Travel Feature: Lake Fyans Holiday Park

Words and pics Andrew Harris

Smoke on the Water

Bob Farmer's career change from professional soldier to owner of Lake Fyans Holiday Park, the Grampians, Vic, came easily. "In 1986 we were looking for a park," he says, "and we chose this one."

Bob spent 20 years in the defence force (including a 1967 stint in Vietnam), and was once president of the Victorian Caravan Parks Association. He and his wife, Milena, looked at a few parks, one in Kosciusko National Park, NSW, before settling on what was then a two-star holiday park. Today, it's a four-and-a-half star Top Tourist Park.

WRAPAROUND VIEWS
Set on a serene 8ha of semi-arid bushland, well off the highway and about 250km from Melbourne, Lake Fyans Holiday Park is divided into 314 powered and 150 unpowered sites, with a full range of cabin accommodation, many with lake views. A couple of big rigs at a time can also be catered for.

A decent general store stocks all the essentials, while supermarkets are about 15km away in the sizeable town of Stawell.

The park takes its name from the man-made reservoir of Lake Fyans, which forms a beach along the back of the property and was constructed during the gold rush years using bullock teams, blood, sweat and tears. Accommodation is laid out in a strip, with barbecue areas, playground and camp kitchen roughly in the centre of the action, near the swimming pool.

Sparkling modern amenities are cleaned thoroughly and regularly, as often as twice a day during peak season, and one block had undergone an extensive renewal and re-tiling before I arrived. A smaller set of facilities, including separate shower, bath and baby-change area are provided for late-arriving guests or for those staying at times of low occupancy.

Although there is generous allowance for boat parking to one side of the property, the drought has had a severe impact. Lake Fyans is well below the 60 per cent capacity required for recreational use, but there are still fish to be caught, and it makes for a spectacular sunset backdrop: waterbirds line the branches of leafless, once-submerged trees in front of a brilliantly lit sky, reflecting on the water's surface.

DINING OPTIONS
Grey Nomads and younger couples make up most of the off-season traffic, while families tend to arrive in the warmer months. The park and the region have their attractions for any time of the year, though.

The large pool with expansive sunshades might not see much use during the winter, but the park's onsite breakfast and dinner bistro is a popular, and often social, escape from the winter chill.

Milena looked after the kitchen at the Palmerston Hotel on Kings Way, Melbourne, before she ended up in with Bob at Lake Fyans. Corella Cafe, situated at the heart of Lake Fyans Holiday Park, operates Wednesday and Saturday nights, as well as for breakfast on Sunday mornings, and it's far from run of the mill. Grilled barramundi and crumbed camembert (not on the same plate) are menu regulars, as well as more standard fare. "It's pretty well appreciated," Bob says.

At the time of writing, wireless-broadband facilities were a few months away, with plans for an access-passport arrangement.

INDOOR-OUTDOOR LIVING
I bedded down in a Grampian View unit, which had a spa and was positioned across the road from the beach and lake.

The main living area, with a four-seater dining table, a TV with DVD player, and two armchairs facing a couch across a coffee table, opens onto a verandah with a two-seat wrought iron outdoor setting.

Along one wall is the full kitchen, with oven and four-burner cooktop with rangehood, microwave and fridge-freezer. Tea and coffee facilities are provided, and a breakfast kit can be arranged on arrival for those lacking foresight, like me. There's plenty of light, with lots of window area, and, with a reverse-cycle unit, everything is temperature-controlled.

At the back of the unit is the generously sized bathroom, which has a corner shower/spa. The bathroom is adjacent to the second bedroom, with two single beds and a third that folds down. The master bedroom has a comfortable queen-size bed.

I awoke at first light. Rays of sun pierced the beachside foliage and rolling mist blanketed the lake, perhaps reminiscent of smoke during the savage bushfires that tore through the area in late 2006. The fire spared Lake Fyans Holiday Park by the width of the road on which it lies. Bob says he was rushing around the place, turning off all the gas cylinders when it flashed through the bush opposite his park, sending embers into the steel boundary fence.

The afternoon I arrived I asked Bob what made his park special, and his reply surprised me: "I'm not sure that we are special," he said, confused by the question. The splendour and calm of the Vic bush is the park's principal appeal, and as for his and Milena's superb hospitality, Bob wouldn't settle for anything less.

"It's a nice park," he says. "A nice place to be."

Lake Fyans Holiday Park Fast Facts: