{"id":6659,"date":"2025-06-23T00:42:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T00:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/6659\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T00:42:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T00:42:15","slug":"hopetoun-on-was-south-coast-will-stop-free-camping-citing-rubbish-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/6659\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopetoun on WA’s south coast will stop free camping, citing rubbish complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"

A West Australian town will close its only free caravan and campervan campsite after complaints of visitors leaving rubbish and human waste behind.<\/p>\n

Hopetoun sits about 50 kilometres off Highway One, or South Coast Highway, on the state’s south coast and is 555km south-east of Perth.<\/p>\n

The Shire of Ravensthorpe voted last week to close a free RV campsite in the town and instead work with a local caravan park to offer discounted $15 a night sites.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hopetoun is not the first town to close its free campsite. (ABC Esperance: Hayden Smith)<\/p>\n

The move, which follows similar changes in other towns<\/a> across Australia, has been met with a mixed response with some fearing it will turn tourists away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Concern over free camping site<\/p>\n

Shire President Tom Major said the council wanted to move the existing 48-hour free site to next to one of the town’s caravan parks as it was a better location.<\/p>\n

“We want to keep our RV-friendly status for the town, so we need a free, or low-cost option \u2026 there will be a low-cost option, but it may not necessarily be free,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"He<\/p>\n

Tom Major says the decision is not entirely unexpected. (ABC Esperance: Hayden Smith)<\/p>\n

Cr Major said the community had raised concerns about the location of the free camping area on a road joining the main street.<\/p>\n

Issues raised included safety with its proximity to traffic <\/strong>and rubbish dumping, including toilet paper and human waste left in the surrounding bushland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said there was a risk the town might lose some visitors by removing Hopetoun’s free campsite, but the council wanted to grow the number of visitors from low-cost budget travellers to higher-yielding visitors.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

Hopetoun sits off the South Coast Highway, which links the tourist hotspots of Esperance and Albany. (ABC Great Southern: John Dobson)<\/p>\n

“We have to strike a balance,” Cr Major said.<\/p>\n

“I think this policy does the best to strike a balance between offering good options to travellers, supporting local businesses, and making it amenable for residents.”<\/p>\n

The closest town is Ravensthorpe, 46km away, which will retain its free RV camping site.<\/p>\n

Caravaners may not stop<\/p>\n

Grey Nomad Awards founding director Liz Rivers said in the case of other free camp closures, visitors had typically chosen to visit another area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You might find that Ravensthorpe becomes more popular as a free camp, and therefore there’ll be more benefit back to the local businesses [in Ravensthorpe],” Ms Rivers said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A grey nomad group says visitors are more likely to spend money in towns with free campsites. (ABC Esperance: Emily Smith)<\/p>\n

“Grey nomads want to be able to give back to the communities in which they stay, and so they tend to make sure they’re spending money everywhere they stay.<\/p>\n

“When they’re staying at a free camp, they’ll go in and they’ll go and have a coffee or they’ll go and do a visitor experience, a guided tour, or something else in the area.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When ABC posted information on social media about the Shire of Raventhorpe’s decision, it was shared on multiple caravan and backpacker pages within hours.<\/p>\n

Businesses mixed on closure<\/p>\n

Simon Flick runs a cafe and grocer in Hopetoun and said he was worried about the closure deterring tourists from visiting.<\/p>\n

“We do get a lot of people coming in saying they came off the main road to get free camping,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’re happy to spend money in shops in town as they don’t have to pay for parking a van.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Flick said he was concerned some travellers would bypass the town if there were no free camping sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A trio of caravans drive past the recently closed Marbelup rest area on the South Coast Highway. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

“A lot of caravaners are on Wikicamps, which promotes local businesses that look after caravaners and campers,” he said.<\/p>\n

Hopetoun Beachside Caravan Park will operate the discount camping site next to its property.<\/p>\n

Coordinator Rachel Small said the fee of $15 a night would attract visitors.<\/p>\n

\"Hopetoun<\/p>\n

Hopetoun Beachside Caravan Park owners Rachel Small and Travis Daw with son, Sam. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Ms Small said some visitors were using the existing free site poorly with human waste left in nearby bushland a common complaint.<\/p>\n

“I think $15 a night is a very small amount to ask people to contribute to cover the cost of their stay in town,” she said.<\/p>\n

“And the caravan park makes a huge effort to make sure that we refer travellers on to all of our local businesses and share the love around a little bit.<\/p>\n

“It’s not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of all of our local businesses and residents as well.”<\/p>\n

The free camping site will close once the new site is open in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A West Australian town will close its only free caravan and campervan campsite after complaints of visitors leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,8082,8074,8078,8080,8081,8083,8077,8079,8075,8085,50,8076,8087,8086,8084],"class_list":{"0":"post-6659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-backpackers","10":"tag-camping","11":"tag-camping-spot","12":"tag-caravan","13":"tag-caravaning","14":"tag-free-camp-spot","15":"tag-free-camping","16":"tag-free-parking","17":"tag-free-rv-stop","18":"tag-grey-nomads","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-rv-friendly","21":"tag-the-lap","22":"tag-travellers","23":"tag-wikicamps"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114729906685897653","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}