Bridgewater Caravan Park Caravan Motorhome Friendly

Published on 10 March 2016

If dollars matter, there’s now all the more reason to put the Loddon Valley on your travel itinerary.

Bridgewater Public Caravan Park has become the latest holiday venue in Loddon Shire to be approved as “CMCA-Friendly”, meaning members of the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia receive a 10% discount on camp fees.

Bridgewater is the third of the Shire’s caravan parks to offer this deal, after Pyramid Hill and Wedderburn.

Pyramid Hill has also gone one step further, signing up to the CMCA’s Dollar-Wise Park program.

CMCA members can stay at Dollar-Wise Parks at just $10 per night for an unpowered site.

There are more than 300 CMCA-Friendly caravan parks around Australia and nearly 50 listed in the Dollar-Wise network.

The club promotes these parks by including them in listings on its website, Facebook page and its GeoWiki database, from which members can download information onto their computers or GPS devices.

CMCA Chief Executive Officer Richard Barwick welcomed the news of Loddon’s initiatives.

“Going CMCA-Friendly is an initiative the Shire has taken on very strongly, because they see the opportunity to attract more visitors to the area,” Mr Barwick said.

“By offering these discounts, there’s more of a chance members will take it up.

“The bigger the discount, the greater likelihood the park will have more patronage.

“Our Dollar-Wise program has only been in operation for six months and we have over 45 caravan parks now in that scheme, with more being rolled out all the time.

“In off-peak times, particularly, it creates an incentive for retirees to holiday closer to home.”

The CMCA-Friendly and Dollar-Wise schemes work alongside the club’s “RV-Friendly Towns” and “RV-Friendly Destinations” listings, which advise owners of recreational vehicles of locations which provide suitable short-term parking, accommodation and free dump points.

“We have just short of 270 RV-Friendly Towns around Australia and over 90 RV-Friendly Destinations,” Mr Barwick said.

In Loddon Shire, approved stopovers now include Boort, Bridgewater, Wedderburn, Pyramid Hill and Simply Tomatoes at Yando.

The Bridgewater caravan and camping park has 98 powered sites, 17 tent sites and one cabin – many with views of the Loddon River.

Facilities include a camp kitchen, swimming pool with shade cover, jumping pillow, children’s playground, barbecues, two amenities blocks, access to a boat ramp, an accessible viewing platform and a walking path along the foreshore to the boat ramp, main street and swimming hole.

Loddon Shire Tourism Marketing Officer Robyn Vella said she was aware of many CMCA members being out on the road and campervan and motorhome owners were a key target audience for Loddon’s tourism messages.

“The Bridgewater caravan park has been completely rebuilt and offers all the infrastructure needed for a pleasant and comfortable stay,” Mrs Vella said.

“Being right on the river bank, there’s plenty of scope for water sports of all kinds.

“It’s also no great distance to explore some of the other attractions of the area, starting with the collectables stores and heritage streetscape of Inglewood, the nearby Kooyoora State Park or the opportunities for gold detecting around Tarnagulla and Wedderburn.”

For more information, contact the Loddon Visitor Information Centre on (03) 5494 1257 or visit www.loddon.vic.gov.au