Campervan drivers are reportedly parking for months at a time in car park spaces at a prime beachside location.
Nearby residents have witnessed vans parked for as a long as three and five months in the public parking spaces that line Pierce Park, between Alexandra Parade and the beach at Maroochydore.
Peter Martin said complaints had been made to Sunshine Coast Council and council rangers had attended, resulting in the vans leaving, but they usually returned a few days later.
Mr Martin said the campervans occupied spaces that surfers, other beachgoers and other members of the public should be able to use to access the beach, park and nearby units
He said the camping also meant a loss of amenity for nearby residents.
“We didn’t come here to look out at a campground,” he said.
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Mr Martin said he was not against free camping for a night here or there but it was unreasonable to park for months at a time in an area that ought to be publicly accessible.
The Sunshine Coast Council can issue fines of $322 for illegal camping but it considers camping and homelessness as two different things.
“Council addresses illegal camping on a complaints basis. It is important to note that council does not consider people experiencing homelessness to be camping,” a spokesperson said.
They said council officers regularly attended locations across the Sunshine Coast in response to complaints of illegal camping and concerns for people experiencing homelessness.
The spokesperson said council officers tried to link people with options for housing and support, educate people on illegal camping, and refer anti-social or unlawful behaviour to police.
Mr Martin said people had also been camping in the dunes, putting pressure on areas that were supposed to be the subject of revegetation.
“They sleep in there, they toilet in there. They’ve been witnessed doing that,” he said.
Signage existed to discourage camping at the southern end of the park but the northern half had none, he said.
“The signs need to be put up at the other end and it wouldn’t be an issue,” he said.
Division 4 councillor Joe Natoli, acting on Mr Martin’s complaint, has put a request through to council officers to consider signs limiting parking in the area but said a balance had to be found with residents’ parking needs.
Mr Martin acknowledged the campers would likely move to another area if they left Pierce Park.
“Perhaps it’s time for the council to provide some land somewhere for these people to go? he said.
The spokesperson for the council said it did not provide free camping.
“Camping fees apply to council-owned holiday parks and permitted sport and recreation land. There are a range of options available locally to suit most budgets,” they said.
Sunshine Coast News attempted to speak to some of the van occupants parked near Pierce Park.
One woman said “it’s a public place” and another said she had only been there an hour. Her van had been photographed a space or two away four hours earlier.
Another campervan occupant at Pierce Park, Nathan, a 50-year-old engineer living in his van by choice after selling his unit to be mortgage-free, said he tried to be considerate when choosing his overnight locations.
He said caravan parks were too expensive so he parked overnight for free at rotating spots, including industrial and commercial areas, so as not to be a burden on anyone.
“I don’t park overnight in beach car parks, I don’t park in front of people’s residences. I park on the side of the road. I don’t get there until 10pm and I’m gone by 8am,” he said.
“I’ve got about 100 places between Caloundra and Noosa that I can stay at. I have spaces that I rotate through so I’m not I the same space two nights in a row.”
The occupant of another van said she preferred to have her own space to sharing with others, and the only problems with the park came from non-van people drinking and carrying on.
Nathan said it was important to recognise that people came to van life from different backgrounds.
He said he had noticed an increase over the past two-and-a-half years in the number of people who could not afford vans and were sleeping in their vehicles.
“I think the government needs to do something. There’s so many spaces that aren’t in residential areas that they could offer for people to stay in,” he said.
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