I'm currently staying privately just down the road from Bendigo's Prince of Wales Showgrounds...I did previously report that Council erected signs in the grounds... closed to Caravans/Camping from May 2014.....they use the areas for their weekly Sunday markets now....'not up to standards'?....the toilets/ablution blocks are adequate for a few thousand people every Sunday plus the yearly swap meets, Circus's etc etc, but not adequate for a few dozen Vanners....?
They have also now erected signs across the road in the Showground parking areas..no camping/caravan stopovers whatsoever..

My take is, it has much to do about additional Council revenue from the Sunday Market Stall holders, holders of the swap meets etc.. and of course the inevitable ""vested"" interests influencing Council to protect that Australia Wide 'protected species' called 'Caravan Parks'....<read they are only likely to become extinct when the Potential Developers money is sufficient for their desirable grounds or they have completely enveloped their sites with permanent cabins to the exclusion of overnight travellers...has already happened in a number of cases>..This is not said in ignorance I was/am a Certified Business Broker/Real Estate Agent <hopefully retired> which included my selling various Caravan Parks through the years....and former Bank Manager 21 years with many Caravan Parks as clients...I have seen much behind the scene ""manouvreings"" through the years....as one developer told me when he was evicting "permanents - Caravan site holders of long standing...."you go in on wheels and you go out on wheels".........

Sad really, Bendigo's showgrounds was a great area for short stay accommodation..particularly for the 'horse folk' using the horse arena..and short trip to the City's shopping and tourist facilities.....

Now of course more difficult to find vacancies in the Caravan Parks....isn't that what Australia is about? ..not just Bendigo...
Council would invariably state they must cater for the majority and the majority get more use out of the areas with shows/swap meets/etc etc...
For the record I have lived in all States and I find Bendigo to be the finest place to live with access and city parking etc...not to mention the surrounding goldfields in the State Forrests/National Parks..

Hoo Roo

-- Edited by Goldfinger on Sunday 5th of April 2015 10:14:04 AM

-- Edited by Goldfinger on Sunday 5th of April 2015 10:19:30 AM

-- Edited by Goldfinger on Sunday 5th of April 2015 10:37:39 AM

I recently had an email conversation with some "Director" (one of many that Councils seem to have nowdays) for the Esperance Council, WA, about the issue of lack of caravan parking when shopping in town. He acknowledged signage was poor and they would put up new signs and then said they had caravan parking and they will re-examine that it is too far from the town centre to walk back with bags of shopping for us folks).

I also complained that the CP's there are grossly overpriced and usually not very clean. His response is that's not council business and my response in turn was the CP's represent Esperance so the Council needs to start applying national health and safety laws and appropriate by-laws to at least get these CP's to re-invest in their facilities. I pointed out that they would have received a written invitation some time ago to become an RV friendly town, but they had apparently chosen not to, but instead erected signs everywhere saying "camping not allowed" and apparently getting their rangers to check out likely free camping spots in their area. He denied harassment of RVers, but said they would look at providing some free camping outside the township but would not adopt "RV friendly status"

Esperance is a very busy tourist town and all its CP's are nearly full all year round with RVs and tents. A read of wikicamps about Esperance is not good reading.

I also told him that I and others (off wiki) found their Info Centre to be poorly stocked with info and the staff unhelpful or made you wait while they had a chat. They are now going to evaluate their Info Centre and up-grade their presentation and re-train staff to be customer focused.

If it happens - it shows it does work sometimes to complain.........