Families forced to leave camp

I would think that the Edward River is one of our best assets for Deniliquin, suitable for skiing, boating, fishing and in general a lovely, pleasant place to camp, relax and enjoy.

Well, that's what four young families from Melbourne thought when they set up their caravans and camper trailers down Willoughby's bend for the Easter break.

Apparently there is a man living there, and one Saturday morning he and another who had a swag set up in the area had a verbal and confrontational fight one allegedly brandishing a knife.

All this within sight and hearing of these four young families.

The police were called and said they knew of this man.

The language and him walking in and around their campsites was very intimidating and frightening to both children and adults.

Two of the families had enough and left on the Sunday.

The other two thought the homeless man may quieten down and they chose to stay until Tuesday.

About 9pm on the Monday, he approached their vans, walking around using disgusting language and threatening to cut off all their heads when they had gone to sleep.

They rang my son-in-law who was staying with us and said they would have to leave, but did not know where to go at that time of night with a young family. My son-in-law had to go and get his big fishing boat out of the river, and I suggested to him that the family with the caravan could stay on our nature strip and those in the camper trailer could stay in our spare bedroom, as they had thrown all their gear into the trailer and some of it wet.

They were all very distressed by this time, and stayed and settled by about 11pm.

These four families had children from the ages of 12 months to four years old.

I love living in Deniliquin, but am embarrassed this could happen.

Do you think they will recommend Deniliquin to their friends? Do you think they will return? What could have been done? The police attended twice.