Camp shakeup simmers

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Camp shakeup simmers

Holiday tradition: from left, grandparents Andrew and Janet King, Brendan Bullen, Ash King, Nicholas King, Ashlee King, Aaron Huggins, Linda Huggins, Tim Huggins and Ben King enjoy a family holiday at Walkerville North recently.
 

WALKERVILLE campers are continuing to advocate to be able to retain access to camping sites at Walkerville North Caravan Park.

The Walkerville Foreshore Committee of Management will open the caravan park sites to ballots, meaning some long term camping families may not be able to camp at sites they have stayed at for generations.

Until now, campers have been able to re-book sites from year to year, but from May 1 this year, all bookings for peak periods will be online and depending on demand, not everyone will be guaranteed a campsite.

The peak periods will be Melbourne Cup long weekend, December 26, 2019 to January 28, 2020, Labour Day long weekend in 2020, and April school holidays in 2020.

A recent meeting of campers, foreshore committee members and officers from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning was attended by more than 70 people.

The newly formed Walkerville Campers Association presented a 17 page submission and will meet again this month to determine further course of action.

Long term regular campers at Walkerville North have submitted a petition with more than 100 signatures to the foreshore committee, calling for the ability to continue long term access to sites within the camping ground.

They say the sites have been historically and continuously used by themselves and their families over an extended period of time.

Camper Tim Huggins of Kinglake said he and wife Linda, and their children, now aged 19 and 15, have camped at Walkerville with extended family since birth.

“The current changes have caused very real distress and concerns that access will be reduced or denied, and that families’ camping experiences will be broken up by these changes,” he wrote in a letter to the foreshore committee and government agencies.

“It seems very strange that it’s okay to destroy decades of families’ experiences in order to create new ones and I really don’t know what to say to my kids if we are forced out of something we cherish and consider a family home for those two special weeks each year.”

The foreshore committee is expected to release a further statement within the week.

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Posted by on Feb 5 2019. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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