I'm with ya. I've long be whinging about the price of caravan parks. But I reckon even worse is the cost to camp in national parks. Dependent on the location you can be up for $14/night +$7 for your car. 35 bucks for me and the missus to park on a parcel of grass is a joke.

They charge the extra during the peak seasons to cover the extra staff due to being full during these times a lot of parks now shut up shop during winter just leave a caretaker

pueter66 said..
We run our accommodation here in Queensland and we refuse to up the rates for the seasons as it pisses us off how rates can double in the xmas and school holidays, i know eveyrone has to make a buck, but we get a lot of repeat business from families that just cant afford the peak season rates,

And thats is a time honoured true business model, that breeds success. Well done.
The large chain parks, although I suspect a few would like to do same, are now buggered by the system they helped to build

On a side note, its surprising to see so many parks have gone the way of East Coast, where there are cabins in preference to the whole park being predominantly van sites, to less than 30% are now available for vans.

I hear you Min, and the park owners then get the poops with free campers, go figure.

A place in the middle of WA's great southern / wheatbelt that has nothing going for it - nothing at all - provides an area to park a caravan or camper.
You get dunnies and a shower, and power. The dunnies would exist anyway as they are a public toilet block - so all they provide is a flat area with powerpoints. Not hard.

The rest is red dirt, no shade, no lawn and nobody else staying there. Empty every time I have seen it in last 2yrs. Gratefully provided by the Shire.
The *only* thing going for it is that it is roughly halfway to a awesome windsports and surfing spot.

They want $22 a night.

So yeah I am hearing ya Mineral - WTF are they thinking..........?

God only knows what desirable locations want in peak season.

WA is a big area full of mostly nothing. If it costs thirty dollars for a patch of dirt, why not just find sonewhere out of the way & camp for free? Sure there are no amenities but what do you get for $30? A toilet block and possibly power. You possibly could set yourself up to have these amennities yourself for not much money, especislly if you are on the move.

I think there are a few free sites dotted around the country. All the retired travelers know about them and apparently stay there for ages.

I thought it was a bit cheap, all these retired people whinging about paying for caravan parks, but I guess if you have to stay everynight for 3 months or longer, it can be quite expensive.

A couple of years ago, sandwichmaker + son wanted to do the wildflower tour thing,
Spent a week going through much of the wheatbelt in a hired campervan.

We found the same thing, a few places were over-the-top pricey, but were surprised to find a few towns that cost stuff all to use thier caravan parks.
IIRC, one of the better had campsites with plenty of shade, caravan sites with private en-suite type shower/ bathroom, power supplied, full BBQ and kitchen [out doors but under cover in huge gazebo] and was only a few hundred metres from the pub/ shops/ sports ground+rec.centre.
cost us next to nothing.

We have the details of the whole trip stashed somewhere, give us some time and I will do a search.

stephen

Oh I know, I know....... No, I lost it.

That's like saying "you know that town down South that ends in up".

Mobydisc said..
WA is a big area full of mostly nothing. If it costs thirty dollars for a patch of dirt, why not just find sonewhere out of the way & camp for free? Sure there are no amenities but what do you get for $30? A toilet block and possibly power. You possibly could set yourself up to have these amennities yourself for not much money, especislly if you are on the move.

That's the annoying thing.
I prefer to park out in the sticks under a tree for the night, and often do, but almost all shires in W.A. now have a "no camping" policy, and they count camping as even sleeping in your car or camper for 8 hours overnight, no tent, no deck chairs, no campfire, no nothing,.. just sleeping in your car or campervan, doors shut and snoring.
If the ranger is in a sour mood, and they often are, they hit you with a fine of $200 to $500 for illegal camping, not to mention talking down to you like you're some homeless dropkick.

The Exmouth shire is one of them. There is no camping allowed anywhere in the exmouth shire except for designated campgrounds,..i.e. caravan parks.
I can unsderstand them not wanting people setting up tent city campsites for the winter like they used to, but they have gone from one extreme to the other.
The shire is far too large to ban camping anywhere in the whole shire. It stinks!

They say it's because campers drop their rubbish everywhere.
I'm sure some of them do, but then they drop it everywhere in the daytime. What's the difference about night time?
It's probably one of the few times they don't drop rubbish, because they are sleeping.

And why is it that my home council has to spend $600,000 a year maintaining the local beaches for the benefit of the whole country, all paid for by local residents rates, and yet the country shires feel it's beneath them to allow someone to sleep overnight in a campervan out in their unoccupied bush somewhere?

And they wonder why people go off to Bali for holidays.

pweedas said..

sn said..
I havent fount the trip details yet, but I asked the sandwichmaker if she could remember which town it was.

The answer that came back........

"it was the town that had its name ending with "in"

thats really going to help narrow down the search!stephen

Maybe Wickerpin? There's not too many ending with in.,.. Hmmm,.. maybe Meredin? Dowerin? Ummm,..

About 40 towns ending in 'in''

pweedas said..

"no camping" policy, and they count camping as even sleeping in your car or camper for 8 hours overnight, no tent, no deck chairs, no campfire, no nothing,.. just sleeping in your car or campervan, doors shut and snoring.
If the ranger is in a sour mood, and they often are, they hit you with a fine of $200 to $500 for illegal camping, not to mention talking down to you like you're some homeless dropkick.

Tell the ranger you are knackered and felt you were at risk of falling asleep while driving, and you refuse to move until you have had a decent sleep.

I doubt a ranger would risk being held accountable by the coroner if an accident occurs.

There is a fair chance if he still hit you with a fine, that it would be thrown out if contested in court.

stephen.

Mark _australia said..

Forgot to mention - there is a traveller's guide book that consists of ONLY free camping spots all around Oz.
Can't recall the name but sure you'd be able to find it.

Thats the one that has just been bought by the Big 4 Group.........it wont be around for long!

pweedas said..

patsken said..
There are plenty of free camping spots around the carparks at Port and Leighton Beaches (WA).... there must be 'cos when I go to work at 6.30ish in the morning there is always quite a few decked out vans parked up with happy campers at various stages of their morning ablutions !!

That's because Port beach and surrounds is run by Fremantle Port Authority, and they are a little less dilligent in pursuing policy.
Every so often they have a blitz on them but not as often as local councils.

Which pretty much shows that it is most likely a money raising exercise by the looks seeing that the Port Authority are a government cash cow and the local councils are generally cash strapped.

Mind you a few of the free campers stuff it up for the rest by staying there for weeks and doing everything from their dishes to the laundry in the shower blocks and leaving a mess....

We've have a place down at Preston,Mineral and your right we quite often see the vans and campers in carpark and they always asking if there's a camp close.The shire has now finished up grading the water tank campsites so there's heaps of sites.Unfortunely the minority have spoilt the beach camping down that by not living by the rules and ranger now has a day out most weekends.