Campers & caravanners

Campers were an important segment of the tourist market in the railway era, but became even more significant in the 1920s due to greater use of motorcars. From the late nineteenth century, camping grounds offered a more affordable alternative for family holiday accommodation than stays in hotels and guest-houses. After WWII, motels and caravan parks offered alternative forms of accommodation.


There were regional differences in the popularity of camping. Camping was a well-established practice on the Central Coast by 1900, but only became popular around the 1920 in the Illawarra. Once Kiama's aldermen were convinced that people might be seeking an attractive  place for a camping holiday rather than simply a place where they could stop and pitch a tent while travelling in search of work,  the Council created a camping ground at Blow Hole Point facing Kiama Harbour. The alternative site for a camping ground located away from the sea near the dog pound was rejected.

Campers helped desegregate Kiama's ocean pools and prompted the creation of Gerringong's Werri Beach pool during the 1930s Depression. Gerringong Council hoped the presence of campers at Werri Beach would raise land prices as had happened near Shellharbour Council's camping ground at Lake Illawarra. Stroud Shire Council created ocean baths, a dance casino and a camping ground at Forster to stimulate the tourist trade.

From the 1930s, visitors to the Zane Grey camping ground and later caravan park used Bermagui's Blue Pool.

Depression-era camps housed unemployed men and their families in Newcastle, Port Kembla and other coastal areas but camping for pleasure continued during and after the Depression.

Coastal communities came to realise that campers often spent more money in their communities than people who stayed in hotels and guest-houses. Even small number of campers could have a significant impact in small coastal communities. A dozen tents in the reserve meant a busy summer at Black Head on the NSW north coast in the 1940s.

Some campers and their families holidayed at the same location for years, but despite their accumulated local knowledge, could still be surprised by freak surf. A Sydney man, who had camped at Coledale for seven years in a row, lost his life in 1948 attempting to rescue his two children who had been swept out of the rock pool by a big wave at high tide. Both of his children survived.

Many camping grounds have now been converted into caravan parks with powered sites or tourist parks with cabins. Around Sydney, land near the beaches became too valuable to use for camping grounds and was developed for residential housing. Residents who had paid high prices for blocks nearby by began to consider camping grounds 'unsightly'.

Ocean baths are still part of the attractions for caravan parks at Black Head, Forster, Bulli, Corrimal (near the Towradgi pool) and Shellharbour.

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