A few years ago, the park at Porepunkah came up for sale. “We talked to the man who had the park and talked numbers, and went home and crunched them: it worked out it wasn’t making any money,” Colin says. The dream to own a caravan park seemed a distant one, until a real estate agent specialising in parks gave Colin and Linda a list of options, and by a process of elimination, they were left with one gleaming find, Gold Nugget Tourist Park, a Top Tourist Park 160km or two hours’ drive north from Melbourne.
“We came up here to have a look; put our hands in our pockets; pulled up stumps from Melbourne after nearly 50 years,” Colin says. “And here we are.”
Colin’s background is in software and system engineering. This explains Gold Nugget’s free (yes, entirely free) wireless broadband service, which has excellent reception throughout the park. They say they were the first park in Australia to install a computer for the public to use, and now there are eight, all of which are free to use in the park’s games room, which also sports a range of arcade games (I wasn’t expecting to have an air-hockey table at my disposal), and a plasma-screen television.
The games room isn’t only about arcade games and computers. During Easter, Colin tells me, it’s the venue for kids’ discos and during school holidays it’s the in-house cinema, showing all the flicks to keep the littlies entertained.
Catering for all
Gold Nugget Tourist Park has a stream of travellers every month of the year. The atmosphere is friendly and welcoming; it’s sort of a respite from Bendigo proper, which is only a few kilometres up the road. It attracts all sorts, from school groups that centre around the fully equipped camp kitchen, as well as young families and a strong contingent of grey nomads.
At the entrance to Gold Nugget are a mini golf course, barbecue area and the tennis courts, as well as the reception area and the well-stocked general store, across the drive from the internet and games room. Caravanners and cabin-stayers are given separate sections of the park, with powered concrete-slab sites arranged in a semi-circle around all the facilities in the park’s centre, with cabins completing the arc. There are unpowered sites, as well as a selection of annuals, although the park’s clientele comprises mainly casual vanners. Big rigs are well catered for with a specially demarcated ‘Big Rig Zone’, and one permanent van and a couple of permanent cabins make up the rest of the accommodation.
There’s an outdoor pool with sundecks by the camp kitchen and a barbecue and picnic area, and a rather large playground, with a smaller cousin around the corner.
Amenities blocks are modern, well-appointed, and very clean: they’re serviced once a day, and once a week they’re scrubbed “from top to bottom”.
The laundry block is equipped with washing, drying, ironing and television facilities – you don’t want to be too far from the telly when there are chores to be done. To please self-sufficient tourers, a dump point has also been added.
I had a solid night’s sleep in an airy six-berth Deluxe Ensuite cabin, with reverse-cycle climate-control. A two-person outdoor setting and mini-verandah opens into a living area with a two-seater couch. Opposite the entry is a two-bunk room adjacent to the bathroom, and next to the entry is the bedroom with a very comfortable queen-size bed. Along the back wall, facing the couch, is a kitchen with fridge/freezer (underneath the TV with DVD/VCR), a four-burner cooktop, rangehood and microwave. A kettle with tea and coffee is also provided.
Animal attraction
It’s important to note that pets are welcome at Gold Nugget Tourist Park (but not inside the cabins) and there’s even an off-leash area for dogs to exorcise that restlessness. This comes as no surprise when you consider the on-site menagerie. At the entrance to the park is Colin’s wife Linda’s aviary of chirping birds; somewhere near reception you might find the park mascot (and resident man-eater) the fluffy blue-eyed cat Kimba, and resident feline recluse Bandit. Around the back is Harry the talking galah, as well as a white rabbit and a bubbly retriever named Zara.
With ever-more to do in the surrounding area, and with Bendigo a historical, cultural and culinary centre to rival any in rural Vic, the park is set to serve increasingly more travellers. In order to better serve large groups, Colin has recently built two big three-bedroom cabins, one of which faces the pool.
So having had Gold Nugget Tourist Park for five years, living the park-owner dream, would Colin, Linda and their family ever consider a return to the big city? “We couldn’t go back to Melbourne now,” he says. “Once you get out of the traffic and out of the queues, you don’t look back.”
Gold Nugget Tourist Park Fast facts
Gold Nugget Tourist Park is a Top Tourist Park and is rated at 4.5 stars.
Bendigo is 140km north of Melboune, Vic.
Gold Nugget Tourist Park is located at 293 Midland Highway, Bendigo, Vic. For more information, phone (03) 5448 4747 or visit www.goldnugget.com.au