More drama at Wye River park

One of the most popular caravan parks along Victoria’s famous Great Ocean Road has been in the news twice after two separate incidents last month.

In early-January the BIG4 Wye River Holiday Park hit the headlines after a holidaymaker lost control of his vehicle, ploughing through the park’s boom gates before crashing into a cabin.

It was reported that the man in his 70s suffered head injuries and was taken to hospital after he had accidentally put his foot on the accelerator rather than brake.

One witness on social media likened the incident to a “terrorist-like situation” as the vehicle swerved to avoid people, but fortunatley no-one was seriously hurt.

More recently, the Wye River park was caught up in a gastro outbreak at camping sites along the GOR. Although guests were handed notices about the stomach bug upon arrival, some were angry that they weren’t warned prior to that.

One guest, Melanie Imlach believes she should have been notified prior to arrival and been given the option of cancelling and receiving a refund.

“We were advised that there was a tummy bug when we arrived and we went on to very carefully clean our hands but unfortunately a large number of our group became affected by it,” she told ABC radio.

Imlach decided to cut her holiday short but claimed she was refused a refund for any unused days due to a ‘no refund policy’.

“I’m really sympathetic to the business owners and I really do believe that they did a lot to try and control it, they had a huge cleaning team that were cleaning (the bathrooms) four times a day,” she explained.

Another camper ‘Graham’ staying in a campervan at the park was also struck down by gastro but said it was “unfair’ to blame  park management as it was hard to contain the outbreak given there were “hundreds and hundreds of kids running around at the park, on jumping pillows, touching and breathing on each other…’

Wye River park was also in the spotlight a couple of years ago when it narrowly escaped major damage when the surrounding township was ravaged by fires on Christmas day 2015.