The fight to save another caravan park paradise from being paved into a parking lot

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone," Joni Mitchell sang in 1970.

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

Now the Sunshine Coast Council – which on Wednesday progressively pitched its case as a forward-thinking council – has decided to turn one of Australia's best-loved beachside caravan parks into a car park.

They argue it is temporary. It's only for two-and-a-half years, maximum.

Long-time campers fear plans to turn the Mooloolaba Beach Holiday Park into a car park will not be temporary, as the council insists.Credit: Wendy Hughes

Jon Erbacher, whose family has camped at Mooloolaba for 60 years, disagrees.

Mr Erbacher has led a two-year campaign to try to preserve beachside caravan parks, lodging applications to the Queensland Heritage Council to save this beachside caravan park, among others.

He asks how long the caravan park will remain a "temporary" car park.

Does this "good planning" protect a Queensland way of life, he asks.

A group of campers unsuccessfully attempted to have the park heritage-listed in September 2015.Credit: Tony Moore

"The bigger picture now is whether the state government actually intends to stand by its 2007 caravan park policy, when it is needed more than ever, to prevent the gradual extinction of beachfront camping in Queensland," Mr Erbacher said.

"The government's hesitation in stepping in seems amazing given the focus on drive tourism for Queensland's economy, the increasing registration of caravans and motorhomes and an ageing population, with plenty of grey nomads."

Car parks along Mooloolaba's beach may finally move, but the old caravan park is to become a temporary car park.Credit: Tony Moore

The member for Buderim, One Nation MP Steve Dickson, is backing an online petition to the government to uphold its 2007 caravan park policy to "help restrict the loss of caravan parks".

As a former Maroochy councillor, he once managed the region's caravan parks.

"I just believe in giving people a voice and giving them the right to ask why," Mr Dickson said.

"I believe the council is doing the best it can and I know it is looking at a two-storey car park near Underwater World [now Sea Life Sunshine Coast]," he said.

"But I think it's a good question that needs an answer."

The Sunshine Coast Council plans to build a high-rise parking station in Mooloolaba's Brisbane Road as part of its 20-year reshaping of the retail centre.

Councillor John Connolly told Fairfax Media the exact time of construction would depend on decisions made by the council to "press go".

"It will be a car park for two years, yes, maybe two-and-a-half years," he said.

The temporary car park on the beachside caravan park site would provide 130 spaces, while old car parks were lost in the existing Brisbane Road facility while the new multi-storey one was built.

A network of alternative park and ride sites – near the BP Station on Brisbane Road – the gradual removal of beachside car parks and the timing of the construction of the multi-level car park would allow new parks to emerge as older ones were removed.

Cr Connolly insisted the community would benefit in the end, because landscaped gardens and walks would eventually take the place of the car park.

"It ends as a caravan park in June this year," he said.

"It will then take time to seal it to prepare it for a car park. And then in February (2018), when the constructions start, it will become a car park."

Some time after that – "some time" because the Place Making Mooloolaba project runs for 20 years – the landscaping, beachside pool and walkway on the old caravan park site would begin, he said.

The council leases state government-owned land to operate the Mooloolaba Beach Caravan Park.

By November 2016, the future of the caravan park appeared to be resolved when the Queensland Heritage Council refused an application to have it heritage listed, as others have been.

Mr Erbacher then asked for the issue to be investigated because the 2007 Caravan Park Policy should protect beachside caravan parks and said there was plenty of room for compromise.

In January 2017 State Development Minister Anthony Lynham's chief of staff Paul Woodland replied saying no decision has been made, however the department was aware the council wished to make the caravan park "open space".

"As you reference in your letter, the Department introduced the Caravan Park Policy to provide guidelines to help restrict the loss of caravan parks and camping grounds on state-owned land," the letter said.

"The policy will be taken into consideration in reaching a decision in this matter."