Time to Roam Magazine Issue 9 - June/July 2014 | Page 14

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Price gouging
Maybe the park operators should
have a long hard look at themselves.
Here are just a few points.
1. Increase in fees from $35 per night to $55 per
night for school holidays (I can document this)
2. $8 to $10 night extra for kids. Maybe
this should have an age limit, say over
12, as those under this age must be
accompanied by adult to amenities.
3. Two night minimum stay when booking
These are some of conditions we have struck
while travelling. We are not major free campers
-maybe one or two nights in a month.
But I really do understand why there are
dedicated Free Campers, both retired and young. I
met one couple with three kids on north coast of
NSW paying $55 per night plus $8 per child (two
were under 10) so they were up for $79 per night.
No wonder these people look
for free or low cost camps.
We recently were travelling in NSW and
parks put up their prices from $35 per night
to $55 per night for school holidays.
In my view this is price gouging. And they
wonder why the older travellers use free parks?
We used to live in the Mallee, approximately
100km from Murray Bridge, where both caravan
park owners tried to get council to ban free
or low cost camping. At a meeting of local
business owners they were told forget it as all the
caravan travellers spend money in the town.
All businesses in a town benefit. The
free camper will still spend money, helping
create employment and more..

KOMBIS KEEPING ON
On a recent road trip north from Old
Bar I was lucky enough to obtain the
last copy of Time to Roam from the
office of the First Sun Caravan Park in
Byron Bay (where I love staying).
I loved your article on the “Great
Escape Vehicle” – a review of the
Frontline Adventurer VW T5 Volkswagen
Transporter from Ballina Campervans.
I bought one of these VW Transporters
from Ballina Campervans in 2010 and drove

Phill Byrne, Thebarton SA

Only themselves to blame
Caravan park owners created the need
to free camp due to high site fees for
overnight stops and I will bet Richard
Davis would be one of them.
Council caravan parks were always the
lowest cost or simply the cheapest place
to stay, but now they are all leased and
the site fees have gone sky high.
In my view, an overnight stop on a powered
site anywhere should not cost more than
$20 and a fair weekly cost would be $150.
All the closures of caravan parks for
development has only been a nail in the
coffin for caravaners, meaning more greed
from the larger corporate operators.
Barry Stenner

14

timetoroam.com.au

it around Australia with my wife Beverley.
We had the greatest time of our life in
one of the best vehicles I have ever driven.
The 132kw diesel has everything!
I was also able to pick up a back
copy of your Dec/Jan issue and read the
wonderful article on “Catching the Kombi
bug”, which there was a letter from Phil
Matthews of the Sydney Vee Dub Club.
Like Phil, I caught the “Kombi Bug”, probably
because I live at Old Bar where Kombis
from all over Australia gather every October
long weekend for the Old Bar Festival.
I own two Volkswag