{"id":14399,"date":"2026-05-19T17:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/14399\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T17:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:36:21","slug":"community-in-victorias-south-east-fights-back-against-sandy-point-caravan-park-development-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/14399\/","title":{"rendered":"Community in Victoria’s south-east fights back against Sandy Point caravan park development proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A much-loved caravan park in the small town of Sandy Point in Victoria’s south-east could be closed, following the approval of the owner’s development application for 11 new dwellings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an ongoing dispute for the community of about 300 permanent residents, the landowner’s plans to subdivide the lot were approved at the latest South Gippsland Shire Council meeting, despite receiving 29 objections to the proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the Sandy Point Community Group said it would lodge an objection to the proposal in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Sandy Point Holiday Park has been operating for more than 60 years. (ABC News: Rachael Lucas)<\/p>\n

Community group member Peter Sliferski said the park, which has been operating for more than 60 years, was a key part of the town.<\/p>\n

“The loss of the caravan park \u2026 affects everyone, including our businesses, the surf club, our tourism industry,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s no replacement for it.”<\/p>\n

Mr Sliferski said the caravan park provided a form of accommodation for those who could not afford holiday houses or Airbnb rentals.<\/p>\n

“If you can only afford to camp, there’s nowhere else for you to go,” he said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Gunton is a Sandy Point local whose family has been holidaying at the town for three generations.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Daniel Gunton says it is disappointing caravanners and campers will not be able to stay in the town. (ABC News: Rachael Lucas)<\/p>\n

He said the town was one of the last cheap holiday places near Melbourne and the development shut it off for caravaners and campers.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a shame the average person can’t bring their kids here for a holiday,” he said.<\/p>\n

Another resident, Joel Mitchell, who holidayed in the town all his life before moving there permanently said the loss of the caravan park would have a great impact on the town’s general store.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joel Mitchell has lived in Sandy Point his whole life. (ABC News: Rachael Lucas)<\/p>\n

“When [the general store] misses out on all that income coming in from the caravan park itself, then all of a sudden it becomes unviable,” Mr Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

“The general store is also a post office \u2026 all of a sudden that makes things a hell of a lot more difficult, especially for the older community that are here, because it is predominantly a retirement village.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Sandy Point General Store is opposite the Sandy Point caravan park. (ABC News: Rachael Lucas)<\/p>\n

“Sandy Point, it’s a sleepy hollow and I’d prefer it to stay this way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“More Airbnbs, it’s just going to fuel an absolute disaster.”Ongoing dispute<\/p>\n

The current development comes as part of an ongoing battle between the site’s owners and the community over plans to upgrade the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The owners of the caravan site, Prom Coast Developments Pty Ltd, lodged a previous application to upgrade the site to 14 developments in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council received 51 submissions against the proposal, with the community concerned about an increase in traffic and pressure on the local environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The owners appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) after council rejected the application, but VCAT ultimately upheld the council decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

Sandy Point has about 300 permanent residents. (ABC News: Rachael Lucas)<\/p>\n

Flooding concerns<\/p>\n

At the council meeting in April, councillors rigorously debated the application, with councillor Sarah Gilligan moving to put a separate motion to defeat the proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sarah Gilligan raised a number of concerns about the proposal. (Supplied: South Gippsland Shire Council)<\/p>\n

Cr Gilligan raised a number of concerns about the proposal, notably the risk of coastal inundation as shown by recent hazard mapping completed by the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cr Gilligan said the proposal did not balance the development of Sandy Point against the impacts on existing vegetation, water quality and the risks of climate change.<\/p>\n

“South Gippsland has been through enough disasters to know we need to proactively plan our communities for big storms, outages and isolation, not to panic but to prepare,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This will be the single biggest decision impacting Sandy Point in 60 years. We’d better make sure we’re sure.”<\/p>\n

The councillors were split on the decision and Mayor Nathan Hersey used his deciding vote to pass the motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cr Hersey said he was torn on the issue but ultimately felt obligated to rely on the work done to address the original concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nathan Hersey cast the final vote to approve the proposal. (Supplied: South Gippsland Shire Council)<\/p>\n

“Based on the professional and expert advice of our staff, I find it difficult to then go back and reject something that has been worked through and that has a whole list of conditions to then support that that be done in an orderly way,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If those conditions can’t be met, the development can’t proceed.”<\/p>\n

The ABC has attempted to contact the owner of the site for comment.<\/p>\n

In a statement, South Gippsland Shire Council CEO Allison Jones said the council’s decision was confined to the planning merits of the proposed land use and the relevant planning rules of the area.<\/p>\n

“Following the issue of the Notice of Decision, the application will continue through the statutory planning process,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Objectors retain the right to seek a review of the decision through the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A much-loved caravan park in the small town of Sandy Point in Victoria’s south-east could be closed, following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,14827,2541,1210,70,14829,14826,14828,5517],"class_list":["post-14399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-caravan-park","tag-coastal-towns","tag-development","tag-gippsland","tag-regional-development","tag-sandy-point","tag-south-gippsland-shire","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}