‘Just wrong’: Shire of Harvey to start RV-friendly trial despite major opposition from caravan park owners

Caravan park operators in the Shire of Harvey are up in arms after the council approved a 12-month free camping trial at “prime locations,” saying it will cut them out of thousands of dollars in site fees. It comes as local operators battle skyrocketing interest rates and more and more South West towns provide free camping options for travellers. Councillors at the shire’s November 22 meeting voted 10-2 to approve a 12-month RV-friendly trial, allowing travellers to park up for free for 48 hours at four locations in Brunswick, Australind and Harvey and Yarloop. It came after the shire’s strategic tourism report into accommodation options in town last year revealed a “severe lack” of choices. While the wider community thrust its support behind the idea — with more than 80 per cent of respondents to September’s community consultation period in support— five of the council’s seven caravan parks were opposed. Binningup Beach Caravan Park owner Jason Rule was extremely angered by the decision, saying with an average of four bays per trial site — which would cost $40 at a caravan park — it would take $160 per night away from local parks, rounding out to $1000 of revenue a week. “It is just wrong,” he said. “Over 12 months, that’s $52,000 it has cost that business in turnover. “That’s someone’s wages, that’s half of the business’ power bill for the year, it’s their rubbish rates for the year.” “If the business can’t get (the revenue), they can’t provide a service to their customers, who are the ones that spend the money in the towns because they are staying for two to four nights, they’re bringing their families, and they’re here because they want to be here.” The four locations selected are Brunswick Junction Showgrounds, the Leschenault Estuary Eco Museum in Australind, the northern section of Snell’s Park in Harvey and Yarloop’s Teesdale Street Recreation Ground. Councillor Joe Capogreco said if people were travelling and needed to stop for the night, they were not going to pay for a night at a caravan park, several times having travellers park up in bushland near his house. “If we don’t have these facilities, they’ll park anywhere, like they were parking in a car park in Brunswick,” he said. He said it would promote more people stopping and spending their money with local businesses. “The benefit of it is they do stop, they do fuel up and they buy coffee in the morning, a paper,” Mr Capogreco said. Mr Rule argued they would simply come in, park up, “dump all of their waste, pack up and leave”. “II can guarantee you they are not going to come in and spend $40 or $50 per night with the free parking,” he said. “I’ve got no dramas with the one in Yarloop where they don’t have the services for people travelling, but there’s no way there should be one in Harvey, Brunswick and Australind where there are already two caravan parks.” While the trial sites do not include Binningup, Mr Rule — who has spent about $1 million on his caravan park since he purchased it a decade ago — is concerned it could be expanded towards the coastal community and Myalup in the future. “We are not full now,” he said. “I can understand if the parks are full, but for instance, we have not been full since the September long weekend. “We are full on the long weekends, but on the weekends generally we have vacancies, and definitely during the week when most of the pensioners are going to be using this free camping.” Mr Rule said he had spoken to other caravan park owners, who held the same concerns. “It is going to affect them a lot more than me and they are all of the same opinion that it is just wrong,” he said. “The (trial site) in Australind is one kilometre from one caravan park and about 4km from another one. “One of the caravan parks has just been taken over by a new operator — so someone has just paid $2.4 million for a caravan park and the Shire have given away free accommodation a few kilometres away. “That’s just wrong. I just don’t think they should be using the ratepayers’ money against businesses in their own Shire.” Councillor Robyn Coleman aired concerns, saying free RV sites shifted the economic burden from travellers to ratepayers, with the shire having to extended ranger hours to monitor sites and clean up rubbish. Councillor Paul Beech said the trial would give an advantage to the traveller and an unfair disadvantage to caravan park owners. “It amazes me how much people can spend on these rigs ... and then want free parking overnight — it blows my mind,” he said. “They are quite happy to spend money otherwise but as soon as they put a caravan behind the car, they want free power, free water (and) free parking.” Shire president Paul Gillett said the trial would focus on attracting travellers currently bypassing the council as a stopover as they travelled to other areas offering free RV short-stay options. The trial will start in March and be reviewed after six months to determine its progress.