With a significant percentage of grey nomad rigs thought to be overweight, police in Mareeba were delighted that so many travellers took advantage of a free information session and weights check.
For the past 22 years, the Far North Queensland town has celebrated a ‘Christmas in July’ even and this year it led to an influx of travellers, with over 200 caravans and motorhomes parked in Davies Park.
Queensland Police in conjunction with Department of Transport saw it as an opportunity to educate and to check … and they found no shortage of willing students.
“Officers set up a weigh station for the morning on Riordon Street, where a large quantity of nomads took the opportunity to have their vehicles weighed for compliance,” said Senior Constable Aleda Day.
More than 100 grey nomads also attended an information session put in by local police and compliance officers.
Acting Sergeant Dave Saul from Mareeba Road Policing Unit said he was pleased to see the turnout.
“It was great to see so many turn up and ask questions about their motorhomes and caravans to help increase their safety,” Acting Sergeant Saul said. “It was all about education and getting information out to travellers that spend a great portion of their time on our roads.”
Police say they hope sharing information and knowledge with travellers will enable them to make informed decisions, and keep themselves and other road users safe.
“Travellers often don’t factor in things such as the weight of bullbars, winches and other accessories, which can change their overall gross combination mass,” said Senior Constable Day. “Consequently, this means when water, fuel, food, personal items and clothing are added, they may be exceeding their permissible weight limit.”
We were in Mareeba for the festivities. Great place, fantastic weather and plenty of room in town to pull up and shop. We will be back.
Congratulations Queensland Police and Department of Transport for this clever initiative. Providing personally relevant information and advice and making it easy to do the right thing is a great move towards safety for all of us.
It would be interesting to find out the results of the weight checking and compliance. They had a similar thing in Gippsland, Victoria, a couple of years ago and the rates of overweight vans, tugs and combinations was staggering.
What was the result and did they fine or defect any overweight rigs? My setup has been weighed at weighbridge (unofficial) and would welcome an official weigh if given the opportunity to rectify problem without fines etc. Unofficial weight was under.
Yes it was done in Toowoomba last year by the Department of transport
and caravanning Qld.
Only wish each state provided a similar service say for a particular week of the year so owners without the fear of fines could be weighed and checked.
Great idea there are many out there now that wouldn’t comply there needs to be a crackdown
Hi ,don`t you have commercial weighbridges in Aussie then ? Not hard to keep an eye on your weights and i would have thought a common sense part of ownership , Good idea from the authorities though ,but they then can`t say you weren`t warned either. !
Great idea. The vanners who believed that they may have been overweight would not have attended the weigh in for fear of being prosecuted.
A good place to set up,would be on the Stuart H/way northbound in early June and check ALL vans for a week.
I agree totally,to many bury there heads and (she will be right mate attitude)
I subscribe to a number of caravan related facebook pages and it never ceases to amaze me the number of questions relating to this subject. To make matters even more confusing is the number of ill informed caravan and vehicle sales people that give false advice to the purchasers. Surely it should be a motor vehicle/caravan dealers responsibility to train their staff properly and a duty of care by the salesman to elicit information from the purchaser to ensure that the item sold is fit for the users intended purpose. — If not them legislate it with penalties for non-compliance.
Theres two free weight sites on the port of Brisbane motorway, one inbound, one outbound,probably best used on weekends after packing van to leave, theres also one on the inbound Port road in Townsville, its just a short detour and plenty room to turn around and get back on the highway bypass, and one north of Townsville at Rollingstone on the southbound side of the highway 2k from the hotel, if you can wait a bit, probably others around the state too. They are short chassis tables and big LED displays so easy to record each axle as you drive over and stop in turn, if not busy you may have time to get a ball mass too, only have to leave veh rear axle on table and wind the hitch up and record the light axle mass. Trucks use them for checking their axle loads in and out of port, but there are quiet times you can nip in with minimal inconvenience to anyone. Better to be safe than up side down.
If you go to a certified public weigh bridge they will weigh car & van as a combo ( gcm ) then weigh them seperate for car/ van ( gvm ) thus giving you your ball weight as well , and print out a bridge docket of your weights
Hi Andy,
Yes there certainly are and it costs $60 at Woodlands in Beerwah, they weight the van, the car and the GCM. We are 6.8 Tonne and allowed to be 6.85. We carry the weighbridge certificate in the vehicle. To be safer we have fitted a 5 tonne Hitch Ezy and an exhaust brake to the vehicle. We keep our water tanks empty, if we can, and watch our speed. There are some horrific looking combinations on the road!