Published on Wednesday, 18 June 2025 at 2:16:05 PM
At the Ordinary Council Meeting on Tuesday 17 June 2025 Council endorsed the Recreational Vehicle (RV) Friendly Policy with an amended motion.
The amended item approves the relocation of the free 48hr RV camp in Hopetoun to within or adjacent to a caravan park operator, while keeping the Ravensthorpe 48hr camp at the current site on the corner of Morgans Street and Queen Street.
The Shire of Ravensthorpe welcomes RV travellers and hopes to continue to attract them to our region by increasing the number of free camping locations.
Three new official free Shire Approved Overnight Rest Areas will be created at Fitzgerald, Kundip and Munglinup, bringing the total of official free camp locations offered by the Shire of Ravensthorpe to four.
RV Friendly status
The Shire currently holds RV Friendly status and Shire President Tom Major said this policy outlines the work required to maintain that recognition while setting clear standards to protect local services.
“To retain RV Friendly status, we must offer free or low-cost locations, which means $20 and under per site," he said.
“There was community opposition to the current Hopetoun free camp location and while we could have removed it altogether, we decided to relocate it and to work with the Hopetoun Beachside Caravan Park to keep our RV Friendly status, which means a lot to local businesses who benefit from those travellers coming through.”
Pictured: The current free RV 48hr site in Hopetoun, which will be relocated.
Public submissions
The draft policy was widely promoted for public review and 19 written responses were received with a wide range of viewpoints, some supporting free camping and others calling for the removal of Shire free camping sites.
A number of submissions made the point of differentiating between Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun as visitor destinations, suggesting the two towns take different approaches to free camp locations.
Cr Major said it was important to treat the two towns differently as they attract different travellers.
“Hopetoun is a destination while Ravensthorpe is a thoroughfare and we want to capture people stopping in Ravy as much as possible,” he said.
“We also reviewed the public consultation submissions and the support for keeping the Ravensthorpe 48hr camp in the current location was clearly evident.”
What’s next?
The Hopetoun site remains open. The Shire will now seek appropriate approvals and advice to begin the process of relocating to the new location within or adjacent to the Hopetoun Beachside Caravan Park. Appropriate notice of relocation date will be given once it is finalised.
The policy is available for viewing here.
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