Echuca caravan park evicts permanent vans

A caravan park in Central Victoria is forcing long-term holidayers out of their sites, in a bid to upgrade the park after the floods.

A caravan park in Central Victoria is forcing long-term holidayers out of their sites, in a bid to upgrade the park.

Regular holiday-makers with vans set up permanently on site at Discovery Parks Echuca received a letter from the caravan park on Tuesday.

The park informed onsite caravan van and cabin owners their contacts would be terminated, and they would be giving up possession of their sites in August, including the removal of dwellings and structures.

In the letter, Discovery Holiday Parks chief operating officer Matt Lang said the “incredible” flooding events left the park requiring “significant recovery and rebuild works”.

“We have spent considerable time working through how we move forward at the property and make the park more resilient to floods and climate change, as we do not believe this flood will be an isolated event,” he wrote.

“We know that many of you have been coming to the park for many years and have suffered loss yourselves; however, as part of this process, we have made the difficult decision to not reissue you a new annual holiday site agreement as we focus on offering a greater number of short-term tourism sites at the park and making the property more resilient to flooding and climate change.”

It’s understood owners of the vans come from all over the state, including Werribee, Sunbury, Geelong, Melton and Kyneton.

Owners were ordered to remove their vans and other structures by the August 31.

A Discovery Parks spokesperson said the floods had “impacted heavily” on the local community.

“Due to the heavy impacts of flooding, which has included irreparable damage to caravans on site, significant recovery works are required to make our parks more resilient to floods,” they said.

“In future, this will enable sites to be quickly vacated when another significant flood event occurs.

“To undertake these works, we’ve provided notice to annual site holders that their agreements will end, after the notice period concludes.

“Where possible, we are helping those who holiday at these sites annually to find alternative holiday locations for the future. No permanent residents are being displaced.”