Camooweal Camping Closures

Yep, for sure re caravan parks. As for the "other" reason, give me a break. We have to put up with this pagan nonsense in far to many situations.

The irony of your nic is palpable "Aussie1". Don't know about others but I've had enough of the snide ignorant/redneck comments which occasionally rear their ugly heads on this forum. Most go unchallenged because we don't want to make a fuss- and it's not what the forum is for in any case.

Bit personal there Cobber, but we all have opinions. You stick with yours and I'll do likewise.
Thank you to the 2 responders, so far, to my comment on "Pagan nonsense".
This is a great and successful country due only to hard working folks not waisting time on trivial issues that exist to extract money based on some invented past. That they, in my opinion, are not entitled to.
I will remain a realist.
"Not what the forum is for in any case", wrong, the forums exist, for all opinions, even yours.
Cheers Cobber.

Personal? Lol. If I told you what I really thought of the ignorance of your statements and the attendant attitude we'd have a forum meltdown. Justifying anything by 'likes' is puerile garbage.

Your opinion on what this forum is for is interesting, if only for the fact that it's comments like yours (inter alia) which have - unsurprisingly - lost many contributors to the forum.

I'm not your cobber btw, so don't patronise me with your warped and ignorant opinion on what is important or trivial in regard to indigenous issues, or simplistic generalisations about how the nation became wealthy and "successful".

Thank you for your very concise response, albeit very personal AGAIN, some evidence of losses to the forum would be very welcome. Some names lost from the forum, for example.
Please don't hold back on what you think on my account, debate is always healthy. Trust me, it will not cause a forum meltdown.
And despite all of the above, as long as you are an Aussie, you will always be a Cobber to me. As all Australians are. That's the Australian way, assuming here that you are an Aussie.
I guess, given your tirade, I can put you down for a yes vote, which of course I will cancel out with my no vote :)
Cheers Cobber. Stay safe and happy.

"The Australian way". Roflmao. It's quaint that you think you know what Australians think and why, and can sum it up in a couple of sentences. A throw back to the middle of the last century. No doubt next you'll be telling us land rights, cultural preservation etc are "unAustralian". Your conflation of the council's reasons for the closures with the upcoming referendum is instructive, and little else.

I read a helpful post on changes to free camping arrangements. Those who seek to go through the entrails to find yet again a reason to display their particular societal views can surely find a more appropriate outlet.

This outlet to comment on is good enough for me to use, others do as well.
Freedom to comment is a great thing we have in Australia, well it was last time I checked Cobber.
Cheers.

I can appreciate the frustrations some feel in having free camps closed. I haven't stayed in or around Camooweal on the occasions I have been there so can't comment on the specific camps. The fact that it is reported as temporary suggests to me it is more a matter of recovery and renewal. I doubt the campers will gravitate to the caravan park though.

I have been to many communities and went to school with a lot of indigenous kids. Very few of us understand their Dreamtime or cultural beliefs. I met a priest at a community a few years ago who was held in high regard by the people he served but he too was critical of their "Pagan ways". I asked him how unbelievable the indigenous beliefs were in comparison to the Book he preached from.

Yep, summed up in a couple of sentences, I am a supporter of the KISS theory.

Cheers Cobber.

Good point there Kenell. And a very fair question asked of the priest.
Would loved to have heard the priest's response. To me, no difference between all "so called belief's " when it comes to my thoughts on pagan issues.
Cheers Cobber

It's far from uncommon that lack of knowledge and appreciation for the cultures, struggles and history of others -or in this case the warts and all history of their very own country - is accompanied by an inflated view of the value of one's own opinion, "cobber".

What is a pagan??



Nothing wrong with being labelled a pagan. I,d rather be labelled pagan than christian..Then again are they all not worshipping invisible , imaginary friends?

Finally, you have accepted me as a Cobber. I feel better already :):):)
Cheers Cobber

Not sure why but Darryl Kerrigan's famous line comes to mind.

Absolutely spot on Bazooka me old Cobber. Just had to look up Darryl's "famous" lines. Found it, "tell 'em to get stuffed!"
Boy was he ever on the money :):):)
Now if you don't see the humour in that, then I'm happy to get you enrolled into "Smile School".

Cheers Cobber and stay happy, if that's possible ;)

And here I was thinking that most 'true' Aussies (/s) knew Kerrigan's famous line. Google certainly ain't what it used to be. Good news is that even chatgpt took two goes to get it right. It struggles with a lot of basics, but apparently it learns with every mistake,

Cobber, I'm getting to like you more and more with your retorts.
Ain't life grand when we can communicate and accept each other's views on various issues and maintain a good sense of humour.
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on"cultural preservation etc, etc, etc". Cast our vote and one of us will say "I told you so" :):):)
I think the big day for the vote will be sometime after September.
Let's make it a date for you and me to have a chat on the result and analyse the whole issue.
As usual, Cheers Cobber.

Found that famous Aussie line yet "cobber"?

It doesn't surprise me in the least that you'd believe that a failure of a national plebiscite to lock in an undefined system of indigenous lobbying to parliament somehow justifies your attitude to indigenous culture and heritage. The two have some obvious links but even you should be able to see they're vastly different issues.

That you seem to think a vote on anything somehow makes it "right" is interesting. A common enough fallacy which deserves its place alongside the simplistic myth of the wisdom of the majority. As far as a post-referendum "chat" goes - what makes you think that you and I know better than many hundreds of thousands of indigenous people, and people who are directly involved in solving some of the obvious issues that still confront them more than 2 centuries on? Those issues won't suddenly disappear irrespective of the referendum's result. The primary - arguably the ONLY - reason we're being asked to vote is to ensure that future govts can't wave away indigenous voices on indigenous issues. It certainly isn't because we have some untapped wisdom, or indeed any worthwhile relevant experience in the vast majority of cases.

You really appear to be quite the emotional one Cobber.
In a nutshell, I believe you have assessed my feelings on the whole issue so there isn't any real need to use phrases such as "It doesn't surprise me", "but even you ", or That you seem to think" etc.
Suffice to say and for your edification, I have no interest what so ever in all the "palaver" with regard to 2 centuries ( as you put it) of issues.
Now wether or not you accept that is of no concern to me. Now, criticise me all you want, you will never change my attitude but, feel free to keep plugging away. I'm loving it.

By the way, I didn't bother looking for the so called Aussie line you asked about. I nailed it with "tell 'em to get stuffed" as far as I am concerned.

Well, this post has been successfully “high jacked”.

Macca.

I'm not interested in changing your opinion Aussie1. That would be a waste of my time. People's attitudes and opinions are formed for many reasons - experience, education, upbringing, rejection of or inability to cope with difference or change, comfort, complacency (she'll be right/I'm all right Jack), ideology, religion..... Many of those reasons are understandable, if not embraceable, some are so extreme as to be rightly completely unacceptable in a civil society (eg neo-Nazism etc).

The answer to the Kerrigan question can be found in this clip from the famous and much loved movie:

Kerrigan Clip.

Google reckons there are about 1.5M references. Rotten Tomatoes audiences rate the movie 92%, which is a very high and well deserved rating for a classic little Aussie movie. Up there with Malcolm and The Man Who Sued God imo.

Firstly, many thanks for not attempting to change my opinion. Secondly, that is very gracious of you and thirdly, it would prove to be a fruitless excersice anyway.
I to, have no interest in attempting to change your opinions also. Not because it would be a "waste of time" as you put, but simply out of respect for your opinions.
Now, you are correct, in my view, regarding attitudes. And to further clarify, I put myself in those categories as follows:
Experience, education & upbringing,
I personally abhor the neo-Nazism philosophy. It does disappoint me that you would even use that term. What a dreadful minority in our society they are.
No, not interested in watching "the Kerrigan clip"., so I didn't. However, you are quite correct on the film being famous and much loved.
Cheers Cobber.

Thanx for the feedback to Mods on this discourse, your eyes and notifications are extremely handy.

Well said.

Macca.

We've camped there a couple of times and would've probably been there again in a few weeks time, so now we will be using our alternatives and Camooweal will now just be a fuel stop, if needed.

The issue of emptying cassettes is what was mentioned a few years ago as the reason for the public closure of another favourite of ours, the water hole at Elliott NT. Apparently, someone was spotted actually emptying it in the lagoon itself. While there was possibly more to it, I've never been able to get a response from the local MP, who was previously the Mayor of the Barkly Council, as to the matter. I had tried to tell him what a great stopover it could be, but he never replied.

There seems to be zero interest there for a camp, just like for years that there's been almost zero interest amongst the caravan community in staying at the caravan park at Elliott.

The trouble is I think Alby that as soon as you start to manage it ie charge a fee etc it infers responsibility, regulation etc. Insurance for regulated caravan parks is becoming very hard to get let alone bush camps. The way around it is an honesty box. Yeah right - what could possibly go wrong??

Yes I get there are issues they need to address if charging a fee.
My question was more at the users point of view. Is the attraction the price ( or lack thereof) or they particularly like the location and would be happy to pay to stay there?

It is not particularly aimed at this one location but with the explosion in popularity of vans and camping I am thinking we are going to be seeing a lot more of this happening.

We have no problem with paying a fee commensurate with the facilities provided and definitely prefer such community camp sites in preference to formal caravan parks where you have to pay for facilities that you will never use.

We're in a CP at the moment and a van just moved in next to us with a slide out towards us. Not our preference, but dental requirements gave us no alternative.

Likewise, we avoid CP’s whenever possible. Not so much because of the price but because we don’t enjoy that style of camping
Happy to pay for freestyle type camping though