When visiting a new town, one of the greatest bugbears of grey nomads towing a caravan or driving a decent-sized motorhome is when sufficient provision hasn’t been made for them to find a place to park.
Happily, more places are now recognising just how important this can be in attracting visitors to stop and have a look around … and are doing something about it.
In Queensland, for example, Rockhampton Regional Council has just begun an upgrade to the High Street car park in the Kershaw Gardens precinct, with RVers very much in mind.
Works there will include resurfacing the site to create dedicated bays for caravans and RVs, as well as minor landscaping.
A growing number of places seem to be recognising the importance of providing suitable parking areas for big rigs. PIC: Cizza
Mayor Tony Williams said the car park’s location made it particularly popular with visitors to the region.
“Caravanners, residents and tourists use the site for stopovers as it is in a fantastic location in one of our most popular garden precincts,” Mayor Williams said. “We’ve witnessed strong visitor numbers through the caravan and camping sector which is a great contributor to our local economy.”
Once the upgrade is complete, the car park will feature 35 dedicated bays for caravans and RVs, as well as 12 car spaces.
Mayor Williams said the upgrade will also address long-standing surface issues by resealing the area and incorporating minor landscaping to enhance the site’s overall appearance and function.
“Not only will the project fix the problems that are highlighted with inclement weather, but the updated High Street carpark will also tie in beautifully with the rest of the Kershaw Gardens precinct,” he said.
The carpark is currently closed to the public during construction, which is expected to take approximately six weeks, weather permitting.
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We always appreciate designated Long Vehicle Parking in towns as it is so hard to find appropriate sized parking. But our big bug bare is when car owners think they have the right to park there. We really like it when it states on the sign says something like “Only Vehicles over 6 metres” It makes us want to return to these towns.
Charleville, QLD, is a nightmare to park with a van. We’ve given up several times, and taken our $$ elsewhere
We have found many country towns.have 45 degree parking along the main street and surrounding side streets which forces us to either park in residential streets or move on to the next town
Childers (Queensland) has a great RV / caravan day only parking just behind the Main Street with a dump point but a free overnight camping nearby behind a pub.
I drive an 8m motorhome & really appreciate dedicated long vehicle parking but often I have to resign myself to long walks to shops etc. Love the big wide streets in many country towns through Qld & NSW but many of them have 45° reverse parking & no provision for larger RV’s. I’ve stayed at Childers which was excellent. Kershaw Gdns in Rocky was really good but packed, lucky to find a spot. I will say that when I was there inspectors were checking vehicles daily & even taking pics to make sure no-one overstays as well as moving non SC vehicles.
We prefer to park on a main st we’re we are highly visible not in a back street. We appreciate towns that have parking for our car n caravan. But most times we find locals in cars use the caravan only parking .
Bermagui in southern NSW is a perfect example of a place we bypass. After spending an hour trying to find a park for our caravan somewhere near the shopping center a few years back we gave up and headed out of town.
Bowen FNQ has wide streets however the locals have narrow minds towards visitors, businesses want your money but no you. I visited the area 4 times however this year is the last, bye-bye Bowen.
Airlie Beach is a typical example of limited parking spaces for caravans etc. Not a friendly RV town at all. I know because I lived there for 17 years!! 20 ks off the highway into town and when you get there limited parking to go and have a coffee/lunch. Even the main street has 1 hr only free parking for cars.
Thanks for that info Jane. We have an 8m motorhome and like so many others find it difficult to find a park within striking distance of shops. We are travelling north mid June and had planned to spend a day looking around Airlie and surrounds, but if it’s hard to park our rig we will bypass the turnoff.
We went to Esperance WA woolies supermarket near the library and noticed car park there has been resurfaced with dedicated car-caravan spots. Not far to walk. Greatly appreciated this
There are excellent free parking sites in Childers, Gin Gin, Miriam Vale, Calliope, Duaringa has a large site with showers.
Fantastic decision yravel to moora w.a and observe ehat the voincil have grestrd alongside their officrr to addrrdd dimilar problrms fscef by csrsvaners viditing tegional towns.
We are always looking for a sign when comnming into a town to give us directions to park with our van it is very frustrating sometimes just to stop for a coffee and cake break
To me it would seem to be only common sense to provide adequate parking/facilites for local travellers to tour and remain in our marvellous country and support local economies which all too often suffer natural disasters. We like to brag about international visitor numbers whilst neglecting local tourists. This is a great move by Rockhampton and should be praised accordingly.