River campsites reopened

It had been feared the sites would be shut throughout the Christmas-New Year period, but Parks Victoria staff worked through Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Parks Victoria’s Murray River flood manager Kane Weekes said the Yarrawonga Common, Chinamans, Forges, Bruces and Dicks bends campsites were among those declared open yesterday.

“We had staff working over the weekend and the rangers-in-charge have made the call that these areas are relatively safe for visitor use,” Mr Weekes said.

“We realise that the Murray River Reserve and the red gum parks provide for camping and we know numbers are down because of the land that’s been available, so we’ve had people working hard so we can make sure the parks are open as soon as possible.”

Mr Weekes warned campers that pit toilets were unusable because they were either flood damaged or still full of water, but he was hopeful that they could be used later in January as the ground dried out.

He said the reopened campsites were accessible by two-wheel drives but he advised motorists to not risk getting bogged and stay on graded tracks.

Sun Country on the Murray executive officer tourism Merran Socha, who promotes Cobram-Barooga and Yarrawonga-Mulwala, applauded Parks Victoria’s decision.

“You only have to look at the lack of campers to realise we need them back, they do great things for our region at this time of the year,” she said.

She compared the numbers in the region at the moment to “just bursting, rather than bursting at the seams”.

“It’s not doom and gloom, we’ve still got a lot of accommodation full, it’s just the river campers aren’t here,” Mrs Socha said.

“From the phone calls coming into the visitor information centre we’re getting a sense of that, that people are willing to sit tight for a few days and see what happens.”

Parks Victoria will do further work over coming days with the next announcement likely to be made on Wednesday.

More detailed information is available atparkweb.vic.gov.au.