woolworths in queensland,are going to try a trail.               for free camping in some of there car parks, ( a lot of shires are objecting,on the grounds of no toilets )  in country towns.     the small town of ayr in nth queensland,at this stage is the first to have a go.         a announcement,about this scheme from our premier captain bligh shortly.                it works in the united states.     wal-mart do it all they ask is you clean up your rubbish,and spend a bit of  money in there store.          what are your thoughts  

After reading the latest feature on our 'home page' this has to be given a go. Funny how the thought of a few extra dollars in these towns and businesses has suddenly changed their arttitude towards grey nomads.

Johnw

-- Edited by jandas fun on Thursday 25th of June 2009 12:05:35 PM

sounds like a logical solution for what's becoming a real problem.  Mosts carparks are deserted after sunset and that's when the "hoons" do their thing so opening up the carparks to GN's would deter hooligan behaviour as well as providing a service to us and the offshot is that we spend our money in their store and in their town.  Maybe a few letters to the "powers that be" of these stores might give them food for thought.  (No pun intended)
Ma

I have noticed that the primary school at Kawana,Sunshine Coast is always full of RVers at xmas time.All schools have toilets etc so maybe that is another avenue to explore.Cheers.Ibbo.

It's a great use for a wasted resource. It's secure with floodlighting, although the curtains may have to be a bit thicker. It's monitored by security, and because it's an open space, less likely to be visited by hoons and other scammers. Bring it on!

I know that a lot of show grounds open up to RV's but I think it's by prior arrangement if traveling in a group or as an over flow from the regular parks . When you consider how many showgrounds are left unused month in month out for the vandals to abuse many of the show society's should jump at it as a source of revenue and the added security . Maybe some country schools could also look at it as a revenue source , all that's needed is dunny access and if lucky power

That's a great idea to pursue. All someone has to do is create the proposal and send it out on email to every school and showground around the country. Some showgrounds are used for football and cricket ie. the town oval. Not every shire/council is in the position to have and maintain all that infrastructure. Who's going to put their hand up? An article could also be compiled and sent to the caravan, motorhome and camping mags and websites. Any volunteers? Cheers Chris

Earlier this year on our way to Qld, we stopped at Narrandera NSW showgrounds for $15 per night-very basic ablution block, very dry grounds, but obviously the show society there thought it good income. Was four other vans there when we stayed. Also at home in Mt. Gambier, the show society there has also opened up a section for travellers to use. I mentioned the use of alternative onite camping spots to managers of this park, and they commented that the van park industry are the ones to lose out on that income. Obviously we want cheaper accom especially for our one night stays, so it is an interesting issue. We obviously choose free sites as often as possible until we reach our destination where we then book into a van park.

a scheme similar to this has been workng in New Zealand for some years now.

Vic. you mention the various orgs that are doing the lobbying, any idea how they are going  with it,  haven't seen a lot in any of the caravan and 4x4 mags or other forums  on it .

Tezza. Any more info on the NZ set up

I'm not sure what the shopping hours are in Qld, but aren't most woollies open until 8 or 9 o'clock at night? Might be a bit of a pain not being able to setup until after the shops close.

Wombat, I know the ACC (Australian Caravan Club) and CMCA a National  Campervan & Motorhome Club are heavily involved in lobbying, they are both "closed" clubs to other than members so their sites cannot be accessed by non members, even for their Leave No Trace scheme.  However, the ATCM& M National Club do make provide information on their site when known, see info below about the LNT scheme
.
http://www.atcmcc.org.au/clubnews.php?newsid=LNT

There are members of the ACC and CMCA on the Caravaners Forum site who could answer your questions, but you would have to put a post there (free to join), see;

www.caravanersforum.com

(Note, they only use one "n" in caravanners).

Vic

hi mike.        what woolworth hope to do,   when the nightly rush is finished,at approx 6 to 6-30.    they will block off three quarter of the car park with witches hats.  then when they close at 9pm they will remove the witches hats.      the only problem i can see,is the noise from the vendors trucks ( they start deliverys at 6.30 am)                  when they first approached the queensland tourism minister about this,  the projections were for a 6 per cent sales increase,in the ayr store grocery sales  ( not bad when you are averaging $500.000 in grocery sales a week )

wombat. It's about 6 years since I was there but we hired a motorhome and most supermarkets and some service stations were happy to let you camp providing you had selfcontained sticker and they asked that you shopped pre camp and kept your docket but saw no-one ever checking dockets. the service stations provided areas behind station in most cases and some had showers (user pays)

Hi Vic, Not sure about Mt Gambier, but Tourist Info Centre would know; at Narrandera caretaker was on site, so booked in with him. Also stayed at Maleny showgrounds here on Sunshine Coast before we found this park; there we checked out at Tourist Info centre, then just had to fill out form and pay at secretarys office.
Maleny was in Camp 4 book, plus we have seen many others in there.
Cheers Colleen

It's not any use to me to join any of those clubs. I'm not based in any state and I'm not interested in paying to caravan around the country. There are thousands like me, so how do we get our voice heard? That's why I believe a forum such as The Grey Nomads is another way of gathering the support for raising issues with the powers that wanna be. It's not hard to gather the numbers, record each opinion, collate them and send them to the most useful recipient.

Have always thought the schools would be a good option to camp at during school hoklidays as it would help to stop the vandalism and if they charged a small fee it could help to go towards the cost of some equipment that is needed in the school. Helena.

Thanks for the feedback Robcol, I was wondering if it varied in different states, probably not but would depend on the owners of the grounds and the various councils as to what their procedures are. I stayed at one oval in a small town in WA, half the oval was owned by an adjoining bowling club on one side (not used for their bowling etc, that was on a separate site). The other half was owned by the council and managed by the tourist bureau (for travellers). Both halves had power to the edges of the oval and showers and toilets. If you wanted to stay on one side, you paid the bowling club, if you wanted to stay on the other side, you paid the tourist bureau. This was for the same oval. One side charged less than the other. With the tourist bureau, which also doubled as a post office, if it was out of business hours, you put your money in an evelope an put your details on the envelop and put it in the Red postal box out the front. This was only ever cleared by the PO/TB before mail was despatched elsewhere and the money collected then. Strange set up....... Vic

On our way to Peak Hill a few months ago we stayed at the showground in Yeoval NSW. Free sites with water and toilets, but cold showers. Very clean and plenty of sites. Great spot.

Pat

Hay NSW also has camping facilities at the showground...have an onsite caretaker but bascially if he isn't about you just set-up & he'll catch up with you....good toilet/shower facilities $10 unpowered or $15 with power.

How about a defination of what a camping site is, Can we light fires,? can we bang in a tent stake, NO!, So it is a stopover Can we just put our head down for a while and move on, NO!, have paid a fee for the night no its not a stopover, its a reststop Totally confused If the vandals destroy the signage, and you do the wrong thing, how much go to the costs pf the court ??

Saw this on another site and copied the comments; "Anybody considering free camping at Woolies at Ayr forget it I have just today spoken to someone who is in a position of authority and it is a false message police will be called to move anyone on . The carpark is in fact due to be partly ripped up and renewed and there is not now or never was any plans to open it for self contained or any other type of after hours parking so be warned ." Vic

Vic41 wrote:

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Saw this on another site and copied the comments;

"Anybody considering free camping at Woolies at Ayr forget it I have just today spoken to someone who is in a position of authority and it is a false message police will be called to move anyone on . The carpark is in fact due to be partly ripped up and renewed and there is not now or never was any plans to open it for self contained or any other type of after hours parking so be warned ."

Vic

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Be careful copying someone's personal comments from one site to another, especially if they're not your comments. Chris

 

we regularly have travellers stopping at the carparks of woolies and Kmart, unofficially of course, I dont know anything about the legalitys of it but it goes on quite regular, I wouldnt stay in there, wouldnt feel safe but I notice a lot of people do, they seem to be okay, I just worry about the "hoon" factor our car parks have not as yet got security cameras, they do however have lighting which I guess is one safety element

Sounded to good to be true. Consider the insurance aspects and I doubt that Woolies or Coles would be footing the bill for that after hours....

hi all.             i dont know where this bloke from another forum,has got his info.   my brother works for ,queensland tourism,and he assures me that this is correct.         

well vic if you want to go over to that other forum and post my reply ( like you did with my first post about this subject)    you are quite welcome

I'll leave that up to you Ken, go there and put him straight. Vic