Great Ocean Road campground to get a glow-up, but not everyone's happy (2025)

Heather Ennor remembers waking up to the sound of waves echoing through the walls of her humble caravan, parked just a stone's throw from the Great Ocean Road.

Nestled within the Apollo Bay Recreation Reserve, she refers to the site as "paradise" and her second home for seven years.

Ms Ennor's annual site, where she spent almost every weekend and school holidays, acted as a reprieve from daily life in Geelong.

Before long, she forged connections within the recreation reserve and the wider community, befriending regular campers and locals.

"The kids knew the park and the [people with annual sites] in the park got to know those families and they soon knew that everybody was looking out for their kids," Ms Ennor said.

"It was like a big family once everyone was there, especially in holiday times, everybody came."

But that's now a distant memory after the organisation in charge of the reserve, the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority (GORCPA), asked annual site holders like Ms Ennor to vacate in April last year.

The move is part of GORCPA's 10-year master plan to transform the reserve, which has so far received $5.5 million in state government funding.

The reserve is closed for the first stage of renovations and is due to reopen in the middle of the year, complete with 10 safari eco tents and 10 pop-up tents, along with upgrades to roads and green spaces.

Previously, the reserve had 185 sites year-round. However once it reopens, there will be 128 sites available in the high season — between the start of September and the end of April — and only 47 for the rest of the year.

But campers are concerned the reserve will become too exclusive by significantly reducing the number of total sites and forgoing annual sites.

Ms Ennor said she was "devastated" by the changes and would not be returning to the reserve as she fears it will no longer be an affordable accommodation option.

GORCPA has not released prices for the reserve, but a spokesperson said they would be in line with market rates.

The recreation reserve is the only public caravan park in Apollo Bay, with the closest public caravan parks located in the nearby towns of Marengo and Skenes Creek, each offering less than half the number of sites previously available in Apollo Bay.

Apollo Bay has a population of about 1,800 people but this number swells to around 15,000 during the warmer months.

A GORCPA report from 2023 stated the transition to seasonal camping was supported by a commercial review of the caravan park and would help free up space for sports events.

The local council, the Colac Otway Shire, also identified that parts of the land occupied by the reserve were subject to inundation and erosion.

"This is all about making the reserve more inclusive, enjoyable and accessible for everyone who comes to experience it," a GORCPA spokesperson said.

Local business sees drop in sales

For the owners of Sweet View — The Great Ocean Road Lolly Shop, Graham and Sue Gentry, their business was a longtime retirement wish, granted early.

The couple opened the store in 2017 after relocating from Melbourne and have cemented themselves in the community, employing dozens of kids over their seven years in Apollo Bay.

Many of the teenagers they employed were those who regularly camped at the reserve with their families, on weekends and during school holidays.

Six of their teenage staff members quit due to a lack of accommodation after being forced out of the recreation reserve last year.

Mr Gentry thinks back to his most fruitful days in business, when customers poured in from the recreation reserve, keeping him afloat even during the quieter periods.

He said the reduction in clientele had been palpable since annual sites were removed in April last year, costing him between $10-15,000 a year in sales.

"There is a lack of customers over the quieter winter holidays — normally the rec reserve would have people in there," he said.

"The rec reserve are the visitors that utilise our shop a lot, along with the pubs and the supermarket."

Occupancy rates in the low season, between the start of May and the end of August, increased from 3 per cent in 2021 to 7 per cent last year.

Alongside being an affordable accommodation option for Apollo Bay visitors, Mr Gentry said the reserve also doubled as a housing option for essential workers struggling to secure a rental property.

"I don't think [the recreation reserve is] going to get utilised the way [GORCPA] believe they are going to get utilised," Mr Gentry said.

"I think there's a lot of people in Torquay, Geelong, the city, making decisions on a town that they've actually got no idea about."

Football netball club fears sponsorships will dwindle

Within the reserve lies the Apollo Bay Football Netball Club — a community centrepiece for nearly a century.

With more than 200 players across the two sports, an average of 500 spectators regularly swarm to the oval, which is separated from the ocean by just a sandbar, a pony club and the Great Ocean Road.

It's a humble club housed within a well-loved building, offering winter sport as a reprieve to local players who would otherwise have to brave a long and windy drive to Colac or Geelong.

But club president Michael Wright fears a decrease in campsites would have a domino effect on the club by putting local businesses — the club's key sponsors — under financial stress.

"If their businesses are impacted in a financial way then that may impact on their ability to sponsor our local community clubs such as ours," he said.

"Our numbers are continuing to grow however it's a matter of being able to afford that and being able to afford that and to deck out our players out in uniform, and balls and equipment and also paying associated costs."

'Run-down' reserve needed upgrading

Despite some community backlash, the group representing Apollo Bay residents says the reserve was "run-down" and in need of upgrades.

"We do particularly support some of the upgrades proposed: the community playground, all abilities playground, upgrades to the toilets to make them more accessible, some of the changes to the sports areas, particularly female-friendly change facilities," Apollo Bay Community Voice vice president Graham Costin said.

"It will bring the standard of this reserve up to the standard of commercial providers, and we look forward to that," Mr Costin said.

In the year to September 2024, the Colac Otway Shire had 963,000 visitors, contributing just over $200 million to the local economy.

The board representing regional tourism along the Great Ocean Road is supportive of diversifying accommodation offerings across the region to cater for all markets.

Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism general manager Liz Price said it welcomed GORCPA's master plan and that free camping sites were available through Parks Victoria.

"Glamping will create new audiences for the rec reserve and hopefully encourage year-round stays," she said.