Eligibility

Status: Closed

The Caravan Parks Grant Program was open to privately-owned caravan parks. It was for developing new infrastructure or park assets. It could also be used for significant enhancements that built on existing infrastructure. 

Who was eligible?

To be eligible, privately-owned caravan parks must have:

• held an Australian Business Number (ABN)
• been a legal entity that operates a caravan park within Australia with 40 or more powered sites used for short-term visitor accommodation. Powered sites refer to caravan or camping sites and cabins. Permanent accommodation or long-term sites do not count towards this number.
• been solvent
• have had an account with an Australian financial institution located within Australian territorial boundaries
• held public liability insurance and other relevant insurance to cover the project.

Successful applicants must have:

• held an ABN
• been solvent
• had public liability and other relevant insurance to cover the project at all times while being a grantee.

Applicants who own or operate multiple caravan parks

Applicants who own more than one caravan park could apply for multiple grants at different sites up to a total value of $300,000. The grants could be for similar projects at each site, or different projects and different grant amounts at each site.

Applicants applying for multiple grants must have: 

• met eligibility criteria and project criteria across all sites
• submitted separate applications for each site
• provided the structure of their organisation, clearly showing how the multiple parks fit into the structure.  

Who was not eligible?

Applicants were not eligible if they were: 

• a Commonwealth, state, territory or local government agency or body 
• an individual or sole trader 
• a partnership 
• an unincorporated association 
• a trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust). 

Eligible projects

Applicants must have shown that projects:

• had funding available to match the dollar-for-dollar (or more) expenditure requirement
• would be completed by 15 May 2024.

The grant funding amount must have been matched on a dollar-for-dollar (or more) basis. This depended on the turnover of the caravan park from the 2021-22 financial year:

• under $10 million, matched funding was dollar for dollar (1:1)
• $10 million or more, matched funding was two for every dollar provided by Government (2:1).

Turnover was the total ordinary income that you derive in the income year in the course of running your caravan park. The turnover amounts were based on your caravan park not your business turnover if you owned or operated multiple parks.

Projects focused mainly on direct benefit towards short-term visitor accommodation and/or facilities and: 

• delivered new infrastructure/assets, or 
• significantly enhanced an existing asset.

Eligible activities

Examples of eligible new or upgraded infrastructure projects included:

• developing new caravan/camping sites
• increasing the number of powered sites
• installing new cabins or substantial renovations of existing cabins
• installing new or upgraded recreational facilities
• installing new or upgraded visitor amenities
• upgrading sites, cabins or amenities to make them more accessible, environmentally friendly or reduced carbon impact.

Activities that were not eligible

The following activities were not eligible:

• administration costs used for project resources including:
  • advertising and recruitment
  • project management
  • staff training and development
• costs incurred prior to an executed grant agreement
• costs of purchasing, leasing or depreciation of land
• IT assets, IT software, office furniture or equipment
• loans, debt financing, financing cost, including interest and bank fees
• maintenance or general repair costs
• marketing or promotional advertising costs
• projects better suited to other Commonwealth or state/territory grant programs
• projects already funded by other Commonwealth or state/territory government grant programs
• routine or business-as-usual operational expenses
• site preparation activities which are not directly related to, or for, the main purpose of the project
• staff accommodation.

This is a simplified outline of eligibility criteria. For full eligibility criteria, please refer to the program guidelines.

More information

Caravan Parks Grant Program Guidelines

Contact us

Email: caravanparks@austrade.gov.au.

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