Are caravan parks getting too crowded?

COMMENT

‘Go north and enjoy Queensland during COVID’ is the multi-million dollar message being broadcast loud and long by the Sunshine State’s tourism authorities, as hopes of unrestricted interstate, let alone overseas travel, continue to fade.

Great in theory, problematic in practice, as we’ve just discovered on a three-week caravan holiday in an 18ft 6in Sunseeker Mirage behind a new Toyota Fortuner GXL through Queensland's northern regions.

The problem is, everyone seems to have heard it!

Be flexible

The first rule of caravan travel in these times is anathema to free-range tourists like ourselves: plot your trip well ahead and be prepared to change your plans. Avoiding school holidays if you can, and enjoying the same state are other dictums.

On the positive side on our trip to the Daintree from the southern Gold Coast, it took us down some new roads to unfamiliar places, which we rated as an overall ‘positive'.

The starting point is to appreciate that caravan traffic is currently very heavy as many older travellers have embraced this other world. This means that most parks in all the popular places are booked months ahead and at best you’ll be shuttled into an unpowered ‘overflow’ site if there are any spaces left in peak times.

There are also more ‘free-camps’ than we have ever seen before, particularly across the Atherton Tablelands, so the moral here is to ensure your caravan or camper trailer has enough water capacity, solar power and on-board battery capacity to take advantage of this.

Fortunately our borrowed Sunseeker Marvel Sport caravan did, with twin 85-litre freshwater tanks, a similar-sized grey water tank, two 125AH deep cycle batteries fed by 340 watts of solar power on its roof through twin panels, while its rivetted aluminium wall frames and trailing arm independent coil spring suspension, and standard Toyota Landcruiser-size all-terrain tyres ensured we could get to these free places.

All this equipment is not essential. If you're careful, carry plenty of water containers and take it slow, you can drag most caravans anywhere. But not all of us are so cautious and we may have time constraints and children!

Anyway, not only were all the main route caravan parks we encountered on our trip full to bursting, but in many years of caravanning I have never seen so many places to stop by the roadside.

Many of these in Shire showgrounds had obviously been encouraged by the local authorities, cognisant that keeping travellers overnight puts dollars in the pockets of at least the local baker and fuel station. And if these places go broke, the whole community is in trouble.

The more enterprising towns also now have dump points for your toilet waste, while your grey water can be leaked slowly and discretely to seal the dust on the next dirt road on your travels.

It beats the $47 we paid one night for caravan-only space with no power or water on a mowed paddock adjacent to a popular North Queensland Big 4 (although we did sneak our toilet cassette through the back gate to empty it into their sullage tank).

But the greatest indignity was when we found that many of our rag-tag paddock neighbours had simply driven in off the adjacent public road, by-passing the office and check-in formalities!

Our trip to Cape Tribulation took us up the coast and back to our Southern Gold Coast home via the Tablelands and obscure but direct inland highways. But without exception, all the regular coastal caravan parks we have stayed at over the years of similar travel were booked out – not just for the nights we wanted, but months ahead.

We were amazed at the number of ‘last site’ bookings we found and of the new places we discovered, but prices pleasantly were not inflated, as they could easily have been in these demand-driven times.

True ‘finds’ included the beautiful absolute beachfront BIG4 caravan park at Rollingstone, about 40km north of Townsville and the wilder beachfront Pinnacle Village park 10 minutes north of Mossman when we could find nothing in Port Douglas, 30 minutes to the south.

Unexpected parks off the beaten track brought their benefits in terms of greater availability and different charms. One of our better nights was behind the truck-stop in Gin Gin, where we gazed out on green, empty fields, cool G & Ts in hand for $20.

Interstate rivalry

As our Toyota Fortuner press car carried Victorian registration, we heard a few ‘go back to where you came from’ mutterings from our neighbours from time to time. But a quick poll of registration plates in the popular parks convinced us that the Queensland tourist industry would be in deep trouble without the influx of pesky ‘southerners’.

The influx of travellers had some interesting effects on dining out. For a start, there were fewer classy eateries open in established tourist towns like Noosa Heads, Airlie Beach and Port Douglas, as a shortage of experienced waiting staff took its toll, while ‘specials’ were harder to find on menus. Every dollar earned from their reduced kitchen inventory counted! But bookings were fairly easy to get as tourists were also cash conscious...

Travelling north near the end of the school holidays, as we were, the steady stream of returning caravans gave us a chance to log the different makes on the move.

Imports on the move

Chinese-made caravans and pop-tops (MDC, Snowy River, etc) were the absolute winners on the road, followed by Jayco Silverlines (easily spotted from afar as they loomed tall over their tow vehicle, with their all-black front glasshouse increasing the impression of their height).

They were followed in popularity on the road by various New Age models; a number of Supremes and Crusaders, a healthy sprinkling of Kedrons and Bushtrackers, a number of AORs, etc. Meanwhile in the established caravans parks, you’d find Evernew and Trackmaster models, with their density increasing as you got further north.

Did we have regrets? Yes, a few, but then again, too few to mention much.

The simple reality is, if you want a caravanning holiday in the sun, it’s still available. But plan well ahead; be prepared to change your plans; be flexible with your return date; be open to and prepared for free camping; and take good maps to chart your course home when the borders unexpectedly ‘slam shut’ – as they invariably will!

Related:

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