many tourist towns (Lakes Entrance for example) prices go up for Easter, Xmas or long weekends and you cannot book for just one night but have to take a ‘block’ booking. East Gippsland Shire were going to trial a free camp but it was canned and stopped before it got going due to pressure from the caravan park lobby.
Yep the block booking thing is what keeps me out of a lot of places. Modern businesses need to be flexible and it seems to me that van parks are often wanting the same old, same old. In the end, people will vote with their feet…or wheels…as the case may be.
We always free camp when we can as we would not be able to pay the thirty to forty dollars a night fee in a park. We do not even like Caravan parks on the odd time we do stay. The last one, we had our neighbour so close we couldn’t,t even open the windows of our van very far as the next van was so close Give us the openness and space of free camiping. If we stay in a RV Friendly town with free camping we always make sure we spend money in that town. Bad luck Leeton, we won,t be stopping there
Blacks Beach CP in Mackay Qld charge for electricity and whilst that was the first time I had struck that arrangement, it is the best system for all. We were pleasantly surprised.
Isn’t it funny – when caravan park owners sell to developers because it is a better financial return , all the grey nomads get on sites like this & whinge about the reduction of caravan parks. If you don’t support caravan parks, then don’t expect them to hang around until you want to drop in for one night to do your washing.
We moved off the coast for Easter and School Holidays and stayed at Grafton. From here you can do day trips around the area. We paid $29 per night. They charge the same ALL year and don’t jack it up during the so called peak Season. During Holidays, head in land then back to the coast. Country parks will look after you, so good luck to them.
Maybe they need to look at their charges
Freedom camping is good fortown businesses. i do not understand the thinking of park owners. There r people who will always stay in van parks and they r the people u need to attract. You are not losing business from Freedom campers. Some will stay one night. Others do not require your business. Example: if you went to a petrol station and only wanted 20 litres of fuel but got told you must fill your whole tank what would you do? I guess, you would go to another petrol station. losers from closing freedom camps r the other businesses in town. You cannot force people to stay and open their wallet.
We love the opportunity of free camping. Nothing bets waking to a water view and not having neighbours that you can hear their conversations. Very few caravan parks allow fires and we like to cook on an open fire when weather permits or there are no fire bans. We recently stayed in Bingara which is famous for its free camping and the group of us spent $900 in that small town. The mayor and counsellor even joined us for happy hour and encouraged us to stay longer. If these free camp sites aren’t available then those small little coffee shops, bakeries, butchers etc miss out. The butcher at Gunning said to us over 60% of his business is from the free campers staying in this town. Yes the caravan park might miss out but so will all the other businesses in town. 50 to 100 kilometres out of town for free camping wouldn’t benefit that town. No one is going to drive 100 klms for a loaf of bread, a coffee or a meat pit! Keep free camping available for those who love that option.
Sick of reading about the plight of caravan parks. There can be more than one of any type of business in a town. Some survive and some don’t! Banning free parking will not save the caravan parks.
Mount Gambier is a prime example of caravan parks charging what ever they want. They are also against free camping in Mount Gambier . They day that we should go to the bush to free camp. I have been trying to get Mount Gambier to be RV friendly for the last two years. $^ $ a night is the going rate for a site in our town. Also the Tourist manager told me that we are only interested in people that spend 100$ or more a day. Not good.
No free camping within 50k of a van park !!!???
What next, can’t bake your own bread within 50k of a bakery?
We find show grounds are quite reasonable if you want the power & water without frills & the town also gets some of your money spent on fuel, food etc.
It’s horses for courses, some people will only ever stay in caravan parks, some will only ever free camp, & some like us will stay in both. But.. we will never be forced into staying in a caravan park, Just bypass that town, spend no money there, go on to the next place that welcomes both park lovers & free campers….it’s our money to spend where we want…having said that, we have found most small country towns welcome both & we are happy to spend time & money in these places….
It’s all covered by the responders here. In summery:
1. Separate Family parks with all the deemed essential razzmatazz. from basic parks being more spaced out (well ventilated) with minimal but CLEAN surcharged facilities. with facility free areas.
2. Modified business plans of both owners and councils. If council parks were non-profit (viz some NZ) The overall gain is considerable.
3. When free camp spots get over used / under kept, travellers would soon use basic camp if so appointed.
When will caravan parks wake up to themselves. It is precisely because the have been ripping us off with their outrageous fees that we don’t need them any more.
Modern technology has rendered them no longer useful for the vast majority of caravanners.
We have our own free power,(solar), we have our own toilets and showers and washers and we have the beautiful open spaces of mother nature.
What the heck do we need caravan parks for.
Maybe if they charged a more reasonable $10 per night and updated their old facilities they might get some business.
I’m sick of the cr@p excuses about high costs etc, etc, that rubbish doesn’t fly with me or anyone else any more.
I only want to rent a 6x6m piece of dirt, I don’t want to buy your caravan park!
Heck, for less than $50 a night I can rent a brand new 25 square home in most capital cities. Why would I want to pay anywhere near that to be jammed in like a sardine and be provided with old run down and dirty facilities in a caravan park?
If you look at the small towns that are thriving, they have all bought up and then shut down their commercial caravan parks and welcomed free campers.
Why? Because caravan parks don’t benefit small towns. The thousands of dollars that is raped from tourists at the parks are not spent in the towns shops.