Residents of the Queensland town of Tara are fuming that the facilities at a public reserve have been reserved for the exclusive use of travellers.
There are four bathrooms at the Tara Lagoon Parklands, but only two are open to the general public. The other two are reserved for paying visitors who use a code.
The Tara Lagoon area opened earlier this year after a $500,000 facelift and now offers parks, RV campsites, picnic shelters, and more.
However, the Dalby Herald reports that community members had been left busting to use the loo, and had been forced to stand in line for the two showers that weren’t locked off to them.
Tara Action Group’s Gayle Porter told the newspaper that the closure of the amenities, which were well used by locals, was effectively ‘segregation’.
“It’s good for the community, but now there are two toilets locked off … for me personally I think it’s a bureaucratic decision that’s not very well thought out,” she said. “If there are four showers and four toilets, it should be first in, first served.”
Under the new system, visiting campers receive a code from the council for a fee when they arrive, and use the toilets specified for them.
Mrs Porter told the Dalby Herald this could lead to a ‘confrontation’ between tourists and residents who weren’t aware half the amenities were closed to them.
“I’ve been told [the tourists] weren’t allowed to give out the codes,” she said. “It’s not very good for the campers either to be honest, as they could easily be confronted about having their own bathrooms.”
Mrs Porter said she had nothing against those travelling through, but it was a shame something that’s built for the community couldn’t be used by the community.
A council spokeswoman said the facilities had been ‘reserved for paying Parklands visitors’.
“Two additional public shower and toilet cubicles, plus one additional toilet cubicle will also be opened in coming weeks as the final stages of the revitalisation are completed,” she said. “On top of the additional amenities at the parklands, the council has also opened up the amenities at the former Tara caravan park site on the corner of Baddleys Road and Milne Street for local community use.”
The council did not give specific reasons when asked why they decided to separate the facilities.
Of course if you pay a fee you expect to have amenities for your use. At some places where facilities are shared the mess left by casual users is horrific.
When we camped there a couple of years ago, these showers were used by the hobby farmers in the area. They would come in, fill up water contsuners from the dump point, use the showers and toilets. These facilities were left in a shocking state. A lot of the time all the gas was used and only cold showers were availsble
‘hobby’ farmers that are too stingy/incompetent to obtain an on ‘farm’ water storage deserve cold showers in the nearest billabong.
Seems fair to me. We have stayed there and every day the amenities were left filthy b the locals who came in to shower and use toilets. We were told these people were the “blockers”. Apparently they live on blocks out of town and do t have any facilities.
I think the Paying guests have a really fry to use clean amenities and if this is what it takes then So be it
The amenities at the old caravan park are opening up and there are still a couple at the Parkland. Maybe charge for showers eg $1 per 3 minutes. If you have camped at Tara you would have seen the large number of blockies using the amenities over the course of the day.
There are public toilets available everywhere in Tara the library has public toilets outside public toilets next to the railway crossing also at the skate park plus the old caravan park plus the RV park.in my opinion we have more than enough to accommodate everyone it’s a storm in a teacup
This is fair enough, if all the toilets were open there would be a mess in all of them. This way the ones that pay might be a bit more consious and keep theirs clean. Method in the council’s madness.
Its a non event. Pay a fee, get a code, get to use facilities set aside for paying visitors…good on you Tara.
So who are the residents who are fuming? Who?
I bet its just one or two folk (at the most) who dont know any better…ignore it, else I’ll just go back to doing what I’ve done for years ..and just bypass Tara altogether.
Why is the council obligated to supply showers for the local community. We have stayed at this location for 3days and seen car loads using the showers for up to an hour doing their laundry as well. Does the person driving a vehicle with no plates expect council to pay their registration.
The renovated and expanded shower and toilet block was built using grant funding specifically to service the local community on rural residential blocks who didnt have access to shower facilities. They were not paid for by the WDRC and should be accessible to those who they were built to service.
This happens at toilet and shower blocks not under lock and key. Have witnessed this happening in Qld and Vic.
I feel for the ‘Blockies” who were sold a “pup” and were talked into leaving the cities and buying small unproductive blocks of marginal land; maybe 40 acres; with no water. The developers (named after a US president) who advertised “live in the bush grow your own food, be self sufficient” should be the ones paying for these amenities. The developers preyed on vulnerable people and just walked away.
Of course it’s fair. Fee paying campers should at least have amenities separate from non fee paying visitors.
User payes
People should take a lightweight throne carried by a drone (a drone-throne) when they go out and set it to follow them about wherever they roam, hovering above them, ready to descend on ‘final cr_approach’ when nature suddenly calls. The drone can then, via telemetry, locate the nearest dump point to conveniently relieve itself. Unlike humans, if airspace becomes crowded, the drones urgently needing to dump their load won’t suffer if forced into a ‘holding pattern’ by ‘despair traffic control’. The drones could also carry bags of warm soapy water and towels for those wanting to have a shower instead of a hard hit or tinkle.
We stayed there in June 2021 for weekend, the blockages were using the amenities at the parklands throughout the day with any mess left. They used the toilets and showers then left. Campers were able to use all amenities without a code. This will cause another issue, a code to use the amenities.
Perhaps if the council was to charge the so called “blockers” the same fee as the travelling public, and then supply them with a “once only” code every time they want to use the amenities, it may prompt these “freeloaders” to do something about installing their own facilities on their blocks.
What a lovely town with such a lovely place to park up for a few days. We experienced the inconvenience of the shower block on our stay there. The locals commenced to arrive early (with their unsupervised children) to use the facilities and the stream continued for most of the day. The cleaners would come and clean thoroughly. After the locals had used the facilities, they were left in a disgraceful state, water and mud all over the floors, handbasins left with tissues dirt etc, toilets left with human waste.. cigarette butts, cans and bottles..food wrappers etc!
We spent a lot of money in Tara, restocking our van, fuel, meals etc. To have clean facilities isn’t too much to ask for and if the local community can’t (or won’t) clean up after themselves why would the rate payer even contemplate loosing our dollars for their community. Well done Tara council, I hope your system works and is successful.
The condition of toilet seats is abominable when users do a ‘kangaroo squat’ then hop off before they’re finished, leaving a Claypan Boogie behind…and rockin’ in the circle with a little blue doe was a red button roo shoutin’ “Go, man go!” (Fond memories of Slim Dusty and Joy).
In Victoria all along the foreshore there are toilets specifically for those paying – and yes there is a code. There are also public toilets for local use.
Campers should expect to have facilities available – they are paying – and it is not cheap.
Don’t the locals have a dunny and shower at home?
We only use our own facilities in our motorhome. Cant think of anything worse than communal toilets and showers. Use the dump point when leaving.