Day 9: Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park

This caravan park is an 8 hectare free hold property, bought back in about the late ‘70’s. It was a former Main Roads construction camp for workers building the new Great Northern Highway. Caters for the grey nomads who stay long term over the winter months.

Access: It was 10 km’s off the main paved road, on a wide graded dirt road that is currently being upgraded. It shares the road access with Wallal Downs station.

Accommodations: It currently has unpowered and powered camp sites (axp 350), as well as self contained cabins (transportables trucked to the site and on stands), which rent for $180 a night. The camps sites were $30.00 for unpowered and $37.00 for powered. Our site backed onto a hedge row and was quite spacious for our tents.

Amenities: The ablutions block (showers/toilets) are prefabricated buildings which are in excellent condition with lots of water pressure and hot water for great showers. The water supply is a bore well (artesian ground water) and the power is generated by a bank of diesel generators. The sites have small trees and shrubs some which were replanted after a devastating cyclone in about 1996. There is two very long community clothes lines, a washing machine in each ablution block, a campers kitchen fully kitted out with hot plates, sinks, toaster, microwave, kettle, etc. There is also a BBQ area with picnic table.  At registration/office there is a store with basic food staples such as eggs, bread, butter, pasta, sauces, fresh fruit (oranges, apples), vege’s (potatoes, onions), ice creams, and a good selection of camper’s necessities. As one exits the beach, there is a foot washing station and a sign asking people to wash off the sand so that it does not get into the septic system from the ablution shower blocks. There is a trailer set up with a satellite dish to provide internet connections, and television reception. We were able to get a Telstra signal from the top of the sand dune overlooking the beach.

Activities & Attractions: The beach! Without a doubt the main attraction here is the wide sandy beach, with a massive intertidal zone. Fishing is the main activity.  Bird watching is abundant. This area will soon be part of Eighty Mile Beach Marine Park, which will protect the adjacent marine environment and the intertidal zone which is the feeding grounds for a diverse range of migratory wading birds, which fly in from as far away as Russia, China, and Japan for the Australian summer (Nov – Mar).

The weather is also an attraction for Australians wanting to escape the cooler winter in the south. The ability to drive 4WD vehicles on the beach is also an attraction for fisherman, both locals from Dampier and visitors. Once the MP is gazette, access will be constrained to a recreational zone 5 kilometres either side of the caravan park borders.

Awareness: Word of mouth and a website. This caravan park is well known and not much resources are needed for advertising as word of mouth amongst travelers helps fill the sites day after day. It is a seasonal business for domestic tourists, with about 5 months of a tourism season (the southern winter May- Aug) as this is the North’s cooler dry season. The German and European tourists help extend the season building out the shoulders. The off season is due to the monsoonal rains, cyclone season and the humidity (oppressive heat >42).

Reflections –  Upon driving into the caravan park we were in awe of the colour of the aquamarine water, which is easily visible from the registration area. Our assigned campsite was grasses, level and easily accommodated our three tents. It is obvious that the place is well managed by the cleanliness of the grounds and facilities. Even though the place was quite full, noise did not seem to be an issue (with the minor exception of a lively Butcher Bird who decided to serenade us with his lovely songs at 4AM, as he/she sat on the clothes line post and sand to a string flashing coloured Christmas party lights hung from a maintained building.

Our walk on the beach was spectacular as we wandered along the beach during the receding tide and viewed a magnificent sunset, reflected in the wet sand.

In analyzing the business, it appears that little efforts has been expended to adopt sustainable practices or become accredited with any of the Tourism programs (ie. ATAP, or Ecotourism Australia). For example there are no flow limiting devices on the showers or water timers on the taps.  Overnight a water lawn sprinkler was left of for hours creating a number of puddles which ran onto the roadway. There appears to be no green energy used on the site (ie, no solar panels were sited). The diesel would be trucked into the site at a cost of about $2.00/ litre from Port Hedland (280 kilometers to the south). 

A positive was the waste sorting arrangement, with various bins for designated waste (ie. bottles, paper, non-recyclables), however they could have added a separate bin for organic waste composting.