Proston may soon have a free overnight camping area after the newly formed Proston Community Round Table group gave the idea a thumbs up on Wednesday night.
The overnight camping area would be located on a vacant, Council-owned block at the end of Railway Park in Rodney Street, diagonally opposite the Golden Spurs Hotel.
The site would have its boundary marked by a row of trees, and signs which would be erected on both sides of town and at the top of Rodney Street would direct visitors to it.
The site might be further enhanced in the future if it generated enough visitors to warrant more facilities.
Cr Kathy Duff, who has been acting as a Council representative on the Round Table group, said members believed having a free overnight camping area in the town could help revitalise Proston’s CBD.
At present, large numbers of caravanners bypass Proston – either going to the Lake Boondooma Tourist Park, or taking a shortcut from the Durong-Mundubbera Road to the Bunya Highway via connecting roads – because the town’s CBD is not on the main road.
“At the moment there is no big incentive for them to stop,” Cr Duff said.
“But we think that if we made a free overnight camping spot available close to the CBD, this could encourage some caravanners to drive off the Wondai-Proston Road down Rodney Street and into the town.
“And if they stayed overnight, they’d probably spend some money in the town, too.”
Similar free overnight camping areas at Nanango’s Tipperary Flats, Wooroolin, Wondai, Murgon, Stuart River and Kumbia already attract a steady flow of overnight visitors throughout the year.
Last year the Murgon Business and Development Association claimed a free camping area located close to Murgon’s CBD generated at least $6000 worth of business for local traders in one week.
They determined this by counting up receipts from local purchases that camping ground users dropped into a special box set up for the purpose.
What a great idea. I’m 73 receive nothing re pensions etc and we aren’t wealthy and travel is extremely expensive and sadly caravan parks (some) the overnight costs are outrageous so we are always looking for new stops and use the great site Wiki camps. We travel your way so will look forward to a Brand New stop. Thank you and we hope it’s a great success for your town. Peter
That’s awesome Peter, we can’t wait to welcome you to our town! Happy travels!
That’s a great idea. My wife & I are in our second year caravanning around Aus and look for free or low-cost camps. Might I suggest you allow 48 or 72 hours so travellers have time to look around & shop.
Great idea and the shopkeepers and trades will welcome them. 48 hour limit, water tap and dump point in town is all they require. A welcome, low cost initiative … win … win!
24 hour camp-sites are a waste of effort if you are wanting travellers to spend money in town. You need to entice travellers there for at least 2 nights. Three night would be better, there is more likelihood of travellers running out of a few items and they will purchase them from local shops
This is a great idea for a town wanting to encourage caravanners / campers to stay for a while in their towns. However as Peter Davidson mentioned. 24hr overnight stay is a waste of time. If you want people to stay and spend their money, 72hrs is necessary otherwise they will not make the effort to travel to Proston or other isolated small towns which are off the main road. Top effort Proston but you need to go that bit further to make it work.
My wife and I are retired. When we were working we could afford spend 4 weeks a year in caravan parks, but with free and low-cost overnight stops like you are providing, we can spend months each year travelling in our self-contained van and we find the little towns are so interesting. I look forward to visiting and trust that you find that this venture proves a real financial benefit to your town. Cheers, Mark Brown
The best thing you could do for the town would be extending to 72hrs. As a 24hr camp, everyone with stay hooked up and leave first thing in the morning, At 72hrs most will spend money in the town.
Yes, great progress but needs to be at least 48 hrs to generate income for the area. as retired travellers we find that when we stop we want at least 48hr stop so we can rest up and do any shopping/restocking required .
Agree. It’s proven that a longer stay is much more attractive to this market. If you’re going to do it, you may as well make the most of it! I am sure a longer stay would attract new visitors to the area, and they would be made very welcome in Proston.
After some initial confusion, it has been confirmed by council that the free stay is for 48 hours. Proston Golf Course is also offering free camping – a win/win for everyone.
Great news. I hope Proston and region gets more visitors as a result of this move.