Beached caravan ruins holiday plans

Caravan roll-overs are a regular occurrence on Australia's busiest bitumen highways, but they're a rare sight on the few sections of sandy coastline accessible to public vehicles.

So you have to feel for the unfortunate travellers that recently rolled their caravan rig while traversing Tims Thicket beach in Mandurah, 90km southwest of Perth.

The up-ended old-style caravan and Nissan Patrol were rescued earlier this month by Westcoast 4x4 Recovery; with locals also helping clean up some of the mess left behind.

Shaun Butcher from Westcoast 4x4 Recovery told the Mandurah Times that the 4WD and caravan were filled with sand and water when he arrived, after they had spent the night on the beach.

"The main issue with any caravan of that age, when they do roll over they can have the potential of the wall falling out of them - then we've got a massive cleanup on our hands," he said.

"The weather was so bad that day, I winched the van back on its wheels and came around to hook the car and caravan to pull it all out in one piece but the wind caught the caravan and pulled it back over."

To make matters worse the recovered caravan was set on fire after it was left overnight in the carpark, turning it into a 'burnt out wreck'.

"When things go bad they tend to really go bad in some cases," Westcoast 4x4 Recovery said on Facebook.

"Probably not the best weather to be traversing our coastline with a caravan in tow especially after the swell we have seen. Lucky enough there was only some minor injuries from this roll over."

The Perth-based recovery specialists offered some words of wisdom for over-zealous beach drivers.

"Some recoveries are tougher than others but the lessons are the same...

"A 4x4 is not a licence to go anywhere and there are no excuses for a lack of common sense, preparation or stupidity."