Grey nomads love to camp in the country
With grey nomads enthusiastically embracing the concept of budget camping on farmers’ land, there have been renewed calls for the regulations governing their ability to do so to be relaxed.
Academic Rod Caldicott, from Southern Cross University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management says outdated legislation is limiting the ability for farmers to tap into the grey nomad market.
“In New South Wales, if you have two or more RVs on a site for three or more days, you must meet the same compliance requirements as a commercial caravan park, which is cost prohibitive for most property owners looking to supplement traditional farm incomes via tourism,” he told Queensland Country Life newspaper. “In Queensland and Western Australia, there has been the recognition of the need for reforms to allow RV camping on farms.”
He said that research indicated that 34% of all caravanners and motorhomers used caravan parks only, just 16% went free camping exclusively, and the other half swing between the two.
“More and more small towns and agritourism ventures are recognising this cake is getting bigger and there is plenty to go around and looking for ways to make their product more attractive to this market in order to secure a bigger slice,” he said. “That 16% still have the same tourist dollars to distribute in a small town. They make the conscious decision to do it in different ways – dining out, buying souvenirs, taking a local farm tour or making a donation to the rural fire brigade.”
The Australian Caravan Industry Association of Australia agrees that RV travellers are already pumping “tremendous wealth into the economies of regional communities”.
“The advantage country towns have is the ability to engender strong parochialism for their community,” Chief Executive Officer, Stuart Lamont, told the Queensland Times. “The establishment of a tourism-minded culture where every retailer and service provider in the community is a tourism ambassador goes a long way to welcoming well-connected travelling groups such as the RV market.”
* Should it be made easier for farmers to be able to host the caravans and motorhomes of grey nomads? Comment below.
“Should it be made easier for farmers to be able to host the caravans and motorhomes of grey nomads?”
Absolutely!
Yes I agree, should be able to.
I believe it would be beneficial to most outback towns & farmers
make a council election issue,then greedy caravan parks will not have the deciding vote.
Farmers need the extra income due to a number of reasons (flood, fire, drought, reduction in income, increased production costs) and caravanners need alternative and cheaper accommodation costs.
Farm experience is something rhat city dwellers and their chikdren would benefit from.
I have just spent 3 months at a farm near yamba working on the farm to help the hosts remove old sheds and clean up around this old property. they were very appreciative of my work and are sad to see me go. i am now going to Casino to heliport on another farm doing the same sort of work. its what i enjoy and the poor old farmers get much needed help.
Please be alert to asbestos around old sheds etc
Asbestos itself might be dangerous, but asbestos cement sheeting is not the danger it is claimed to be. As children we lived in a home 1/2 sheeted with it. While children my dad (a farmer) built a mans room-laundry & a 2 car garage using it entirely. H used a saw to scratch a line then break it, blowing away the dust! No one ever showed any sign of asbestosis or any other effects from it.
Why shouldn’t farmers be able to use their land in the way that they want to? I don’t see any losers here – extra income for the farmers and a boost to local tourism… many smaller towns don’t have a caravan park and are generally bypassed but if farms were able to host the odd caravan or two everyone wins.
We have a beautiful farm, in the Granite Belt district (Stanthorpe/Amiens, and would love to be able to open it to Travellers, but the SDRC are too greedy and want to charge us as a tourist park! They have also closed the Free Camp just out of town because of 1 greedy local Caravan Park Operator! As a small business owner I along with others in town would welcome these changes. Safe Travels to you all KC @ Sweet Lovin & Lace Stanthorpe QLD
More and more campers want “wild camping” and hate to be forced into Caravan Parks. When my Husband and I drove around the whole Country in the late sixties we were able to camp on the beach front and by creeks in the bush, so much freedom then…to many regulations now.
I totally agree with farmers being able to have van travellers stay on their properties, it would be a big win for both parties.
I think that staying on a farm is much better. No unessesary pools, jumping bags, plus all the things that we nomads can do without. I have just recently stayed at Pundurra homstead 40 kms west of Port Augusta and it was heaven. would like to see more of them.
I think this is a great concept that needs to be further encouraged, my wife and I are on our 5yr lap around oz and even being late twenties and early thirties we would much rather stay on a quiet property than in a big flashy tourist park, having a couple of fury friends travelling with us makes these properties even more perfect!
Half of the problem in getting these alternate camping areas legit would be tourist park owners pushing the regulations to monopolise the market.
I’m all for helping out the small guy!! It’d be nice to see more property owners getting a little extra income from a few travellers here and there!
back in the 80’s I camped in the bush near the beach at seal rocks great times. we were instructed by our parents to take rubbish with you and look after the place for next time. these days the bollard people from the government who likely have never been out of their office have banned all of us from these places very sad. the grey nomads should use their growing numbers to open these areas to all and educate the young to look after the bush for next time we all wish to enjoy it…….end rant.
Q. Does anyone know of a good farm stays that accept caravans for overnight stays in the Orange or Dubbo or Mudgee or blue mountains or Hunter Valley areas of NSW.
The Motorhome and most Caravans are now self sufficient for a few days, we need to travel to the next town or van park to fill up with water and empty grey water and toilet. That allow the nomads to experience the hospitality of both worlds. I believe it is a great idea and also assists our farmer who a lot of the time do it hard. I also like helping with chores around the property.