The tiny village of Spring Hill in regional New South Wales has unveiled a new gold coin donation camping area in a bold bid to attract more grey nomads.
The historic community, 17 kilometres from Orange, is determined to put itself on more travellers’ Big lap itineraries … and it says the basic camping at the Spring Hill Recreation Ground will be just the start.
Beth Mills from the Spring Hill Recreation Ground Society told the Central Western Daily there had been a massive influx of travellers across regional NSW.
New signs have been erected.
“We’ve been working with council to get a temporary license for short-term camping for grey nomads, to bring them into the town so we can support the local pub and the local bistro and some of the smaller businesses,” she said. “We’re doing what every other country village does and promoting it.”
Although it is very basic, the camping site has got toilet blocks for campers, but no showers just yet.
“The council do help us as much as they can but we’re trying to turn around and take it one step further, but at the moment it’s a wasted ground and we need to use it a lot more,” said Ms Mills. “Because people can’t go overseas, they’re coming out further and further … we just ask that they take their rubbish and respect the grounds.”
Ms Mills said volunteers were trying to tidy the town up to ‘give it a bit of oomph and to let grey nomads know that it was central to everything.
“I travel myself and we always pull up on the side of the road at a showground or whatever and because people are travelling regionally a lot more, we try to encourage them to come off the main road more,” she said. “Because we’re a central location, they can go to Millthorpe, they can go to Blayney, they can go to Orange and then come back to a quiet town.”
We enjoy following back roads and visiting smaller townships, probably more so than major Highways and big cities. Yes, once interstate travel is open again under more “normal” conditions we hope to continue our travels for as long as our health and other circumstances permit. And if suitable community camping facilities are available we will make use of them.
Insert here … double thumbs up!
We stay away from major cities due to busy roads and the hectic lifestyle. Covid has given us an additional reason to stay away. The rapidly changing border restrictions can trap you away from your home state. One of our favorite areas is regional NSW. Towns like orange, Parkes, and others are fantastic. We never get tired of staying in the region. The coastal areas are often too busy and lack fee or council camping.
We have just entered Spring Hill on our next trip through NSW starting February 1st. Good on you Spring Hill , it’s a pity more country towns didn’t have your get up & go & do a bit for themselves instead of sitting around whinging waiting for hand outs or for someone else to do it.
Looking to stay at Spring Hill showgrownd two caravans on Anzac weekend is there power and water and do we need to book in
Cheers
John