TRAVEL WESTERN AUSTRALIA by FACTS4YOU.NET

written by Admin

Okay, so what am I getting at by using the title  “How boom times busted low cost travel accommodation”? Let’s begin back in the early 1990’s to get some concept of why you will find it more difficult to locate lower cost accommodation in 2009 in Western Australia!

Back in the early 1990’s if you travelled to the coastal holiday town of Mandurah,  80 k’s south of Perth, for example; you would have had little trouble locating very affordable motel, caravan park cabins or on site vans, or mid level basic resort accommodation at affordable daily tariffs. Ten years ago you could have selected from several caravan parks, a couple of motels, &  two mid level holiday resorts. I have stayed at most of those places over the course of many years & knew the pricing structures were well within the means of the average family for their annual holiday.

Then the late 1990’s arrived. With them commenced the slow, but certain demise of affordable holiday accommodation  to Mr & Mrs Average Citizen in & around Mandurah! I actually moved from Perth to Mandurah to live in 2001, just in time to witness the rapid destruction of most of original Mandurah.

The glorious old Peninsula Hotel that was located on the  estuary foreshore opposite central Mandurah since before the 2nd world war (at least), is a classic case of the wanton destruction caused by rampant delevelopers since 2001. The Peninsula Hotel was a famous landmark. The delightful old building had served the general public extremely well for a long, long time. At the rear of the Peninsula there also used to be a delightful, very large caravan complex where families had holidayed at very low cost way back into the distant 1930’s!

Then, around 2004, the boom time developers moved in big time. Despite the best efforts of the general public to have the Pensinsula Hotel & the lovely caravan park left alone, within a couple of short years the bulldozers moved in & now they are gone…for ever!

In their place you will now see an eye sore of a  towering multi story apartment style complex, where the Peninsula used to stand. And where the caravan park used to stand there are now multi million dollar complexes of ugly “millionaire” style gigantic homes on man made canals. Mr & Mrs Average Citizen certainly can not afford to purchase such properties, nor could they afford to outlay the upmarket prices to stay in the apartment style complexes now occupying the place of the Peninsula!

They did build a small, very ugly, supposedly cheap set of holiday villas, squeezed in between the hideous new building complex’s. However, they aint low cost & they look hideous. Small change for what the developers & the city council bulldozed!

In one foul swoop, modern “boomtime” property developers removed low cost accommodation at that caravan park, & simultaneously eliminated one of the most popular & historic hotels in the region. And that is just a small sample of the rampant development in that holiday region.

Now the town is a mess of ever increasing  high rise buildings, massively heavy traffic, hotel & resort accommodation way too expensive for Mr & Mrs Average, & I am sure they aint finished yet! Hold on a minute though. Maybe they are finished because the boom went bust in mid 2008. The tragedy is that Mr & Mrs Average is also well out of pocket due to the “bust”.  And the removal of so much low cost holiday accommodation also means that Mandurah is no longer the place for the average Joe, Josie & kids to go to enjoy the simple pleasures of a low cost family holiday!

And of course the story does not end there. Such development is taking place all over the state. Rottnest Island is about to become the latest casualty for the average citizen as another up market resort is built!! Maybe the end result within another ten years will be that the average family will have to stay home & enjoy their annual holiday in their own back yard!

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