People may look for camps with more space in the future
While the coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on grey nomads in the short term, many people are starting to wonder if it will also revolutionise the grey nomad lifestyle in the longer term.
Questions such as: how will the caravan park industry change; how will the expectations of travellers change; and how will the attitude of rural towns change will not really be answered until the length of this lockdown is known, and state borders open again.
Another great unknown is how the enforced absence of grey nomads from the road will affect the free camping debate. Dr Rodney Caldicott (PhD), of Southern Cross University, studied the politics of freedom camping policy across Australia to complete his PhD thesis in 2017.
He believes free camping will see a strong resurgence post-pandemic as travellers jump back behind the wheel.
“Many towns have said ‘oh, we are not a tourist town, we are a cattle, grain, fishing town … we can survive without needing to offer free camps for bludging tourists’,” he said. “But the travel restrictions have shown all communities just how much tourism supports their community and I am sure each and every one of them will now re-evaluate and seek to introduce strategies to make their communities more resilient to external disaster.”
Dr Caldicott says a simple 101 investment strategy will show that you should never put all of your eggs into one basket.
“It isn’t until the tap gets turned off sometimes that we see, or come to appreciate, the other side of the coin,” he said. “The time is now for rival stakeholders to come together and talk turkey about how to rebuild the RVing industry, from manufacturers to destination marketers, park operators and local councils.”
Dr Caldicott says policies need to be formulated that are best suited to each individual community, and he says growing the pie is always better than dividing the pie. And he says that the forced closures of many caravan parks really has been a ‘free kick’ for freedom camping as it ‘literally sent RVers away from parks and back into the long-paddock’.
“It is always incumbent on business to attract customers and it is not the government’s role to herd RVers into confined corrals,” he said. “I think the social distancing legacy will be hard to shake off and many RVers will continue to seek the solace of more open and dispersed forms of camping.”
He says all the relevant stakeholders need to engage to ‘bring about a smooth, ordered, and even controlled tourism-led revitalisation of communities of which caravan parks remain one of the essential businesses – but not the only essential business – to keep communities strong’.
• Do you think more communities will embrace free camping once restrictions are lifted? Comment below.
I weigh up the pros and cons of “freedom camping” to caravan parks. With my set up I do not need : toilet, shower, power, water, gas, swimming pool, jumping castle, swings, kitchen, games room, fridge, confined space, $100+ per night peak season, parking restrictions, hundreds of kids etc etc. I do need within say 20k : dump point, water, gas refill, town with butcher and green grocer, supermarket. We have simple tastes and just like peace and quiet with some nice company. We don’t even have a fire but we will gladly join anyone for a glass or two in front of one. People and experiences are a joy in this wonderful country. We had a four month trip to NT planned for this year. Alas. If we can later on we may head to Coopernook Forest HQ for a couple of weeks. Stay safe and well everybody. Obviously these are only my opinions. Be kind.
I’m in total agreement with you Colin Penrose. We not only don’t need all the facilities in caravan parks that you mentioned – we don’t want most of them. In addition to what you listed as needed within about 20k, an occasional laundromat would also be welcome at times for washing sheets, towels and larger items of clothing that are more difficult to hand wash. We also usually find free camp spots are cleaner than caravan parks, possibly because there aren’t the huge numbers crowded together.
Totally 100% in agreement! Couldn’t have put this any better!
I agree completely with what was said and to add my bit if we pay $50 plus dollars in a park we don’t buy a counter lunch or that bit extra at the shops and it usually adds up to more than $50
Agreed.
While ever there is even a remote chance of catching this virus
Will not be using communial facility’s caravan parks provide.
Spacing in caravan parks even the best of them is to close
Will be looking at more open spaces .
Yes also agree with Colin, we up graded our caravan to be totally self sufficient ,because of the cost of caravan parks,what they offered or did not offer for the money,We also found cleaner more friendly places at free or low cost camps.We go out of our way to support these and the little towns that offer them.We to dont need jumping castles etc ,etc just water and dump point and friendly locals.Caravan parks want to start paying attention, there are a lot of us and the ones we talk to feel the same.You had us now you have to offer us something to get us back.Stevo
I’m currently looking at converting a van and travelling Australia. I would like to know where a resource can be found to find ‘dump stations’? I will most likely have a composting toilet.
Raewyn, any Cams Australia book have a list at the back of it or just google dump points in the area you want to stay in.
Well ill go and bat for the CP. My daughter and their kids need a park with all the play grounds, however as a grey nomad I just wish the park owners could set aside an area down the back exclusively for us with no services just perhaps toilets. I would be willing to a couple of dollars for the security and company of like minded people.
Agree mate. Maybe $10 per night with no power but of toilet and shower.
Caravan Parks have to all have a Health Management Plan in place to operate in QLD from tomorrow. This plan has strict cleaning and operational strategies in place to ensure the spread if covid19 is limited. Free camps with communal amenities will also need t abide by these cleaning routines to operate, I suspect many wlll be only capable of opening to self contained vehicles as councils will probably not have the staff or monitoring capabilities in place o meet these criteria.
Interesting and true.
I was wondering a few weeks ago what will the corna panic do to camping outdoor recreation and grey nomad scene.
There will be more of it.
Many a town will realise how vital travellers are and offer free or low cost camps
and there will be more Australian residents chosing to holiday in Oz hitting the road than take a risk overseas and flights will likely cost more now
And there will be more international visitors here too, they see Australia as safe and low risk so will choose here to holiday.
Only a couple of weeks ago, there were people on this site whinging that Caravan Parks would not allow them in due to Covid-19.Now that rules are starting to relax, people want to bag the Caravan Parks for being to expensive. Two weeks, some people were happy to pay anything because they felt they were stranded – Grey Nomads are a strange bunch when it comes to paying for something.
I would rather free camp than stay at a caravan park but i dont have a shower in my caravan so i just have a quick wash.I think spending up to $45 a night for a single person in a powered site is ridiculous and i would rather spend my money at the local shops.Yes caravan parks have the ammenties,pools,playgrounds,security etc but it costs alot of money where i could be spending it elsewhere
Free camping is not for every body in the way that some people need the thing caravan parks provide. But for us we use a mix of caravan parks and free camping. We fill our water tank and do our washing at caravan parks. By doing this we feel its fair not just to take water and not pay for it. We have a fully off the grid rig.