Caravan park deal done
Great Ocean Road Coast Committee takes over Anglesea business
THE Great Ocean Road Coast Committee’s contentious takeover of the Anglesea Family Caravan Park is now complete after negotiating a deal to assume control six months earlier than the lease expiry date.
The GORCC officially commenced management of the park on Saturday after negotiating an agreement with the previous lessees to purchase the existing park assets, including cabins, laundries, jumping pillow and other buildings.
The park will continue to operate under the management of GORCC, in conjunction with its other caravan parks at Torquay and Lorne.
It was previously run by the Morris family for more than two decades.
According to GORCC, 99 per cent of peak summer season campsites are booked for 2017-18 and a substantial num- ber of forward bookings have been made. Cabin bookings will commence on Friday.
The coast committee’s chair, Ken Northwood, said the new management team would use its “decades of experience in hospitality, caravan park, environmental and public land management” to continue the high standards of the park.
“We understand the importance of the park to the Anglesea business community and local economy and have commenced confirming local supplier contracts for the caravan park,” he said.
“We will continue to work closely with campers and community organisations to ensure ongoing collaboration and feedback on the management of the caravan park.”
Most of the existing staff from the Anglesea caravan park have now transferred to new roles with the committee.
Former park manager Jus- tin Morris, son of then owners Errol and Trish Morris, said the more than year-long process had taken an emotional toll on his family.
“For our own sanity, for our own welfare basically, and for the customers and the staff it was best for us to leave early,” he said.
Mr Morris thanked the loyal holiday makers who had been a part of their journey for almost 21 years. “That’s the hard bit, is seeing the com- ments of support (from campers). It was amazing, so humbling and made us even more emotional,” he said.
The committee, which manages Crown land in the region on behalf of the State Government, announced in May 2016 it would take over running of the park, citing an unsuccessful tender process in which four tenderers were not able to provide “commercially acceptable” offers for the life of the new 21-year lease.