Anchorage Newsletter

February and March 

FEBRUARY: 

Australia Day:
Came on January 26th -as usual- and as per last year, we invited everybody for ‘Brekky'. We had the usual Snags with Dodger and Dead ‘Orse, washed down with Billy Tea and followed by Damper liberally coated with Cocky's Joy. More than 80 people enjoyed the morning and again we were indebted to the Clarence Valley Council for their participation to the extent of supplying about half the Snags and Dodger. Judy McDonald very generously made the Dampers which were acclaimed by all including Graeme-who said so. A gold coin donation was requested for our local WIRES and $163 was a very good result!!

Water:
The price of water has almost doubled over the last five years. We used to ‘gloat' to other people in our industry about how low our water costs were and how relatively free from restrictions we were. The latter is still true but water is now one of our highest cost items. Over the last couple of years we have installed flow restrictors to all taps in the Amenities plus reduced toilet flows in line with environmental guidelines. The same applies to all Park Cabins. This year we will be installing water meters to all our residential sites. This will be occurring over the next month or so and will be done by local plumber Trevor Bennett (former owner of Clarence Head Caravan Park). Once installed we will monitor water usage over a number of weeks so that we can determine a reasonable average rental adjustment. The meters will be read monthly at the same time as the electricity. If any residents have any queries we will be happy to try and answer them.

Soapbox:
Whilst on the subject of conserving our resources and saving some dollars: WHY do some people run their air conditioners with their windows and doors OPEN??? This has been a not uncommon occurrence during the past few weeks with tourist vans in the park. Surely most intelligent people would be trying to save dollars - maybe it's because it's someone else's $$$?

Staff:
Bouquets to our staff -we think we are very fortunate to have them. They worked very hard over these past hot, busy weeks and still had smiles on their faces (mostly!). Well done guys!!!

St Valentines Pancake Morning Tea:
In the Shed! Tuesday 16th February at 10am. Bring your mug (Valentine!) and some coin for Raffle tickets. Anybody and everybody is welcome to tell a yarn, recite a poem or even sing - all within the bounds of social respectability of course.

GFC:
or Global Financial Crisis has been a popular media topic over the last 18 months or so and could lead you to believe this crisis rivalled that of 1929. However its effect on our industry has been minimal. Information from around the country indicates that at worst, occupancies were down less than 10% but for the majority business has been flat or slightly up. The trend over the past 4 months has been quite strongly up-particularly along the coastal areas. This probably is partly due to the fact that prices have hardly moved. It's always easy to be wise in hindsight and maybe without the Government's handouts and the Reserve Bank's intervention, we could have been a lot worse off. Doubtless, those of you reading this who are self-funded retirees, would have mixed feelings.

True Shaggy Dog:
'RED' (real name withheld) is an old Kelpie, she went missing from Mark and Linda's place at the end of January. One day Judy McD told Karen that she could hear what sounded like a distressed dog howling close by, in the vicinity of Aris Island. Karen and Bevan took off in Bevan's boat and went searching. They tramped thru the mangroves and mud, calling -to no avail- making matters worse, the howling had stopped!!! For the next day or so everyone worried about this poor dog thinking it may be dead and not at this stage knowing Mark and Linda's Kelpie was still missing! The evening of the second day, Karen G again heard a plaintive barking coming from the middle of the river in front of the park. They pinpointed it as definitely coming from Aris Island. At this stage, Sel phoned Mark, with the faint hope it may be Red, and he came with his boat. He searched in the darkness and after two hours trudging through the mud and mangroves, he found her...and later told us she was DEAF! No wonder she didn't respond to Karen and Bevan's calling! Her predicament was dire as the Vet said she wouldn't have lasted more than another few hours-stuck in the mud amongst the mangroves. Mark, Linda and Red were reunited after several days lost. Thanks to everyone for a happy ending!!

MARCH:

Recent Tsunami Warning
Most of you will by now be aware of the recent Tsunami warning issued by the Bureau of Meteorology that occurred on Sunday 28th Feb. There was no directive from the Bureau other than a request for the public to monitor the situation. News flashes and continual updates to the BOM site kept us up to date. Here are some facts for those of you without access to a computer, or who did not hear about it from their neighbours. An undersea earthquake of magnitude 8.8 occurred late in the afternoon on Sat 27 Feb near the coast of Central Chile. This generated a Tsunami wave heading toward Australia etc., with predictions of dangerous waves on our coast and strong undercurrents. Everyone was advised not to boat, swim, surf or stickybeak...(uh huh).

AAAT Star Rating
Further to our brief note regarding the AAAT's (The tourism side of the national body that looks after NRMA, RACQ etc.) review of their star rating system {Nov 09 Newsletter}, we report that the impending changes are causing a small furor within the Accommodation Industry.
Resort Publishing-a division of The Multimedia Group, writes in their Feb Newsletter that while trends led to star ratings becoming vastly popular and often the only reason many travellers chose their accommodation, a ‘head in the sand' mentality of AAAT has meant that they have neglected to see the trend change and have therefore failed to change with it. Nor have they finalised a long-planned review of the scheme to adjust their rating procedure to reflect the huge diversity within the Accommodation Industry. Because of this, the article explains, many larger hotel chains have abandoned the AAAT system and instead either self-rated or relied on their already established good name and many independent accommodation providers are following their example.
Top Tourist Parks of Australia has announced they will no longer undertake corporate assessments with AAAT and have advised parks that should they wish to individually partake of the Star Rating program, it will become the park's responsibility to do so.
Golden Chain Motels have been lobbying AAAT for a review for many years and is not happy with the results received so far, believing it will change nothing and many of the accommodation sectors will still be disadvantaged, such as Motels, B&B's and we would add Holiday Parks and Resorts.
While AAAT insist that they want to ensure that their review will leave no sector disadvantaged, the HMAA (governing body of all accommodation sectors) is unconvinced.
What does all this mean for us? We will continue with AAAT for the moment and wait for the review to be finalised; however maybe the Internet - with its plethora of information and digital photos available on holiday venues - makes the star ratings less important than when people relied so much on the print media? We'll keep you posted.

Ducks
Their baaack! Yes, they are very cute, but a reminder to visitors and residents, please DO NOT feed or encourage these furry little buggers in any way. They make an awful mess around sites and we know nobody likes stepping in duck poo. Should they establish themselves in the pool, we will need to close it for weeks to address the issue, which will be a major inconvenience to everyone. Please spread the word, we do not want to see anyone feeding the ducks. This is a matter concerning all of us in the park so please don't make everyone else suffer the ramifications of something you should not be doing in the first place.

St Valentines Day Cuppa
A small but happy group joined us for pancakes on Valentines Day and managed to raise $75 for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. Thanks to you all.

In Brief

• 
  Sadly, our longest visiting canine guest - Beau O'Brien, has passed away. Many of you know Beau and we offer our condolences to Heather & Eric.
• 
  A motley crew were spotted heading off last evening for the Karioke at the club - maybe we can enlist their talents at our next function!?!
• 
  Graeme had a close encounter with the paper wasps while lopping trees - thank goodness for protective clothing, though he did use a whole can of spray to get rid of the nest!

The Old Service Station The service station trade was slow. The owner sat around, With sharpened knife and cedar stick. Piled shavings on the ground. No modern facilities had they, The log across the rill Led to a shack, marked His and Hers, That sat against the hill. "Where is the restroom sir?" The owner leaning back, Said not a word, but whittled on And nodded toward the shack. With quickened step she entered there But only stayed a minute. Until she screamed, just like a snake Or spider might be in it. With startled look and beet red face She bounded through the door, And headed quickly for the car Just like three gals before. Of course we all desired to know What made the gals all do The things they did, and then we found The whittling owner knew. A speaking system he'd devised To make the thing complete He tied a speaker on the wall, Beneath the toilet seat. He'd wait until the gals got set And then the devilish guy Would stop his whittling long enough, To speak into the mike. And as she sat, a voice below Struck terror, fright and fear! "Will you please use the other hole? We're painting under here."