This is just for anyone heading for northern Qld (or already there). In addition to the famed Comfort Stop the good people of Home Hill have opened up their showground. And a very nice place to stop it is. It costs $10 a night for a powered site - the same for unpowered (they like to keep things simple) so you might as well get power. There is good water available but not to the sites. There's also toilets and lovely hot showers. To get there if you're heading north, turn left at the United servo then cross the level crossing and take the dirt road that appears on your right. The gate is a couple of hundred meters down the track. Heading south, turn right at the southern end of the Comfort Stop and go past the dump point then take the first dirt road on the left. It's only been open for about 2 weeks so it doesn't appear in any of the books we rely on.
Going to call in on our way back down from staying around Mareeba.
Hope it can stay open ,as have heard some people in the town are not happy regarding it being used for this.A meeting is going to be held regarding it.
Wonder how long it will be before the wizz bangs take over like they do at the comfort stop. Must admit tho the rangers were right on top of over stayers last time we over nighted at Home Hill. Is there a time limit on show ground.
When we were in Home Hill last year the Comfort Stop was overfull - and the caravan park - which is off the main road, didn't even know it was there, found it riding our bikes around - still the caravan park was not full. The shops in town were doing a roaring trade, as was the pub. We stayed in Home Hill nearly two weeks at a friends place, and saw every day the busy Comfort Stop, busy shops, busy bakery etc etc - don't think the town would be doing very well without the travellers - so it is in the best interest of the majority of businesses in town to welcome us, as evidenced by nomadic1's post.
-- Edited by jules47 on Friday 28th of June 2013 02:55:45 PM
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jules "Love is good for the human being!!" (Ben, aged 10)
Jules, yes I have put it in the free/budget camping branch.
The meeting was held last Tuesday and so far everything seems to be OK. One of the reasons for that is that we've had a little box in the 'happy hour hut' into which we've all been dropping our dockets from the local shops. Local shops that don't usually provide dockets (like the pubs) have been writing us receipts. They were tallied up on Monday night (ready for the meeting on Tuesday) and we had spent something in the order of $6,200 in just 5 days. That's a pretty powerful argument that the local council representative took to the meeting. The main opposition seems to be coming from the caravan parks. The council run one is full of permanents but they think that council should be putting money into doing that up rather than doing up the showground (please note that so far the council hasn't put any money into the showground) and the other one is a privately owned one. The argument the local representative is putting to council is that if the showground is closed and the comfort stop is full then GNs are not going to go to the caravan park they'll just drive right on through to the next town. That and the fact that the comfort stop is only a 48 hour stop so it makes economic sense to have something affordable and acceptable available for a longer stay.
