Notice-to-vacate forms have been handed out to 25 permanent site holders at Liston Caravan Park in Mathoura.
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Ian Berry is one permanent site holder who has been going to the park for more than 40 years since he was in his 30s.
He has put his hand up to speak to The Riv on behalf of all 25 site holders, but he does have his own strong, personal ties to the Liston Caravan Park.
“There are four generations of my family that have been going to that park over the years. My father, me, my son and my grandson,” Mr Berry said.
His brother-in-law and other close friends also have a caravan in the park.
Mr Berry said, “we're a little community there”.
“I can't see why they're doing this. There are good people in that park.”
Mr Berry’s wife, Sue Berry, was handed the letter when she was visiting the park last weekend.
“I think it originally said to vacate by the first of July, but that's just been amended to around the first of September now.”
The Berry family was caught by surprise by the notice, but Mr Berry admitted he was aware some sort of change had been on the cards for quite some time as the park was slowly beginning to deteriorate.
The park was originally maintained by Stan and Veronica Whitecross who were Mr Berry’s family friends.
They had a 99-year lease from the council, but unfortunately Stan became ill, and the couple ended up moving out.
“Since then, the council itself managed the park through this elderly guy who was sort of looking after things and keeping an eye on things, but it wasn't structured in a really professional way, to be honest,” Mr Berry said.
Mr Berry said the councillor who was running the park also became ill, which meant nobody had really been managing the place.
Mr Berry said the lawns had not been mowed as much, the general maintenance of the park had been lacking and the “facilities only get cleaned twice a week.”
In terms of the facilities, “everybody who lives in the park generally pitches in and cleans them, ourselves”.
“We are all paying rates, but we’re not getting much in return,” he said.
Mr Berry said Mrs Berry, after being handed the notice to vacate, sought counsel from her local government representative.
The response indicated council's stance to encourage more overnighters to stay at the park would not alter.
“We all bring friends and family, and we're permanents,” he said.
“There are 25 permanent site holders now, that's 25 families who are all paying $2000 a year in fees plus $15 a night when somebody stays in the caravan.”
He said he was a lawn bowler who brought all of his friends to Mathoura to play in the tournaments.
“I usually get around five sites hired out at the park by up to 20 guys, we all go to the tournaments,” Mr Berry said.
“We all come into the pubs, clubs, the supermarket and we all spend money throughout the town and we're happy to do it.”
One of the more frustrating elements for the permanent site holders who have been given notice to vacate is they have been paying their site fees throughout the past few years during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though they have barely been able to attend the park.
“With COVID, people haven't been going up there as much because all of us virtually come from Victoria and we’ve had all these lockdowns.
“We've kept paying our fees throughout and haven't winged about it and now that we can finally go back there, they've taken it off us.
“It just doesn't seem very fair to me.”
Mr Berry recently just spent $20,000 on a new annex for his caravan.
“That’s money gone down the drain, too.
“If worse comes to worst and they decide to turf us out, I think they should give us at least 12 months to vacate.
“I also think that they should reimburse us with the two years that we haven't been able to use it during COVID because they've been accepting site fees when hardly any of the permanent residents have been there.”
All of the permanent site holders will be having a meeting with Murray River Council on Monday morning at 10am.
The site holders are going to present some solutions to the council at that time, but Mr Berry still believes that the main solution is to employ a manager of the park.
“If we could get a manager into the place, I think with our site fees that we pay on a yearly basis and considering the people that we bring into the place, there’s going to be more revenue than what overnighters will ever bring into the town.”
Mr Berry said the site holders were even willing to compromise with the council in order to keep the park running.
“A few of the vans probably aren’t up to scratch, but I’m sure if they asked people to do a bit of work on them, they would comply,” Mr Berry said.
“I’m sure if they improved the facilities, people wouldn’t be against paying that little bit extra.
“I think a lot of the people there would be even happy to self-manage.”
According to Mr Berry, there is land available at the Liston Caravan Park for overnighters to stay alongside the permanent site holders.
“I don’t know why they want to reconfigure the whole park, if they can just work with what they’ve got.”
The permanent site holders are working to rustle up the local business owners and community members from town to come and support them at the Liston Mathoura Caravan Park for their meeting with the council on Monday.
“I know a lot of people from the town, and they all know me. I’m treated like a resident up there.”
There is one permanent site holder who is already up in Mathoura who has created a petition against the vacation notice.
Mr Berry said, “I just love the place and I’d like to stay there, we all would.”
“We only need a part-time manager. Somebody just to oversee the whole thing, even if they just came down once or twice a week to make sure that everything's running smoothly.”