Comment: Free Camping - What is the real cost?

Submitted: Wednesday, Dec 14, 2011 at 11:18

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Free Camping - What is the real cost?

Story: Baz – Landy (Updating the original – May 2013) One of the things that make Australia great is our ability to travel the wide open spaces and find our own little piece of Australia where we

Member - Noldi (WA)

Yes certainly a hot topic.
I am in a club that has been going 8 years now, for 7 of those we have always had our Christmas get together at a caravan park just south of Perth. What we have seen is the park costs go from $17 per night to $34, the toilet block slowly degrading and availability if power now being hit and miss. First few years a local cafe supplied the xmas meal, The quality of this also reduced to the stage we would do our own.
This year we changed (hard to do after 7 years) to a small wheatbelt town
They charged us $10/night for powered sites $12.50 for a xmas meal that was more than we could eat. In addition to this as a group we spent close to $400 in town over the weekend. I made a point of emailing the council to thank them and point out the extra custom they received that weekend and the likly fututre visits in the cooler months.

Doing the figures $34 x 12 vehicles x 2 nights totaled $816

$10 x 12 x 2 = $240
$12.50 x 23 = $287.50 Meal
Pub, Pizza, IGA, morning tea = $400
Total $927 not a huge difference. But we never did a second trip during the year to the caravan park but were planning 2 extra trips to this town in the cooler months.

One more point, while its easy to blame free (cheap) camping for the decline in caravan parks, what I've seen around perth its more to do with the big money to be made from the real estate (i.e. club capricorn).

I think NZ appears to be ahead of us in realising a town is made up of more than just a caravan park.

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Reply By: The Landy - Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 01:10

Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 01:10

Hi Noldi

Thanks for your input, and it is encouraging to see many people penning their thoughts in a meaningful way on this topic.

And I hear what you are saying, and can understand your group taking the decision they have.

The issue is whether it is fair to local caravan parks (you didn’t say if there was one) in this town for the council to subsidise your costs at its expense. If there is no caravan park in the town then maybe there is a case the council can make in taking the stance it has to attract business. But bear in mind the downside is that this town is unlikely to attract private investment from someone establishing a caravan park whilst the council subsidises the true cost of providing short term accommodation, there is no financial incentive to do so. And the question is whether the town can accommodate say 100 or more without providing proper facilities?

Another distinction that is sometimes subtle, but none-the-less exists, is that your group was a weekend away trip, likely to spend some money in the town and patronage a number of businesses. The other side of the coin is that many calling for free or subsidised camping want it to fund a life-style they have chosen – it’s a way of life for them and they will ensure they do it as cheaply as possible. It is great your group spent money in the town, but there is evidence to suggest that it is not always the case.

On the issue of parks running down, this is the systemic problem they are faced with, like a circular argument. The travelling public don’t want to pay the real cost of staying in a caravan park, no custom equates to no income to improve services. Eventually the holding cost of the land ensures that it will be put to some other use, if permitted, such as rezoning for housing or other developments – and that is what will cost us all in the long run.

Cheers, The Landy

AnswerID: 548230