Cooktown now RV Friendly

[John M]

Following is a quote from the Highway Wanderers

Cooktown FNQ has finally become RV Friendly
For those of you who don't know Cooktown has decided to try and attract its share of the RVers who travel North in the winter and usually stop at Mareeba. Up until now Cooktown was not welcoming towards RVers and like many other places the Caravan Parks ruled the roost. Due to the hard work of some new forward thinking Shire people Cooktown is going all out to get RVers to take the extra step from Mareeba and spend some time in their region. There was strong opposition from the Caravan Parks however common sense prevailed and the Shire has pushed ahead with a low cost rest area with dump point and a special RV event at the Cooktown Racecourse from 1st to 15th August.
A quote from one of the Shire people
"Now details of the specific site in town – you can stay for 2 nights ($5 per night). We will have a dump point and potable water for this year. It is within walking distance of everything. It is an excellent location. We have sold it on it being a trial for this year so we are hoping to get some really great support and show the community how important the drive market is."
Various PDF flyers with information about the RV event and the Cooktown Show can be viewed click here
If you are going North this year please try and fit a visit to Cooktown on the itinerary and tell as many other RVers as you can. The Shire is giving us the opportunity to demonstrate that if low cost no frills accommodation is available we will come to the region and spend some dollars. Success in Cooktown might just encourage other regions to do the same.

[T1 Terry]

$5 per night for potable water, a dump point and close to town sounds like a good deal to me, pity it's such a long way from here to there

[generdawg]

... pity it's such a long way from here to there

But we could make a UWE of it.

[John M]

I think that it is interesting that a council that twelve months ago was so rabidly anti grey Nomads, and those it loudly and publicly, lambasted as free loaders, has so suddenly done a complete turnaround and decided it needs "the drive market".
I wonder how mush of it was driven by the current economic downturn in tropical North Australia, or more probable council elections.

[Dot]

Maybe they listened to their wives.

[TheBushRat]

G'day,

Good to see!

I was there 4 years ago and it had signs saying "no camping within 20 (or so) kms from town". That didn't stop most of us camping south of town at the old bridge.

The way I see it, is that they've finally seen the light - doesn't matter what they used to say.

I have no doubts that this "problem" will slowly but surely disappear for us - logic will prevail.

[BruceQ]

I think that it is interesting that a council that twelve months ago was so rabidly anti grey Nomads, and those it loudly and publicly, lambasted as free loaders, has so suddenly done a complete turnaround and decided it needs "the drive market".
I wonder how mush of it was driven by the current economic downturn in tropical North Australia, or more probable council elections.

Hi John

I am sure this 'complete turnaround' in Cooktown did not 'just happen' but there was an enourmous amount of work done by volunteers from the club not able to be mentioned here.
I would like to thank these people for their hard work to achieve benefits for us all.
Credit where credit is due

Bruce

[BernieQ2]

Having spent two days at the $5 a nite camp and having spoken to a number of business people.
A lot of the hard work was done by them at council meetings.
Council also wanted to close the 'free' camp on the Annan river.
One of the shop owners said that if they close that, she would most likely close her shop. She estimated that 60% of her business came from them (free campers)
The dump point at the camp spot is excellent and easy to use with a good hose and good pressure .
The fresh water tap is just another 20 or so feet from the dunny dump.(there is also another dump point in town)
They hand you a question sheet asking to fill in and give back to the info centre or to the nominated shop owners.
They ask about your experience that you have while visiting also how much money you spend in town and if you will be staying longer then the two days in Cooktown
IE: other camp spots or CP's.
We stayed another three days at a $ camp spot about 15/20 Ks from town, we also bought diesel while there but I didn't really need to,
We also on our way out spent some more at the local market day in town before we left.
We enjoyed our short stay in Cooktown.
We also met Jim and Vanessa (dingojim)) and shared a laugh.
Bernie & Carol.ps we are back in Mareeba for three days.

[Dot]

BruceQ was anything put in the magazine to thank those people?

[Cuppa]

Hmmm.
I have mixed feelings about this Cooktown news.
It is good that the town has made moves to be more RV friendly given the increasing number of RV's heading up that way, BUT I'd have to say that one of the real attractions to me of Cooktown & that area (& I loved it) was it's sense of being a town just beyond civilisation, a pioneer town, Australia's 'wild west'. Granted the bitumen road to Cooktown had been open for around 4 years when we visited & we comented at the time that we wished we'd been able to experience the place before that road had been opened & expected that the town would see dramatic changes over the following few years. This is happening I guess.
Recently I watched a fishing show on TV which showed a wonderful tropical paradise & urged fisherman to get there before the plentiful stocks of big fish were depleted! (Morons!). This was Elim Beach, out past Hopevale, just north of Cooktown. Places like this are wonderful, but lose something when larger numbers of people go there. I suppose the Gold Coast must have been beautiful country once!

Cuppa