Upgrading her caravan park’s accessible bathroom was on Josephina McDonald’s to-do list for 11 years. So, she’s delighted Halls Gap Lakeside Tourist Park now has a modern and stylish all-abilities bathroom.
The unisex facility, match-funded by an Austrade-administered grant, has been designed with extra attention. The floor and walls even glow in the dark.
The Australian Government’s Caravan Parks Grant Program got the $103,000 project over the line. With this grant, Halls Gap Lakeside also renovated its family bathroom and installed solar panels.
The solar panels sit atop the amenities block housing all bathrooms, the laundry, camp lounge and camp kitchen. They’re already providing around 30% of the caravan park’s electricity, ‘saving us money’, says McDonald.
Budgeting for a step-by-step makeover
McDonald and her husband, Rohan, are like all caravan park owners. They’ve always had to manage their business’s budget carefully.
Halls Gap Lakeside needed major renewal when the McDonalds took over in 2012. Borrowing money to undertake work, Josephina and Rohan were always asking: ‘What’s the smartest investment? What serves the most customers?’
Among the first priorities were the cabins and pool. Over the years, glamping tents, a camp kitchen and a revamped laundry followed.
Help in a tough economic climate
Under the McDonalds’ ownership, Halls Gap Lakeside gained an excellent reputation. Its annual cabin occupancy rate rose to nearly 80%.
However, COVID lockdowns hit all caravan parks hard in 2020. The accessible and family bathrooms remained unrenovated.
This troubled McDonald especially, she says, because she trained in human services. ‘It hurt that we were restricted in our finances and couldn’t dot that final “i”.’
Then the Government announced its Caravan Parks Grant Program in November 2022. This presented a ‘massive opportunity’, McDonald recalls.
‘I embraced it with both hands. It was quite an easy, straightforward process without too much admin involved. In the current economic situation – with the uncertainties of COVID, bushfire evacuations, interest rates, inflation – we couldn’t have pulled this off ourselves.’
With upgraded bathrooms and new solar panels, Halls Gap Lakeside Tourist Park is set to leave a long-term legacy.
Small but perfectly formed
When designing the accessible bathroom, McDonald says Halls Gap Lakeside exceeded legal requirements. A disability expert helped it create a solution that was a ‘commonsense’ one, too. McDonald points to the dual handrails and 2 shower heads as an example. These allow users greater flexibility around the room.
The glow-in-the-dark epoxy in both bathrooms was a last-minute gift from the contractor. It’s more than a decorative flourish. The solar panels make the lights less likely to go out. However, if they do, it’s still bright enough inside to see.
‘The bathrooms are small but doing them has been a heart-warming experience,’ says McDonald. ‘I feel we’ve done a really good job in a small space.’
Opening future possibilities
Now complete, the bathroom renovations will have a longstanding legacy. With rooftop solar, McDonald says she’s well placed to take the caravan park’s sustainability goals further.
‘It’s definitely opened a wider vision for me on what I can do to be more cost-effective, be more aware of the climate, be more sustainable.’ She’s now looking at options to install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.
She also wants the project to benefit the community. Halls Gap Lakeside has long acted as an unofficial tourist information service for its customers. It also sells local honey, wine and handmade goods. ‘It’s a hub for people to come together,’ says McDonald.
For similar reasons, McDonald is fitting the accessible bathroom with a Master Locksmiths Access Key (MLAK). People with disability are eligible to own MLAK keys. Using this system will open the bathroom to all MLAK key owners visiting Halls Gap.
McDonald is looking forward to what comes next. ‘This grant enabled us to take action on a project that otherwise would have taken us 2–3 years to get to. Now we have the chance to move on to more,’ she says.
Learn more
The caravan and camping sector is a major contributor to the visitor economy. The Tourism Research Australia (TRA) website has the latest statistics for caravan and camping. This caravan and camping data comes from TRA’s National Visitor Survey (NVS).
The Caravan Park Grant Program helps improve visitor infrastructure. Improving visitor infrastructure is a priority of THRIVE 2030, the long-term strategy for Australia’s visitor economy.
Growing the visitor economy
THRIVE 2030 is Australia’s national strategy for the long-term, sustainable growth of the visitor economy.