Keppel Sands Caravan Park residents forced to move
The homes of a group of residents in a quiet Queensland beachside caravan park will be torn down within weeks to make way for a development featuring a mini golf course and pool.
Rockhampton
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rockhampton. Followed categories will be added to My News.
For 28 years, grandma-of-four Judy Guley has called the caravan park in the sleepy beachside suburb of Keppel Sands home, and its other permanent residents have become her family.
There have been decades of memorable Christmases, State of Origin rivalries and lifelong memories created between the permanent residents and visitors at the Keppel Sands Caravan Park.
But for the six permanent residents, those will soon be no more.
The 70-year-old has carefully cultivated a picturesque garden around her caravan home, complete with adorable ornaments.
She and her neighbours Belinda and Brett Langley, both 62, meet with the other permanent residents every afternoon for a cup of tea, or other drinks.
The Langleys, former park managers and residents for almost two decades, remembers how people at the park helped with her son’s wedding decorations.
But now the permanent residents are being forced to move out of the homes they would spend the rest of their lives in to make way for a construction site for improvements to the park – in the midst of a housing and cost of living crisis.
In the space of just weeks the permanent residents will have to pack up their lives, dismantle their mobile homes and take the ornaments out of their gardens before the park becomes a construction site.
Livingstone Shire Council has leased the park to Helmsley Pty Ltd and it will soon become a construction site, unsafe for the residents.
The caravan park will receive an overhaul which will include a mini golf course, swimming pool and more caravan sites, along with a camp kitchen and amenities upgrades, over the course of three months.
Judy, Belinda and Brett and the other permanent residents have been told although they may apply to return, there is no guarantee they will be accepted back at the park.
“We were given a letter to say there would be a meeting to meet the lessee and they were going to give us some information, and we thought it meant a pay rise or something like that,” Belinda said.
“At the meeting there were two council ladies, two community ladies, and another person.
“We all sat down and they said they knew about the tender going out and they would give us 12 weeks to move.”
Belinda and Brett managed the caravan park for 13 years from 2006 until 2018, making many memories not just with their neighbours, but the guests who would visit the park.
“We’ve met a lot of people here and they come back every year,” Judy said.
“When we were managing we had the same southerners that come every year,” Belinda said.
“We used to have morning tea with all the ladies, we used to do craft, we did everything.
“When my son got married they made all the decorations for the wedding and we used to go to St Vinnies and we would call it a dawdle day.”
While dealing with the stresses of moving and finding a home, Belinda’s husband Brett is also struggling with an extremely serious health condition causing a valve in his heart to deteriorate.
“He had his heart stopped and restarted last week to put his heart back into rhythm, and now it’s back into rhythm they’re going to try and fix it, next he’ll go to Brisbane and they’ll go from there,” she said.
“We’ve not got lots of money and the money part is making us stress… it’s just all come at a wrong time.”
The tenants have accepted they have to move, and Livingstone Shire Council has provided them with $2249 in financial assistance.
The money is equal to the three months of rent and sewage charges.
But it has only gone so far.For Belinda, who works part time as a cleaner in aged care, most of that money has already gone to purchasing a $1800 shipping container to store a lot of their belongings.
“We were all so shocked… there were no ‘ifs’, no ‘buts’ and then they generously said they’d give us 12 weeks rent, but in the real world we only pay $170 here… $2000 is not going to help any of us to do anything,” she said.
“It’s going to cost us $5000 or $6000 to move, we’re not going to spend another $6000 to move back and they can’t guarantee us a spot.”
Judy said her caravan was going to be stored at a local farm and she was buying a new van, but there was nowhere to park it.
“At the moment I can’t get in permanent because all the southerners are up, they come up every year,” she said.
“One of the other residents has been able to get in as a permanent to another caravan park, but she had to pay a deposit and then she bought a caravan for $30,000 and she’s paying rent for where the van is,” Belinda said.
“We know we’ve got to move, we all know that, but we’d like the council to come to reality to say ‘we’ll be able to help you’ … we know the amenities need upgrading.
“We just can’t understand why they’re making us move… we said why can’t they just leave us here and we’ll leave for the three months, but there was no answer to that.”
The residents said they had reached out to local elected representatives, but had no success.
A council spokesman stated the decision to force out the tenants was legal and it was required as a safety measure, as the park would be a construction zone.
The spokesman said while council was not in a position to offer additional funding, the long-term tenants had been encouraged from the outset to take advantage of the Community Centre social worker’s assistance to help connect them with wraparound services from other government and community agencies.
“Council has actively engaged with the five long-term tenants of Keppel Sands Caravan Park to provide them with support and assistance, including financial, to reduce the impact on them as a result of the temporary closure of the park which will occur after the conclusion of the notice period legislated under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008,” the spokesman said.
“Council officers, the new lessee and representatives from local support agencies have reached out in person to each tenant and offered support via the Council’s Community Centre. It is a matter for each tenant if they wish to accept and take advantage of these offers.
“A list of alternative accommodation options and contact details for community centre support assistance was provided to all long-term tenants.”
He said the park would temporarily close for a period of approximately three months, or until the works are completed.
“The request for tenants to temporarily vacate is for their safety and compliance reasons and is not done without reasoning,” the spokesman said.
“The new lessees have assured council that the long-term tenants will be given the opportunity to apply for long-term tenancy at the park once the major upgrades are completed.
“The application process and the outcomes of their application is a matter for the tenant and the lessee.”
Wanting to lend a hand from afar, Belinda’s granddaughter Breanna started a petition through change.org with a goal of 200 signatures, and she’s already halfway there.
“I grew up in Rocky until I was about 10 years old and every weekend we’d go to the caravan park; there are residents there I know better than my own family,” she said.
“I called up my dad the other day and he said ‘nanny and poppy are being evicted from the caravan park and they’re trying to find somewhere to go’.
“I called them up and got all the details from them and I thought ‘I’m all the way in Brisbane, how do I help my family move?’.”
From there Breanna got the idea to start the petition which has gained interest and signatures from near and far.
“I thought I might as well start a petition and see where that goes… people in my little community started signing it, people in Rocky were signing it, I’ve had a few people from the USA sign it,” she said.
“It gutted me… living in Brisbane it’s been very hard for me not to go to my grandparents house and just talk to them and help them pack things, it’s definitely been gut-wrenching.
“They were very angry at first, they’ve very sadly accepted what’s going to happen.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Keppel Sands Caravan Park residents forced to move
Iron bar boots to world top 3: Bionic sportswoman’s incredible story
Tracy Johnson was just eight when her lower leg was amputated. Now, the Qld athlete is scaling the heady heights of international CrossFit competition. Read her inspirational story.
Dole dad jailed for taxi cash theft, bottle shop break-in
A man who flogged hundreds of dollars from a Rockhampton taxi driver later left his fingerprints at the scene of a brazen daylight bottle shop break-in, it has been revealed.
Sheep shearer turns to Bible after meth-fuelled crime spree
Details of how a Central Queensland sheep shearer’s life “spiralled out of control” during his “serious” meth-fuelled crime spree have been laid bare during his sentencing.
And then there were four: One Nation reject joins another minor party
Katter’s Australian Party has taken on discarded One Nation MP Stephen Andrew to swell its ranks to four.
Teen boy suffers suspected spinal injuries in CQ farm incident
A rescue chopper has been called to a rural property in Central Queensland where a teenager has suffered suspected spinal injuries in a farming incident.
Man flown to hospital after ‘obliterating’ power pole
Two men have been rushed to hospital after crashes in the Rockhampton region overnight. READ THE LATEST.