How soon people like Mr Vesterman forget. It was only a few short years ago when "cheap nomads" invested millions of dollars into his community when they conducted their national rally at the showgrounds and attracted in excess of 1000 motorhomes to his city. People such as him with vested interests making derogatory comments soon help a city attract an RV unfriendly reputation and the traveling public avoid the town like the plague.

While other towns throughout Australia are taking action to attract the traveling public and take advantage of this multi bilion dollar tourist trade, Maryborough has chosen to stick it's head in the sand. Maryborough's loss is another city's gain.

As a member of the "cheap nomads" I for one don't expect any special consideration but I do expect to feel welcome in a city.

Our motorhome group recently stayed at the Maryborough Showgrounds for a weekend meeting. Twenty eight motorhomes turned up and paid the Council fees for three to four nights. There was also a large caravan group staying at the showgrounds paying Council fees, and they had been there for some days. On the Saturday, there was woodturning demonstrations, a craft show and horse events. All the motorhomers went to look at the entertainment and bought morning teas, craft items and raffle tickets - we all supported the local people. If I count what we alone spent on that weekend, that comes to $188.00. If one multiplies $188 by twenty eight motorhomes, then approximately $5,264 was left in the Maryborough region on one weekend by us. One assumes that the caravan group also left an equivalent amount. Mr Vesperman needs to keep up with the times - as grey nomads are not travelling in little caravans any more. They are in large fifth-wheelers, large caravans and motorhomes, and yes they do spend money - quite a bit of it - but they are not fools. They look for value, and if local old fashioned expensive council owned van parks cannot supply value or space then why would they go there?

I think the retail traders of Maryborough will be hit badly by this decision. Word of mouth travels fast through the Grey Nomad fraternity and the word will go around. No more fuel or groceries will be purchased by us as we travel. We can completely bypass Maryborough. We will have full tanks and full pantries when we arrive - we will see the sites and continue on. We certainly will not be staying the council parks. We spend over $100 each day that we travel on diesel - Maryborough will never see our fuel dollars.

We travel North most winters and also spend our traveling dollars in towns that recognize and support the thousands of "Grey Nomads" that also hit the highway each year , As most RV's these days are fully self contained they only need a clean flat rest area within easy reach of the town to stop overnight, We have friends in Maryborough and although we stay with them sometimes we also re stock our groceries , fuel tanks , perscriptions etc.
So If the council bows to the cries of unfair trade practice and thinks we should just be herded into caravan parks and pay high prices for things we don't want or need like heated pools, childrens playgrounds, BBQs, etc . etc. they will only make things harder for the other traders in the town as we will just move on to another town with a more friendly attitude to the thousands of travelers who hit the highway every year.
I doubt if any of your local traders(with the exception of the caravan parks) complained when a certain RV club and it's members held a rally in the town and injected thousands of $$$$$ into the retailers pockets, and the majority of the members were Grey Nomads, who sometimes suffer from memory loss bur I think this latest unfriendly approach will certainly not be lost in the memory banks for a long time to come.

What a short sighted attitude and insult to Grey Nomads by this ungrateful park owner. This story and the link to the Council's unwise decision has spread among the Grey Nomad community forums like wildfire and I am afraid at Maryboroughs expense. I am afraid that your local economy is going to suffer because of this. I feel sorry for any traders that did not support this decision. As for a certain caravan park owner, if anyone still wants to stay in Maryborough, I would suggest NOT staying at his, let him suffer the consequences of his actions. Whenever we travel and stop at a town, we restock our grocery supplies, frequent the bakeries and other eating places including having our meals on site and coffee. We refuel, buy any small items from hardware shops we may need for repairs or water connections etc, buy some new or 2nd hand clothing as needed, visit and pay entry to museums or other local tourist venues, go to the movies, etc, etc. So Maryborough does not want our money or want to make us welcome, ok there are plenty of towns that do. Our around Oz trip over east next year will not include Maryborough who obviously don't want grey nomads.

Westy

As Chairman of the Australian Caravan Club, I find caravan park operator Paul Vesperman's remarks about 'Grey Nomads' highly insulting and far wide of the mark.

Fortunately his attitude is not shared by the people running the Maryborough showgrounds as they are being most helpful with arrangements for our 2010 National Muster when caravanners from all over Australia will gather in Maryborough.

More and more councils around the country are seeing the value of belonging to the CMCA's RV Friendly Towns scheme and sharing in the tourist dollars spent by the very people Cr Vesperman disparages.

A great example of how a town benefits from RV travellers can be seen at Home Hill where the free overnight facilities right in the centre of town bring many customers to the town's traders.

We look forward to visiting your area next year and I'm sure our members will overlook comments from vested interests and still inject money into your town.

Yours sincerely,

Lionel Mussell. Chairman. ACC.

I and many of my friends and associates are dissapointed to say the least in the poorly thought out comments made by Paul Vesperman. Not just to the "grey nomads" who he has lumped into a generalised basket and labelled as stingy but also to the other business owners of Maryborough, to whom his comments has done maybe irreparable harm in the potential lost business from the thousands of grey nomads out there who are already vowing to avoid Maryborough and are labelling it as an unfriendly RV town.
Just because I can make my own instant coffee in my van, doesn't mean that I don't enjoy sitting down in a cafe and having a coffee and cake or lunch. Just because I have the facilities to cook meals in my caravan does not mean that I don't enjoy eating out at a pub, club or restaurant.
I am one who when staying in a town, whether it be in a caravan park or at a free camp site, will buy all supplies that I may need locally. Many is the time I have spent several hundred dollars on supplies and fuel and it is a pity that unless a retraction and/or apology is forthcoming, this is money that Maryborough will NOT be seeing. I am only 1 there are many many more like me out there, can the township of Maryborough really afford to lose this income?

Over the next 10 years or so there are going to be around 4 million "BabyBoomers" retiring. MANY of them are going to want to have a good look around Australia. Anybody who thinks that there are a lot of "grey Nomads" on the roads these days - hasn't seen anything yet!! Regional towns need to realise what is heading their way - and capitalise on it. These towns (and their commercial traders) need to understand what that particular segment market wants. Those that do will reap the rewards - those that don't, or worse still refuse to supply what that market wants, will be left behind. I know how much it costs when my wife and I travel around Australia - multiply that by 4 million.

Your Mr Vesterman has done dis-service to your town.
I WILL now take a bypass from your town and will not be spending my miserly gains there.

When we shop it is usually $300 Groceries, $200 Fuel plus another $100 or so on miscellaneous Items etc.

NOTE his caravan park is not the only business that will be effected by his statements.

In this argument Councillors appear to have to have been hoodwinked by vested interests. Mr Vesterman is insisting that RV travellers who don't wish to pay him for the use of his swimming pool, games rooms, playgrounds, showers and toilets and electric power should take their money to some other town.

Has anybody told the council that if we are forced to pay upwards of $25 per night to stay in Mr Vesterman's caravan park, then that is $25 that we can't spend at the local pub, club or tourist attraction. We all have to buy fuel, meat, groceries and other staples so obviously we will do so at a town that welcomes us and does not force us to buy a van park site we don't need or want. That's potentially upwards of $300 per week per RV traveller lost to the business houses of Maryborough.

Has anybody stood out on the Bruce Highway and counted the RV's that are bypassing the town. Even attracting a small number of these travellers into a free or budget short term camp would be a big plus.

Many RV's are now completely self-contained. All we ask for is a patch of dirt to park on for one or two nights with perhaps a nearby dump point, water tap and perhaps a rubbish skip. We don't need the infrastructure so council don't have to provide toilets or other amenities.

Policing is made easy by only allowing camping by vehicles that are certified and labelled by recognised RV clubs as being self-contained and whose members are bound by a code of conduct to camp responsibly.

I suggest the council do some serious research and talk to the many councils around Australia that do provide self-contained short term camping in their towns and whose business owners are reaping the financial benefits.

I'll be quite happy to supply a list of such towns.

As a Grey Nomad and on a finite income, (pension) To earn which I have served this country both overseas and here.
I resent Mr Vesterman's remarks as derogatory and bigoted, obviously biased towards his own pocket. We prefer to free camp where possible so as to enable us to spend the money saved in the towns that appreciate our custom. His statement that if we are too cheap to spend $25 a night for a caravan park, means we are too cheap to support local business could not be further from the truth, If we don't have to spend that money then we are able to spend it in your town, and not to support some self gratifying caravan park owner. And from choice we choose not to visit those areas where we are not welcome, which (unfortunately) at this time, Maryborough appears to be one of these areas.