Quote ...."Sunshine Coast council in Queensland has decided to increase out-of-season site fees at its Cotton Tree and Mooloolaba caravan parks to $57 nightly. Sites at other parks will rise by about 4 percent." unquote
I am betting that the price is for 2 people, so now consider same one of my sons who has 4 children at say a minimum. of $10 extra P.P. that would end up costing almost $100 per night.
One could get a unit on the Sunshine coast for $700 per week in off season Winter, which is the high season for these C. Park, as out southern counterpart move up this way for the winter.
A huge rip off. Any wonder that the council is against Freedom camping in their region.
I'll bet even at $57 per night they are full all the time. They are places we'd never visit so really they can charge what they like. Both those spots are premium locations with better facilities and location than any commercial caravan parks in that area. We visited friends staying at Cotton tree and they were packed in like sardines.
This situation is not going away, as we move on into the future the situation will favour small business even more so, there is an equal amount of travellers that stay only in CP's as there are those that don't, these are seen as the 'real' contributors to small businesses in the area.
It is obvious that the 'free' camping spots are getting really overcrowded, as most NM's have standard or so called semi-off roaders, the known spots are looking like caravan parks, this is one of the main reasons my wife and I purchased a larger full off roader, as we can see where the future is heading, the baby boomers have just started, and in that regard full off roaders
will get more expensive 'new', and the second hand ones will hold there price for a longer period of time, the only way to get peace and quiet and space, will be to go off road, and I am not talking about a nicely graded road.
brickies - for that I would expect at least one free nappie change from them - these rip-off merchants will go the same way as others - belly up !!
More and more CPs are dropping their prices, other than at prime beach sites or where the Council controls the Parks and its CEO needs a new Statesman each year.
No beach or other location is so bloody good that you will pay $57+ a night when you supply you own accommodation - all they do is supply a patch of sane, water, power and hot water.
What goes round comes round. Karratha in W.A is an example. Three years ago a 3x1 shack there sold for $2M+ and rented out at $2K a week. Now that the major employer, Chevron Gas had announced it will be closing all its operations there in a few years time, you cant sell a house. A mate of mine rented a new 2x1 apartment there, fully furnished and all utilizes supplied (and power is very expensive there) for $400 a week.
These greedy pigs will eventually get their karma !!!
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
I personaly would never ever pay that to be packed in like a sardine besides that maloolaba isnt what its made
Out to be ! Thugs thieves druggies you name it i wont even go there at night ! So they can keep there prices
Where the fit lol ! 700 bucks a week would rent you an amazing home with your own pool for that
The sunshine coast has been off our list of places to stay for several years now.
A van park at Grafton was sold and the new owners found that the prices that they were charging resulted in many vacant sites. Now it`s $22 a night and the place is full.
At least the Grafton CP owners were smart enough to do it. Lets hope they wont screwed over when they bought it with being told how much each site was under the previous owners.
Broome in WA has been whinging for the past 2-3 years how their tourism has dropped by up to 47% each year. They charge a fortune for their CP sites, no free camping anywhere in the shire (the Mayor owns the largest CP in Broome) and retail outlets are closing because tourists don't come in the same numbers anymore. Their best season is winter when the cashed up grey nomads move from Perth and Mandurah to Broome for 3-4 months.
Most WA tourists go to Bali. For $300 they get return fares, no cargo hold luggage fees, a meal on the plane, pickup from the airport and 3-4 star motel/hotel accommodation and free breakfasts - that's for 6 nights.
$300 wont even get you 6 nights in a Broome CP site
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
Stayed at Cabbage tree a couple of years ago and its true packed in like sardines and on very small sites have recently stayed a couple of times at Dicky's Beach not a cheap park but less than Cotton tree and much much larger sites and we could see the beach not just other caravans.
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We called into Cotton tree caravan park on our return from North Queensland about 5 years ago the site we were given on a rise from the roadway and could not back up on the site has the tow hitch was digging in ,Went to the office had a lot of trouble getting our money back in the end they gave us our money back and we went to Dicky's Beach nice spot .
It is my belief [and I stand corrected if the following is not the case] that the Sunshine Coast Regional Council under the guidance of Mayor Mark [developers friend] Jamieson would like to see the Sunshine Coast coastal caravan parks go, then they could sell the land to developers to turn the Sunny Coast into another version of the Gold Coast. I am surprised that local businesses that get patronage from van park occupants have not spoken out about the price increases.
These caravan parks are for cashed up young to middle income people who find these fees reasonable compare to the cost rent on the holiday units it all about supply and demand and there is a lot of demand at Cotton Tree , So the bottom line they don't need Grey nomads to keep there parks full that why I head bush and go to place the young and middle cashed don't want to be ,
This situation is not going away, as we move on into the future the situation will favour small business even more so, there is an equal amount of travellers that stay only in CP's as there are those that don't, these are seen as the 'real' contributors to small businesses in the area.
