2020 Winners
Best
of the Best
Barramundi Discovery Centre & Hatchery
Karumba
Karumba, QLD
More information below.
Best Grey Nomad
Council Free-stay Campsite
Kimba Recreation Reserve, Kimba SA
For the second consecutive year, this free-stay campsite offers free non-powered camping with access to toilets, coin-operated showers, potable water, bins and is pet friendly. Owned and operated by the District Shire of Kimba, the campground is adjacent to the Roora Reserve Walking Trail with its memorable metal sculptures of native animals leading to the Whites Knob Lookout.
Best Grey Nomad
Pub Stay
The Wellshot Hotel, Ilfracombe QLD
Only 20 minutes from Longreach on the Matilda Way, it provides grey nomads with an opportunity to stay in a pre-1890 outback pub. There are powered and unpowered sites, access to quaint amenities and potable water all available next to the themed beer garden, which grey nomads have to themselves outside of trading hours. Add to that the themed bar, delicious outback-style meals, a street-side breakfast nook and a petting zoo showcasing young station animals. Yes, some grey nomads love cute animals.
Best Grey Nomad
Community Campsite
CMCA RV Park Temora NSW
The Caravan and Motorhome Club of Australia services 70,000 members, 96% of whom are grey nomads. It opened its sixth RV park at Temora in the NSW Riverina in June 2020 amidst the pandemic and caters exclusively to people travelling in self-contained RVs. Guests have access to a low-cost option that boasts a happy hour shelter, dump point, potable water, and space for even the largest of RVs – something that many caravan parks cannot provide.
Best Grey Nomad
Festival or Event
2019 Parkes Elvis Festival, Parkes NSW
We were unable to run this category in 2020 due to COVID. We continue to honour of our 2019 winners: This festival, which occurs every January, is the largest celebration of Elvis' life in the Southern Hemisphere. Across five days, it encompasses more than 200 events. The judges love that Parkes in central NSW has found a unique way to attract grey nomads when much of Australia is focussed on seaside holidays.
Best Grey Nomad
Small Caravan Park
Mt Larcom Tourist Park, Mt Larcom QLD
Purchased by Del and Kev Smaldon in 2018, the Mt Larcom Tourist Park is a boutique one with 10 powered sites and 15 unpowered sites over nearly seven acres. After much hard, the park now boasts a newly refurbished amenity block, contemporary camp kitchen, renovated BBQ area, log fire pits, sunrise viewing area, and solar lighting, plus an outdoor bistro setting on every powered site so travellers need not pull out their own tables and chairs.
Best Grey Nomad
Large Caravan Park
Riverbend Caravan Park Renmark SA
Owned by the family-run Edwards Group, the pet-friendly Park boasts 77 mostly powered sites spaciously arranged amid towering gums, along the expansive riverbank and beside grassy lawns. It is on the doorstep of Renmark in the Riverland region, and its most talked-about features include a bird aviary, permanent dessert van, communal winter fire pit and the many food trucks that visit to turn nightly meals into bliss.
Best Grey Nomad
Volunteer Program or Project
Kimba Community Development Group:
Grey Nomads Volunteer Program, SA
We were unable to run this category in 2020, and wish to honour our 2019 winners... This initiative has a win-win as its foundation – grey nomads get free access to a powered camping site at the Kimba Recreation Reserve for a week in return for two days of volunteer work. In the past year alone volunteers have restored Historical Museum equipment, entered historical data, re-oiled street furniture, lacquered town entrance walls, and refurbished the Kimba Agricultural Show Society pavilion. The judges loved how this program works in synchronicity with tonight’s Council free camp winner to significantly bolster the benefit to the whole community. “Inspired” was the word they used.
Best Grey Nomad
Attraction or Tour
Barramundi Discovery Centre & Hatchery Karumba QLD
This world-class interpretive and visitors centre, which includes the only hatchery in the world to breed the Southern Gulf strain of this iconic fish, is free and explains the history, stories and habits of these sought-after fish. A permanent wrap-around viewing platform over the large lagoon, café, dog minding, mangrove and crocodile displays, and a film in the theatrette round out the experience. During 2020 the centre installed fishing pontoons, additional research facilities and a 10-metre diameter breeding tank, plus enhanced Catch-a-Barra and Feed-a-Barra tours. Both tours provide grey nomads, who account for 80% of all visitors to the Gulf, with key insights into the barramundi’s lifecycle, size, feeding and breeding.
Best Grey Nomad
Farm or Station Stay
Charlotte Plains outback Magic, Cunnamulla QLD
Charlotte Plains is a 27,000 hectare sheep and cattle station on the Explorers Way which provides grey nomads with an opportunity to stay on a property half the size of Singapore. Powered and unpowered sites, shearing shed showers and shearers quarters camp kitchen form the foundation of the camping experience. Charlotte Plains complements their standard offering with 11 artesian baths that become ‘hot property’ at sunset, self-drive station tours, and tag along tours where the property becomes animated through tales of characters like Jack the Bullocky and charismatic Willie the Camelman are shared.