The likely closure of a popular caravan park in the Victorian town of Mildura has sparked concerns that it will lose its appeal as a grey nomad destination.
And the announcement of the likely demise of the Crossroads Caravan Park also hints at a far wider problem facing the industry … developers gobbling up prime land. The Crossroads park – one of the largest in the town – is going in order to make way for an Aldi supermarket … and the loss of similar caravan parks for similar reasons is becoming all too common.
Mildura Regional Development chair Paul Gibbens told the Sunraysia Daily newspaper that caravan parks were commonly established on the edge of the city, but became prime real estate once the city grew.
“The land has just become too valuable,” he said. “Caravan parks unfortunately are on good land that now costs a lot of money.”
Mildura Mayor Glenn Milne expressed concern that the town was going to miss out on caravan and motorhome business if the problem was not sorted out.
“We desperately need to address the RV situation because it is booming,” he told the Sunraysia Daily. “There is a need for another caravan park. I’m not sure about the economics, but we need to look at how we can encourage one to be built.”
And the organisers of the major events which help drive tourism in Mildura are equal concerned
“There’s this myth that grey nomads don’t spend anything,” he said. “But if you look at the survey figures that’s not true.”
I can understand van parks being sold but the councils should not allow the usage to change. The whole town loses out eventually.
The cross roads caravan park while in a good location is only one of many in the local area. Mildura has lost quiet a few parks over the last 22 years that i have lived in Mildura. As for the cross roads caravan park it’s only busy time of the year is at Easter, Christmas and our country music festival. The rest of the year while the park may have a few ‘ Gray Nomads’ the park is far from full . I’m in and out of that park several time a week and have yet to see it any where near capacity. There are a few other places were Aldi could go in Mildura, but they are ether unsuitable for Aldi and don,t meet their requirements. The other is the council and they have the final say. But the big three supermarkets also have a big influence in what the council will allow and not allow.
Their are a few other large main road frontage lots of land that could be used to place a big supermarket like Aldi and one was piece of land was were Mildura was going to allow the hardware giant ‘Masters’ build, they had the land cleared and even sold off the old house that was on the corner, and now that Masters has gone belly up that land has sat idel for the last couple of years. Yes Master’sold site could be used for the new Aldi store but as Masters is controlled by Woolworths, i don’t think that is going to happen.
It will be great to have Aldi finely in Mildura. One gets so sick and tired for having the big 3 supermarkets ram there price structure down our throats.