13/05/2026
Anyone who knows us or has been following for awhile will be aware that we are at our happiest in the most remote places that can found. Sometimes however, we do need to find a populated area for things like a camp kitchen, to hide from 30+mm of rain per day, do our laundry or just so Megan can talk to someone other than me. This post is about one of those times.
During early April we were exploring the Yorke Peninsula and had been trying to book ourselves in to camp at Innes NP over easter, but we could only get Friday and Saturday nights as everything was fully booked. Another post, another day about how empty Pondalowie and the rest of the campsites were even though booked out online!
With less than ideal weather forecast for the Sunday and Monday and a chance encounter with the manager of Stansbury Caravan Park on our way down the Peninsula on the Thursday before Easter, (he was painting marks on the verge for their upcoming community markets and we got chatting all things MOG and camping). Megan and I decided to take up the opportunity to head there for a couple of nights after the NP as at least people there, had had the decency to cancel when not going to arrive so we knew there was space available. We arrived mid-morning on Sunday and the skies were still clear with the ocean looking inviting – the ambient air temp was a little over 18°C so I was NOT going for a swim.
This was not our first caravan park obviously, but it was our first one where EVERYONE knew EVERYONE else and most of the ‘Family Groups’ were made up of 3 generations and numbered in the high teens. It was also the first time where within 30 min of parking up we had invites to a number of “sundowner sessions” that had already started!
Before the rains set in, we wandered along the foreshore down to the jetty and protected harbor area to find a couple of local seals enjoying the last of the days sunshine. The town itself is quaint with most of the walls of the main buildings covered in murals and the recently reopened butcher was well priced with good quality and a decent array of options on offer. Yes, we did fill our freezer here.
We got back to the park just as the rain really started to come down. Ash and Anita (managers of the park), with the help of some locals had arranged for an afternoon on the foreshore with food van, local distillery serving cocktails and a musician for the grown-up kids and face painting for the younger ones. The weather saw this all moved into the camp kitchen, which was absolute chaos, but incredibly fun to be part of.
I got chatting with Anita over the course of the afternoon and discovered that the caravan parks (yes plural) were less than a few hundred metres apart and managed by her and Ash with a crew of locals as staff. Most surprisingly to me was that the local ‘Stansbury Progress Association’ owned them, so that all the profits went directly into the town’s tourism infrastructure and not to a corporation.
Easter Monday saw a decent exodus from the park as people headed back home to Adelaide for work / school Tuesday morning. That meant we got to check out a waterfront campsite, and it was pretty specie especially as the sun made a return and put on an amazing sunset at the end of day.
So, while we will probably always prefer getting away to remote locations, when we need the bustle of humanity or a good camp kitchen, Stansbury Caravan Park will always be one we want to visit again and if you know of another small town where the caravan park is owned by the local community let us know so we can visit and support them as well.
