Gerard O'Connell reckons that if older travellers are given one night free in the Queensland city of Maryborough, it might just encourage them to linger longer.

Well if I were in the vicinity I would in all probabilty stop and have a look around and if we liked what I saw would probably book into the local CP for a couple of days.  If we didn't like what we saw would probably top up the fuel tank, buy a few essentials from the local supermarket and be on our way.

In either case we would have spent some money in a town we possibly would not have visited if the free overnight parking was not provided.

It makes sense to me to try and attract the GN to some of these places as the few dollars the GN will spend in the town is a few dollars the town would not otherwise have received.

John

Well I have done just that. Found a free camp in or near a town, and the gone in and got my needs. Also spent time looking about, even went to their markets. The money spent, depended on what I needed and what was on offer, same as the time spent there. Of these towns and Stanthorp QLD, comes to mind, the cost to them was zero, as they had already setup the site as a park, for the town folk to picnic at. A lot of towns miss this point, thinking if it was required a CP would be setup. Even go to the extreme of posting signs that say "no camping". Whats camping? Is overnight stopping "camping"? I have also stopped under these signs, as I was "taking a break" from driving - bloody stupid in my opinion. We GN have as much monetary value as backpackers, and we are getting bigger as the population ages. I have posted elsewhere, where I considered it maybe a good idea for us GN's, to pick out a town and go there to make a free camp. The thought was to get an involvement for us as a group and show the towns the worth of Gn and free camps.

the Taswegians have taken this idea and ran with it and they should be praised very highly indeed, they have "rv freindly" towns all over the place, this has saved a lot of small towns from vanishing, a stopover from a nomad could involve up to a hundred dollars per day if the other states would take a leaf out of Tassie towns then I'm sure more would survive a bit longer whyalla is having a cmca gathering shortly and this will involve around 1,000 plus motorhomes and campers with an average of 1800 people each spending a fair sort of ammount in the city

Love to know where they will fit them all in Whyala, its main street is narrow and in a sort of a gorge, maybe put them in the long tunnel,? Has anybody actually defined what camping is, to me its pitching a tent with a fire in the front and a river behind you, ,As Bob has said its bloody ridiculous signage and so easy to ignore,the police cannot stop you napping on the side of the road, antwhere in oz

Whoops ,----- made a boo boo, thinking of Walhalla

well I tried to get the Port Pirie council on the bandwagon with this idea, I wanted dump points (now setup thanks to the cmca) and parking for larger rigs, i got the parking for larger rigs but they refused my "signage" so nobody knows where it is, I wanted a tap setup next to the loos, which are already there, the answer was "oh no we cant have that" it is now magically put there I wanted council to set aside an area like a spare paddock close to the city and where mobile amenities could be placed but the backward answer from councilors at a specially convened meeting (that I was excluded from) was that "we are not setup for a large insurgance of elderly travellers" I asked one of the local fuel station operators whether a nomad could top up his tank with water if he bought fuel from here, the operator had to contact the fuel supplier (in this case the owner of the property) the answer took 3 weeks (it was yes by the way) townsfolk (who make up councils) are just not far sighted enough to see the benefits given from having a mob of old farts come and visit a recent gathering of the cmca over 7 days in hobart netted 1500 motorhomes and campervans now the benefit to chemists and fuel stations as well taxis and service providers as a whole would be enormous why cant the business men and women of our towns and citys see this and act accordingly I just dont know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'Twas ever thus, davo.
The blind leading the blind.
Ask anyone what they think, and they'll give you an answer.
Ask them what factual research they've done on the subject and you'll cop a load of self righteous abuse.

I think we GN's are considered to be "trailer trash". (At least until they get to know us.) Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of us spend heaps of money on fuel and food and other supplies, even if we don't use a C/Pk. Let's change the "image"! We are a respectable bunch who choose to travel around our country in diverse rigs. Some of the local government fossils could learn a lot from the GN's. We travel many miles through a lot of diverse country, and camp in parks or in free camps taking our experiences, good and bad, with us. We have enough info in our heads and journals to set up a consultancy. The councils should consult us, not condemn us. And what's that crap about elderly travellers? What age are the councillors? They want tourists, but as long as they don't have to provide any facilities or infrastructure. They want tourists to drive in one end of town, fuel up, park up at the motel, and bugger off out the other end of town, but don't leave tyre tracks and rubbish. In most cases GN's clean up parking spots. Not just their own rubbish, but often the rubbish left by the less responsible travellers and campers. We are all ambassadors of our chosen lifestyle. Let's educate the rest. The written word can be a great tool. Cheers Granny.

Pawsoz may have given me a clue, as to why we are not catered too, inadvertantly. Add that to Sir Daves post and this is what i now believe. In a past life, I was a town councillor, and we would ponder the "visitor nights" and how to increase them. It is now clear that, we ONLY looked at these where there were statistics ie motel and CP bookings. Visitor nights was the amount of parties that came to town and how long they stayed. We all were aware, that the longer someone stayed, the more money that came and stayed in town. With Gn, and those that free camp, there is no such data, so no way can it be analysed. So how do we demonstrate our value, if we do not appear in the data. Possible it needs a "higher up" approach, with data to say that there are "X" amount of Gn, and "Y" number use free camping. They also spend "Z" amount at any stopping point. See what you think about the above

Granny, pawsoz and twobob you are absolutely on the button; what's needed is the education of people who, naturally enough, are a bit suspicious of and resistent to anything that is outside of their idea of "normality".
We did much as pawsoz has described when being hassled by the local council officers in places in Italy.
We also made a point of emphasising that, gererally speaking the money we spent was going into the local businesses and not into the bottomless pits that are the multinational hotel and resort businesses, who hive off a large percentage of their returns to foreign investors.
Another point that can be made is that a great deal of the "free" traveler traffic happens outside of the usual peak periods and, even though the amounts spent by them may not be great, the extension of the trading period by GNs and the like provides for income over a much longer time.

well I've just lost all my leverage over our council, I worked with our ex lord mayor (Geoff Brock) for twenty years when we were in the smelters now he has moved on into the dark dim witted world of politics he was coming around to my way of thinking as far as us old albatrosses go, we were talking of great things but now it is all out the window as yet another corrupt nobody tries to take control of the power vacuum created when one moves out

Maybe we could all register our presence to the local Visitor Information office. If there isn't one in the town you're in, then log in to the next one. That would be a central point in common. The offices are usually supported by local government, funded by state and Fed government. If we log in, report where we camped or stayed, how long we're in town, etc. What about it folks? Let's make ourselves heard in the nicest possible way. If we keep logging in I'm sure the administration of these offices will provide a log book for the purpose. The visitor's book is not specific to the cause. Go to it fellow GN's. Cheers Chrissy

Now that is a good idea Chrissy!!!! we always stop at the info centres to collect maps etc and have a chat. logging in our presence would only take a minute. JohnW

O.K. sent an email to our C.E.O. (I am still on good terms with him, well sort of) on exactly grannys point, I thought it was a good idea, but the answer was and I partially quote "whilst it may appear to have merit, the idea of a single or multiple register for the sole purpose of following the numbers of elderly travelling public bedding down in our area would in fact become exceedingly burdomeson" "the register would have to be checked on an hourly basis so as to ascertain the position and the intent of length of stay of the occupiers, if a certain number of visitors were to congregate in one area for any length of time we would then have to put in place certain facilities so as to not become a health problem, rubbish removal would be an automatic extra cost" "the register itself would have to be managed thereby necestating the hiring of extra personell, who is to bear the burden of the extra monies needed?, certainly the rate payers would not be willing to subsidise the travelling public, and quite rightfully so" "we (the council) do realise and are quietly well aware of persons seeking self styled, self contained accomodation but at this stage cannot guarentee their safety or welfare and thus are very loathe to publicly recognise their existance, to do this would have council highly exposed to legal liabilities and thus open us up to obligations that we and the ratepayers are not yet willing to undertake" "whilst we do take your very fervent and persistent applications to hand we are very loathe, at this stage, to undertake any groundwork to facilitate the positioning of your fellow travellers, we will however revisit these applications from time to time and try and come to some mutually beneficial outcome"............................................... end partial quote so the main problem, as I see it is that we have been tarred with the same brush as the yahoos that race down with the tent from cities or wherever or whatever, crap everywhere, leave toilet paper all over the joint, throw the rubbish everywhere and hoon around on motorcycles do burnouts, and not clean up after themselves and race back from whence they came leaving one hell of a mess although our ceo did not use these words edzacary I read between the lines of the whole email and came up with this myself makes it hard for me, when I say we are all decent fine upstanding ladies and gentlemen of note and distinction when the evidence points to the contrary

Yep Sir Dave I have seen and heard that "standard" reply, and its full of holes. The insurance issue is simple, sign that says "at own risk". The rubbish issue - well its easier to clean up a designated spot than all over town, which they (council) already do. Also by placing a rubbish point at the entry to town, allows travellers to empty there. That leaves the cost of maintenance - well the businesses of the town pay rates and fee's, and expect Council to make efforts to increase their potential income, so this is just part and parcel of what council must do FOR the ratepayers. God, in Pt Pirie I cannot seen lawn mowing as an issue!! Most of the sites I have seen, are in fact, installed by the local clubs - Lions or Rotary, so they may be the group to talk with, and let them get Council onside.

I think the idea of contacting Rotary clubs etc is a really good idea, there is a rotary club in Kadina that has done just what we are talking about it is almost in the middle of town you can park overnight there is a donation box there they have water and toilets available and we found the people really pleasant would recommend the spot to anyone pity more clubs don't do this kind of thing. Helena.

yep wallaroo has done the same as well with a low cost camp at the footy oval, but I can see councils point of veiw being in very close contact with them many times on this issue, we often use the free camp just over the ferry at morgan, we went there one year on the way back from the great ocean road, it was a couple of days after a long weekend we were absolutely stunned at just how disgustingly filthy the place was, used toilet paper blowing everywhere and piles of dung not even tried to be buried hoon tracks everywhere piles of rubbish strewn all over the place, trees cut down for firewood, I have a freind who lives just back from the murray at Morgan, he told me it took 3 blokes two days, a bobcat and a tipper to clean it up, this sort of thing is what frightens most councils off, they are already on tight budgets while I agree the above email and the insurance issues and other issues raised are very see through and would not stand up to ANY argument I can understand council being very loathe to create an area just for this purpose particularly with vested interests sitting on councils board (c/park owners) but I will continue trying even though I know the minority dropkicks will stuff it up for the majority, always the same there is one other way and that is to accept the position offered to me to sit on council!!! may have a wee bit more leverage when I stare them down across the table

yes can see your point of view Dave we free camped most of the way over to W.A. in one free spot the hoons had even ripped out the solar lamp in the tolets makes you wonder doesn't it. Helena.

makes it very hard when i try to set some things up here for the travellers, too easy for vested interests to get it knocked back