Werribee South Caravan Park

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On 14^thJanuary we departed Mockinya to travel across to Werribee South for our first relief caravan park management assignment. On the way we travelled through Hamilton and Colac and had an overnight stop at Meredith Park on the northern shores of Lake Colac. At 17 degrees, with a strong wind blowing across the lake we found it difficult to remember that we were still in summer. Meredith Park is a really lovely spot and in better weather conditions it would make the perfect spot to spend a few days enjoying evening campfires.

Werribee South Caravan Park is owned by the local council and has been under the Management of Brett and Julie Leech for 9 years. They have really cleaned the place up over that time and it is now quite a lovely little park. There are about 25 permanent residents and most of the tourist guests are staying for family or medical appointments in Melbourne/surrounds or people travelling to and from Tasmania (it’s only 37 minutes to the ferry terminal), and foreign tourists recently arrived and collected their campervan in Melbourne.

The Park is situated on Port Phillip Bay with a beach, marina in the Werribee Creek, bike tracks around the bay side, playgrounds and sporting fields. Between Werribee South and Werribee township (around 10 Kilometers) there is a mass of market gardens growing broadleaf green vegetables (i.e Cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuces, etc). The Park is like a little oasis at the bay side, and the great thing is that it is a simple park without a swimming pool, playground, or jumping pillow. You can go elsewhere for all that.

In actual fact Werribee has much to offer with Werribee Park Precinct, which is a huge area with a creek, open range zoo, golf course, equestrian centre, Werribee Mansion and the State Rose Gardens plus an amazing RAAF Museum at Point Cook. The residential development in the area is absolutely huge too, with new housing estates everywhere. Of course Werribee South also has the Bay, which is lovely, except for the incessant wind the whole time we were there. So come and visit us sometime.

Wendy seemed to be all fingers and thumbs on the computer on day one, but it didn’t take long before she was running reception without any worries….until one evening, just before closing, the reservation system shut down, the computer shut down and the boom gates stopped working. It was quite fortunate that Brett and Julie had NOT gone away and were quite approachable and accessible. Brett opened the gates and they were left open all night and the computer problem would have to wait till morning.

Peter’s days did not have to commence at 4:30am - that’s when Brett generally cleans the amenities blocks (to fit in his other jobs around the park AND his family commitments!) Our days started at 8:00am and Wendy closed the office at 6:00pm.

Peter spent his time in grounds and amenities doing cleaning, mowing, maintenance, rubbish removal and other such jobs. Because his day was more flexible he even got to take a run to the shops on a couple of occasions.

It was great staying in our own motor home on-site, especially as we were on call 24 x 7. The only problem was that the van was parked under a tree that was the daytime habitat of an endangered Nicticorax Caledonicas or a Rufous Night Heron (see photo), in laymans language. This bird would go out to sea to hunt during the night and sit/shit in a tree over our van all day long. It took quite a bit of washing to remove all it’s messages when we were leaving.

Our 18 days at Werribee South were over in the blink of an eye and we are quite pleased and proud that our services are required 3 more times this year. We are looking for similar opportunities in other parks around Victoria to fill in the time between WS commitments, as well as travelling, sightseeing and geocaching.

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Photos

Meredith Park
Take away the cloud and the cold wind and it would be a lovely spot to spend a few days.

Peter's friend 'sitting' in the tree above our van
Rufous Night Heron

Comments

[Gerri]

What wonderful adventures!
Sounds like Werribee was a great experience. LOts of love, Gerri and Geoff XX