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

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!

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

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

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

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)

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.