Kristen Sangalli, Nat Sangalli, Lewis Flood, Sarah Hombsch, Jay Sangalli and Tarryn Sangalli were disappointed they did not know about a camping area before it was relinquished.|
Camera IconKristen Sangalli, Nat Sangalli, Lewis Flood, Sarah Hombsch, Jay Sangalli and Tarryn Sangalli were disappointed they did not know about a camping area before it was relinquished.| Credit: Supplied/Emma Reeves

Increase exposure before camp closure

Lucy Jarvis, North Coast TimesNorth Coast Times

Nat Sangalli asked the City of Wanneroo how many parcels of land zoned for camping existed within its boundaries following an April decision to relinquish a site on Wanneroo Road.

‘If the residents don’t know about it we cannot use them for camping therefore they will be given up,’ Mrs Sangalli said.

The mother-of-three said the rise in cost of living made it increasingly difficult for family groups to take holidays.

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‘One way around this was to go camping (but) with the urban sprawl rapidly overtaking us it is harder now to find somewhere to get away for the weekend,’ she said.

‘Government spends big money promoting tourism every year yet more and more free camping and low-cost caravan parks are given over to developers or swallowed up into crown land as offsets for progress of developing suburbs.’

Wanneroo City Council agreed to relinquish the camping site on Hall Road and another farther north zoned for quarrying to the Department of Parks and Wildlife at the April 1 meeting.

DPaW requested those land parcels, which the City managed, be integrated into Neerabup National Park to provide offsets for the Mitchell Freeway extension project.

Mrs Sangalli said the freeway extension was overdue, but as a ratepayer she had been unaware the campsite existed, or if there were any others ‘close to home’ where her children could experience bush camping.

Her question was taken on notice at the May 27 meeting, and the City’s businesses director Chris Morrison said the issue would be examined further before the City responded.

At the same meeting, Merriwa resident Lewis Flood said there was nowhere within the City that he could take his granddaughter camping and asked the City to open up caravan parking areas.

Yanchep National Park also recently closed a campsite in Bullsbrook due to anti-social behaviour, and several readers on the North Coast Times Facebook page said they had never heard of the campsite.