Grey Nomads Fail to Splash Cash Around

Interesting point but the sights of a caravan park are hardly why Grey Nomads are out there. The sights are mostly during the day and outback where hopefully nobody else is.

And. to the point about the spend, we buy our food and drink from the various outlets and generally cook ourselves but we still spend something like $4000 to $5000 a month, a lot on fuel which is really expensive out here. I have spent $9000 in 7 months on fuel alone having travelled some 26,000km so far.

Then in WA (at least NW WA) and NT all the parks charge near enough to $40 a night so yes, we look for free camps when we can. We are retired and lets face it, you can't spend all that money constantly or a self funded retiree will very quickly become a dependent of the State.

Hullo Don,

there was an article in yesterday's West Australian newspaper about the large number of caravans registered in WA. I suspect the actual number is higher because some of us keep our van rego in other States until at least the first 12 months, mainly if they were first bought and rego'd interstate.

In our travels we spend a fair bit mainly on fresh local produce instead of loading up and carting it around.

The main gripe I have about my home state, WA, is that it does not cater for caravanners. Miserable numbers of Dump Points mainly, but a few small country towns are starting to see the need to provide well appointed rest stops. Still nothing like QLD but it's a start.

Don M, you have summarised it well. We did similar last year. In addition to fuel and food, we also spent on rig servicing and maintenance and entrance fees to various attractions. Our trip cost us a lot more than my sister and bro.i.l. spend on overseas holidays (without considering capital cost of our rig).

As an example, at Longreach Qld we stayed at the Thompson River free camp in preference to staying in town, and with vehicle and caravan brakes servicing, grocery shopping, entrance fees to venues and fuel, we spent over $1,000 in Longreach.

Motherhen

MH,

You have hit the nail on the head.

Free Camps close to towns allow the Travellers to camp for longer periods in the area, which is beneficial to town.

I speak regularly with the owner of the Caravan Park here in Chinchilla (we have 2 free camps within 10kms of town) and he is not in the slightest bit concerned that people are free camping. The free campers may stay one night in his park to do their washing etc but they do spend $$ within the town, which he feels is more beneficial to the local community than him complaining about it.

He has been approached by other Caravan Park owners in the region asking for him to support their cause of getting the free camps banned and he won't :)

Cheers Kev

Absolutely Kev. We stayed overnight at the Weir, and others we met there who were utilising the power decided to stay an on an extra day or two so they could go out to dinner in the town and patronise businesses (i recall one went to the hair dresser). What a wise CP owner you know; he knows that supporting his community is ultimately more important than short term supporting his pocket.

As anyone in business knows, if you can't get a potential customer through the door, you have no customers. If you can get them through your door, the majority will purchase from you, be it large or small. At that stage it is up to you to market your goods. No use marketing if no-one comes into your shop. Towns that can attract the people to stay overnight, and make it nice so they stay longer, are reaping the benefits.

Mh

MH,

I am hoping he will allow EO Members attending the Chinchilla Melon Festival Gathering in Feb to use his Laundry and Showers Facilities FOC even if attendees free camp :)

Cheers Kev

gmd_pps,

I hate to state the obvious but maybe you would be more comfortable travelling
in another country.

Even though you spend little in the local communities I'm sure that you don't mind using the facilities that they provide, i.e. public toilets, dump stations, free camp sites and the like.

Maybe it's because people spend little that the services are lacking. No one can
expect to get everything for nothing.

Kev

We do not need people when we travel, and we do not need facilities.
We are here for the space and the weather not the people. If there were no towns in the outback even better. If worse comes to worse I can carry in excess of 800l fuel and can get from main center to center.
Why should I travel somewhere else ? I am an Australian, but that does not mean that I have to like everything and glorify it. Satisfaction is the end of progress.
I do not mind to spend money at all, but I want something in return, and this is were the country is lacking in many ways. If the quality and price is right I have no problem.
have fun
gmd

hate to state the obvious Kev - but is that xenophobia rearing it's ugly head again because somebody dared to criticise? Instead of the usual "bugger off somewhere else" retort, try addressing the issue. I'm all for spendinga few bob in small country towns - it's difficult not to, but gmd does raise some fair points

Gmd,

I have no response to your tirade.

Steve,

I was not as harsh as 'bugger off somewhere else'. As you can see from the response he is obviously not comfortable travelling in the west with all those people and facilities that are provided, mostly, free of charge because of the dedication of the people.

Kev

I just looked up the records of our WA trip which included the EO Gathering at Wiluna.these are on road expenses only ,dont include any preparation costs permits , inital food /grog /fuel supplies or even a fill up when we get home
50 days - 16 ,500 km
total cost $11500 or $230 per day
fuel-117 /day
accom-43/day
food 38/day
misc-8 /day
tours-only 5 varying from 12 -200
repairs $ 770 not usually something i need to allow for but hitting a tree does that.

over the 5 days we were in wiluna proper
a total of 556 or $111per day
fuel 170, groceries /food-211, accom 140
misc 35

I also compared against a trip to Cape york 2 years ago and very little difference
9000 km -34 days total cost 7755 =ave $ 235 per day
fuel -113 per day
accom-22per day
food/grog-38 per day
misc 12/day
tours 11 tours from $10-700


The big variables are tours and accomm
cape york was camper trailer , WA was roof top tent
we only had a few free nights on cape york trip but nothing more expensive than a van park
the WA trip included 20 free nights on Anne Beadell and Canning but also saw us spend over $1000 on apartments and motels in broome and darwin at an average of $200 per night. 25 out of the 50 nights were cvp or national park camp sites.
the cost of these averaged out at $26 per night

we spent over $1500 on tours in cape york and only $346 in WA

we only undertake a major trip each year but do try to spread our spending around. I often fuel up in one town and stop and restock the groceries/grog in another town on the same day just so everyone gets a little bit.

regards
howard

Howard

If other EO members spend is anything like yours in Wiluna, then the local community did o/k.

An other group I am involved with estimated $30-40,000.00 spent by the group in about 5 days of a get together.

Many of the people I speak to on trips are aware of the need to look after the local communities.

regards

Wim,

The donation to the local community from the St George Gathering was above $3k so what everyone spent in the area alone would have amounted to quite a bit of $$


Cheers Kev

Hi Marc

A very good answer of benefits both ways, that cannot be measured in dollars.

Motherhen

Interesting Fab....Have a look at politics...most polies DON'T have a degree of any sort and i believe that there are no qualified accountants in federal parliment at the moment (apologies if l'm wrong). That means our country is being run by people unqualified for the job. Explains a lot really!

In response to the article referred to in this thread, most fuel stations and caravan park owners employ staff who spend in the local economy. I believe the 'flow on' effect of this type of spending is app $5 for every dollar spent by tourists. Thats a huge amount for any rural community in an era where international travel is growing and domestic tourism shrinking.

Regional business should be grateful for any tourist showing patronage to their establishment, and those spending the money should be entitled to service for their spend.

Conversely, tourist must understand the logistics of getting fresh food and good staff in more remote locations. I've just had to shut a tourism business after 7 years operation as no one wants to work in country areas. Staffing was an absolute nightmare.

I am grateful for every dollar spent in my business; i also had to put try to understand the frustration of patrons when i couldn't open Sundays due to lack of staff. It's a double edged sword, not helped by politicians who know nothing of staffing businesses in regional areas in difficult economic times.

I hear ya travellin.

A Dealer Principle for the organisation I work for was telling me that he signed 78 group certificates in one year, and only keeps a staff of 20.

Minning is flashing the big bucks which makes it incredibly difficult for any buisness to get and keep staff.

I guess there is no silver bullet to fix this problem, however, I'm still a firm believer in the fact that more needs to be done to encourage tourists (both young and old) to spend their $$$$ here in Australia. The strong Aussie dollar has put our backs up against the wall on that one too.

Now is certainly not the time to illustrate poor service or lack of customer focus. I'm sure our battling businesses already know that though.

Yep Gramps. If they aren't getting the traveller's dollars, they need to look at what they are doing wrong. Many Qld towns are attracting the visitors and breathing new life into their towns. The others need to do their research, be innovative and market their attractions. Providing a free or very low cost serviced camp ground is a start to getting the people there and to stay. Carrots not big sticks.

Motherhen

Exactly Motherhen. They're in a business and they have to make that business attractive to customers. If they don't, they go out of business and someone else reaps the rewards.

An even better Idea,

Why not get expensive, but very well appointed Caravan Parks with fully, university educated, tourist focused staff and get the local farmers and businesses to sell their product at cost or below.
At least the CP owners would be happy.

.......people will only spend what the have to spare.

Products in country regions is more expensive and that is not because they want it to be... it is because THEY HAVE TO LIVE TOO! Just because they own a farm or a business does not mean they are rich or even well off. they are there because they have an urge to SERVE YOU!
Nomads (and I'm about to be one) don't think twice about spending in excess of $100.000 on a 'rig', but baulk at spending an extra 50c or $1 on a burger or 1/2 KG of tomatoes.

Remember... tomorrow may never be!

Marcel

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, glass of red wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO, what a RIDE!!"

Agree totally kend88 ,,, GMD says love the bush but expects capital city things by the looks of it.

I love the bush and respect the lifestyle and I adapt to suit - that's the Aussie way is it not?????

Too many knockers IMHO.

GMD doesn't eat anything fresh anyway... according to his post earlier...

"We do not need people when we travel, and we do not need facilities.
We are here for the space and the weather not the people. If there were no towns in the outback even better. If worse comes to worse I can carry in excess of 800l fuel and can get from main center to center."

lets hope he's happy.

Marcel

ok home late, will put up some "costs" involved in operating remote locations as a post at a later date, as a really short indicator how would ya like to pay $1-20 (min) PER KILO for freight (wet season fly in rate) ........ 1.25L of coke is about a kilo, add freight to that ....

Agree Rockape re pub