Thank you Landy for a thoughtful and considered article on a vexed topic. Since you put up this blog I have been pondering the issues, but there are so many angles and possibilities that I have gone around in circles.
On one level I concur with the points that you make, that subsidies may make for unfair competition in the CP industry, possibly leading to reduced investment in CPs and over time leading to a shortage of CPs for use by travellers.
However I do think that there probably are circumstances where some form of short-term subsidy may be justified to drive change in a complacent CP industry that offers standardised facilities to a market that is changing rapidly and increasingly requires diversity.
My understanding is that at least in Tasmania this new round of an ongoing debate has been sparked by 4 complaints by the owners of CPs, that Council-subsidised free or low cost
camping areas were unfairly competing with their businesses.
On the face of it that seems fair enough grounds for complaint. But it’s also fair enough to ask questions and look at the evidence to support the case made by the CP owners. Were these CPs doing
well before the advent of the free areas, or were they businesses that were slowly declining anyway? Did the campers previously come to the town? If so, did they use the CP? Are they coming to town because of the
free camp? What benefits accrue to the town? I hope the Tasmanian enquiry asks these kinds of questions?
The concept of “competitive neutrality” also sounds fair enough on the face of it. However I have a healthy suspicion of such overarching concepts that tend to get applied as a bureaucratic blanket remedy with little thought to mitigating circumstance and unintended consequences.
It is my understanding that this “competitive neutrality” concept has been adopted by all states to apply to all levels of government and government run businesses. So what is to stop this concept spreading to National Parks, State
Recreation Reserves, State Forests where
camping is permitted and so on. I have heard from a
ranger at one of the high-use NSW NPs that only about 12% of campers actually pay the modest fee. What would the response be if
camping in this
park was priced at commercial rates?
Why stop at situations where there is a commercial CP nearby – why not apply it to all outback towns, villages and open spaces under the control of a nominal Local government somewhere? If that happened what would be the consequences for businesses that manufacture all our “
camping” paraphernalia (which in the modern meaning includes caravans, motorhomes, 4WDs, tents and so on). Who knows where such a ball, when set in motion would finally come to rest, and what the trail of wreckage along the way might be.
Caravan parks used to be called
camping grounds only 3 or 4 decades ago, and before that they were probably just called “the bush” or “
the beach”. Australia has a long tradition of
camping that has had a place just about all our collective endeavours – at least until quite recently. There is a good article about it at
http://www.moretonexperience.com/camping.html
That people still want to go
camping to find out about their country (and themselves), is a modern version of a time honoured practice.That some have seen a business opportunity in the provision of space (with increasing levels of embellishment) is fine but does that mean that all campers should be corralled into commercial spaces so that businesses have a “level playing field”? Surely not! One reason why the outback holds such appeal is that it is still more or less free – especially in the spiritual and personal sense.
I realise that there are many more people out travelling these days, and there are problems with some (but by no means all) of the
free camping areas. We have a long way to go with education about how to act when outdoors. But I’m unconvinced that effectively handing the whole “
camping” industry over to business hiding behind the skirts of “competitive neutrality” is the best way forward.
For the record our travel preferences are that we travel for 2 to 4 months at a time, through both closely settled and remote areas. We prefer to
bush camp away from towns whenever we can for the sheer pleasure of being close to the natural world.
Bush camping may be in a no-cost spot that may or may not be listed in the various publications now available, or it may be in a National
Park which may or may not charge fees, or in a
State Forest (legal in NSW at least). When necessary – for purposes of sightseeing, shopping or simply doing the washing we will use a caravan
park, on average about once a week. When we do use a CP we only require an unpowered site and a serviceable amenities/ laundry block. We do not expect to
free camp in towns. We have no commercial interest in any
camping related business.
My final question is, do you intend sending this post and discussion to the Tasmanian enquiry as a submission? (I have seen plenty of submissions that have much less sensible discussion in them!)
Again, thanks Landy for raising this topic for serious discussion.
Cheers,
Val.
| J and V
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