Community Style Caravan Parks

Not including highway rest stops, places we have stayed that have had some sort of community element to the ownership and/or management are:

• Broomehill
  
• Kimba
  
• Yacka
  
• Naracoorte
  
• Cavendish
  
• Warrnambool
  
• Princetown

Broomehill is owned and run by the local Shire Council, Kimba was a joint venture between the local Lions and Apex clubs, Naracoorte and Warrnambool are run by Agricultural Societies as pert of the effort to derive additional income from Showgrounds, Princetown and Cavendish are within recreation grounds with the income assisting to fund the sporting facilities while Yacka is part of a local park.
The first one we came across was Broomehill. We thought it was beautifully laid out when we used it, although somewhat separate from the rest of the town which limited the benefits the town received from visitors staying there. As we have continued on I have started to think that it is significantly over-capitalised given that all infrastructure had to be installed from scratch.
All the other have made use of existing infrastructure and co-located the camping areas resulting in campers being more likely to involve themselves in the towns themselves at times. This is especially the case with Cavendish and Warrnambool – Cavendish still has a vibrant winter sporting scene with meals and bar facilities open etc adjacent to camping facilities on weekends that have home game fixtures, while the Warrnambool Showgrounds are also home to the Warrnambool Greyhound Club and weekly markets on Sunday mornings.
In the case of Naracoorte, the power for the camp sites doubles as a power source for local markets and for show days, while Kimba hasn’t required a great deal of additional infrastructure at all as no utilities are available directly to camping area itself meaning that all the facilities that have been built are provided as much for locals using the park as they are for visitors.
The outcome is an opportunity for virtually every town across Australia. Rarely does a place not have sporting facilities, all of which are always looking for every opportunity to increase their sources of revenue to assist with upkeep. Given that they already generally have toilet and shower facilities all that is really left to provide is some 15amp power sockets and maybe an adjacent water tap and all major camping requirements are met. Any additional infrastructure (bbq’s, children’s playgrounds etc) should either already be available or able to be positioned over time so that it is available for use by the sporting users as well as campers. By being able to charge between $10-20 a night for a site, rather than the considerably higher charges generally encountered at commercial parks the facilities themselves can be very attractive, while still bringing in valuable income to the sporting associations.
Additionally, there is every chance that those campers in occupation on game days (and sometimes training days as well) will utilise kitchen/kiosk/bar offerings providing a further source of income.