April 11, 2018
South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell has laughed off rumours he doesn’t want a free camping area in Kingaroy because he is related to one of the town’s caravan park operators.
“This is ridiculous – no one I’m related to has ever run a caravan park – but it seems to have come out of a misunderstanding at one of our recent Kingaroy Revitalisation public consultation meetings,” Mayor Campbell said.
“Someone seems to have confused free caravan parking areas with free caravan parks, and they’re completely different things.”
The Mayor said during the course of the public consultation meetings, some people suggested Kingaroy’s CBD needed more parking spots for caravan and RV owners so they could go shopping.
“I agree with this, and it’s been on Council’s agenda ever since the days of Kingaroy Shire Council,” the Mayor said.
“We have a shortage of this type of parking in the CBD, and this is one thing we want to fix.”
However, the Council had a long-standing policy of opposing the creation of a free overnight caravan parking area in Kingaroy because of the impact it would have on the town’s commercial caravan park operators.
“We have free overnight caravan parking areas at Tipperary Flat in Nanango; at the Stuart River and Kumbia south of Kingaroy; and at Wooroolin, Wondai and Murgon,” the Mayor said.
“Proston now has a free caravan parking area, too.
“In Nanango, Tipperary Flat is a long way from the CBD, so we built some RV and caravan parks when we upgraded the Scott Car Park a few years ago.
“This allows visiting caravanners to park in town to do their shopping, and it seems to have worked well.
“We don’t plan to build them at Wooroolin, Wondai, Proston and Murgon, though, because all three of those free parking areas are located within easy walking distance of each town’s CBD.
“But Stuart River is a long way from Kingaroy, so we need more large parking areas to help visiting caravanners be able to go shopping in Kingaroy, too.”
