My Very Own Camp Ground????

We owned a Motel and the land tax, insurance and all the council fees were enough to make you cry.

Probably you would have to licence it and conform and pay tax and all the assorted things that go with dealing with the public.

Would it be worth the trouble.

G'day happycattle2000, I have toyed with this idea for my few acres which is in an area where near coastal parks are being redeveloped into resorts or if not in the path of progress are occupied mainly by permanent residents. Some local councils are providing free shortstay areas with dump points for self contained vans and motorhomes. I think your idea is the future for self contained units wanting stays of more than 3 days. I would be very interested to hear about the response from your local council when you run the idea past their planners. I think having organised groups as your custom would be a lot less trouble than having to deal with yobbos who may take a long term liking to your creekbank and prove difficult to move on.

Hi

I live in brisbane, i would go there, I work for a very large city council.

But I don't work in planning and licensing.

How i see it, your biggest costs would be, as above, insurance and council fees for a commercial operation.

However, if you invited people only and they took out everything they took in and the consideration to you was not on a commercial basis, ie shake of a fat hand (not giving taxation advice here), you could get away with it on a domestic scale.

Once you started wanting to claim the input tax credits and depreciate the assets to offset the profit, then of course you are into council licensing and insurance and land tax on a commercial scale etc etc.

So, it comes down to how big do you want it to be, if you want it to be big, talk to your accountant.

You want to it be local, it might containable within the domestic category. Though you would want your insurance up to $10m claims for invitees.

Hi
Glad you enjoyed the trip.
Your idea is great, before you appproach councils and other authorities,...I would suggest you talk to the folks in the bush that are doing this ....on their cattle station ans so on.
My experience says that authorities present you with barriers
Brian

As soon as any $$$ change hands it becomes a commercial enterprise and the local council and Queen Anna will want to regulate it, license it, inspect it, collect fees and Tax it.

Bruce

Hi, my family and I are in the process of planning our 1 year lap around the country and would be interested to know what set up you used to do it in. We only have 2 kids, 9 and 10 and are thinking of an off road caravan, did you have a van? off road or normal. if off road did you use it off road very often? we want to free camp as much as possible and have been told that there are lots of spectacular places to free camp but you need an off road van to get to them, interested in hearing anything you could share. Sorry, no advise on the park idea but sounds like a great lifestyle choice.

Hado

G'day happycattle.

Friends of my caravanning buddy have just done this in Tassie. Might be worth sending them an email to pick their brains and see if you want to continue with the dream. ( Malcolm and Trudi)

their campground website:

http://www.rivers-edge.com.au/

2 hours and we're heading there. Only 51kms from home.

Happy, I wonder if you did not charge a fee, but if people had to donate to access this area how you would go.

TDB