Gold Coast’s ‘third world’ Mudgeeraba Holiday Village caravan park on market for $2.5m

THE man behind the infamous Mudgeeraba Holiday Village is selling up three months after shocking living conditions at the park were exposed.

THE man behind the infamous Mudgeeraba Holiday Village is selling up three months after shocking living conditions at the park were exposed.

Long-time owner Bob Purcell, who has put the 2.42ha property on the market for $2.5 million, said the media’s uncovering of the park’s Third World-like scenes had contributed to his decision to sell.

Residents spoken to yesterday pleaded for a new owner not to kick them out and suggested a community group could improve the situation.

INSIDE COAST’S THIRD-WORLD SQUALOR

GALLERY: GOLD COAST’S VAN PARK SHAME
The caravan park has been called “one of the worst places” on the Gold Coast, with people paying around $200 a week to live in makeshift homes such as ramshackle caravans.

Police have described living conditions at the caravan park as “horrific” and questioned how the site could exist in a First World country.

“The scary thing is this caravan park is just around the corner from the Glitter Strip and popular tourist destinations,” Senior Sergeant Mark Anderson of Mudgeeraba Police said in April.
“It needs to be cleaned up because it drains our resources and creates a very dangerous place for drug users.”

Records show Mr Purcell put the property on the market on July 13 through Bob Rollington of Surfers Paradise First National. Mr Purcell purchased the property in 1987 for $300,000.

Caravan Park manager Bob Purcell says negative publicity about his van park helped him decide to put it on the market. Picture: David Clark

“I had an offer a couple of years ago and I declined at the time,” Mr Purcell said.

“(But since then) I’ve had a few family worries and the pressure from all this other (expletive) from the Bulletin and A Current Affair tipped me to the fact that maybe I’ve had enough.”

He said he was hoping to semi-retire, though “of course” would miss the village. Mr Purcell said he’d spent a considerable amount of money upgrading the site, claiming to have outlaid $150,000 on the on-site sewerage plant roughly a decade ago and more recently building five new timber cabins at an estimated cost of $35,000 each.

A iste at the Mudgeeraba Hioliday Village Caravan Park. Picture: David Clark

Mr Rollington said there had already been “very solid interest” from several parties – one of whom was in discussions with Mr Purcell when the Bulletin arrived at the site yesterday – looking to run the existing caravan park with the possibility of future redevelopment opportunities.

“It does need some work, we can’t argue that, but it has got a heap of potential and it is actually a very pretty setting,” Mr Rollington said.

“(Mr Purcell) would really like it to go to someone who would keep the people there and maybe improve it.”