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Community chips in to revamp park

Holly ThompsonManjimup-Bridgetown Times
Pemberton Visitor Centre president John Gaunt stands out the front of the caravan park, which he helped repair with the help of the community.
Camera IconPemberton Visitor Centre president John Gaunt stands out the front of the caravan park, which he helped repair with the help of the community. Credit: Holly Thompson

The Pemberton Caravan Park has been transformed into a better place to stay over the past month thanks to the hard work of the community.

It had been left in a bad state when the old lease on the park ended in the middle of December.

Pemberton Visitor Centre president John Gaunt said it had taken a few days of hard work from the community to begin turning the place around.

“The lease ended on December 18 and we started work the morning after,” he said.

The park’s cabins had also been removed at the end of the lease, along with gas bottles and electrical equipment.

“We were left with a very serious and expensive mess,” he said.

The park’s ratings on social media platforms such as Trip Advisor and Facebook had suffered and Mr Gaunt said it had been voted one of the worst in Australia.

“We called a community meeting and we had an enormous response from everyone, we then had a two-and-a-half-day busy bee with 60 volunteers to help fix the park,” he said.

Over those days all the plumbing and electrical issues were replaced among other things to get the park running properly again.

“As a community exercise it was fantastic.”

He said there was still a lot of work to be done, such as fixing the roads in the park and installing new cabins, which would hopefully start happening soon.

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