The grey nomads and other travellers who threatened to boycott the New South Wales town of Mudgee due to its ‘no-camping-at-the-showground’ policy have been dismissed as whingers.
The Mid-Western Regional Council recently decided to stop campers using the showground unless they were doing so in association with events held there, or unless the town’s caravan parks were full. It has now reiterated it will not rescind its decision despite the storm of controversy it caused. The Mudgee Guardian reports that Mayor Des Kennedy dismissed the issue as a trival matter whipped up by social media.
“[Showground] revenue from camping over the last few years would be negligible,” he said. “It’s an illegal activity that isn’t allowed whether you like it or not.” The mayor also dismissed claims travellers would bypass Mudgee. “They’ll come to Mudgee because it’s the best town in the state,” he said.
And Cr John Weatherley said it was “utterly wrong that council own a caravan park, lease it for a considerable amount of money and then set up in opposition by establishing a fixed caravan park”. The councilor continued. “I am not here to represent a small number of people who are too miserly to pay more at legal caravan parks so they can get it cheaper at the showgrounds and who trash the town,” he said. “We don’t want them here. You are responding to a small number of unreasonable people trying to dictate to us what we do.”
However, the Mudgee Guardian reported showground management committee chairman John Webb as saying the council’s decision was doing the region’s image “no good at all”. “[The showgrounds] are providing a service,” he said. “A lot of people just won’t go to a caravan park – they will just park on the road. We have had an incident where a person unable to use the showgrounds parked on the street because he would not go to a caravan park.”
Cr Russell Holden, also a member of the showground management committee, said as a result of concern over the viability of the showground, council had put together a management plan which included a budget allocation for camping.
“When the new showground management committee was in place, we believed we needed to demonstrate the committee could work to budget,” he said, adding that the only promotion of showground camping was by word of mouth. “You can’t expect to have a budget and then turn around and cut off one of the arms of income.”
Cr Holden told the Mudgee Guardian that caravan park owner Brett Swords had never asked to stop camping at the showground, only requesting that the showground operate on a level playing field with commercial parks. “All he asked is that we charge the same price and all this has escalated,” Cr Holden said.
I understand the caravan park owners concerns, but what I would like to know is. Why do caravan park owners make such an issue out of showground camping. When staying at your caravan parks, isn’t the higher price paying for facilities most of us do not use. Comparing a caravan park to a showground, caravan parks have swimming pools, up to date facilities/amenities, laundry, camp kitchen, most of the time a small office shop with supplies, games room, TV rooms, sometimes caravan parks are not pet friendly and if they are, there isn’t much space between you and caravans/ campers around you to walk your dog/cat, you are placed right on top of the campers next door on a tiny camp site or caravan spot and contend with noisy holiday makers who are only away for a short stay. And many do not cater for big camper coach buses or fifth wheelers or even large tents. At showgrounds, it may be cheaper than a caravan park, but if we choose basic and outdated amenities, large roomy grassed sites, plenty of room to walk our dogs and cats and horses and goats or whatever our pets of choice, no holiday makers to tackle with who are only away for the local tourist hotspots and park facilities, no swimming pool or mod cons to pay for or games rooms, or TV rooms, or spas or modern overpriced cabins, over choosing your caravan parks, then that is our choice to make. If we prefer budget camping, then we should be entitled to that choice and not have pricey site fees with unwanted facilities and room to walk our dogs without encroaching on the neighbours by adhering to stringent if i hear one bark, you will be asked to leave caravan park rules, I suppose you don’t put the same rules down for screaming kids who damage or leave the amenities in a mess while they are unsupervised while their parents are enjoying thier 4 day holiday. I don’t hear motels complain about your undercutting them with cabins that have less facilities than their own and I don’t hear them complaining about showgrounds either. Instead of driving to the free campgrounds, rest areas and showgrounds that offer camping and a place for caravaners to stop and count all the money you could have made if they had have stopped at your caravan park…approach them and find out what you can do to make them stop at your park. They might have some new ideas and you might find out what your park is lacking to cater for the permanent travellers as most of what you offer only caters for the holiday maker. Grey nomads and permanent travellers are not tourists or holiday makers, we fall into a different category. Maybe you need to drop your prices or find a way of making it cheaper for people with thier own toilet and shower facilities to stay or only charge for the amenities they will be using. You only pay for what you have a key for, along with a key deposit to ensure the keys are returned. When you think about it. You are a tourist park, not a travellers rest or grey nomad park. What you have for your exorbitant prices isn’t what grey nomads or permanent travellers are looking for. We need a choice and if we don’t have that choice, it is our right to bypass town and go to somewhere that provides us with the choice we like. Isn’t it like comparing a Mercedes Benz to a Hyundai excel of also a little like shopping, if you prefer shopping at one supermarket or one shopping centre over another. Or going to a fish and chip shop over a fancy restaurant or going to a farmers market instead of a fruit and veg shop or Kmart instead of big w and the list goes on. We want our own choice back as to where we want to stay. Rather than having a pricey caravan park shoved up our noses. And not everyone sees mudgee as the best town in NSW. But it would be improved if the showground was reopened at the cheaper prices it originally had before the caravan parks made an issue out of it.
Also I pay land tax …..CARAVAN PARKS do not by Law They are suppling cheaper Holiday accommodation for the Public . Sorry Caravan Park owners I let the cat out of the bag….!!!!!