Kingston on Murray Caravan Park

A Review By Alison Huth

When you buy a caravan park you don’t expect to be closed down by a volume of water. And that is
exactly how Geoff and Barb Calvert felt after they bought their caravan park in 2016. Like everyone
they were working their way through Covid and were dealing with the effects of the virus on travel and
everyone’s health.

Come 2022, something else was happening and they did everything they could in the time they had to
deal with it. There was a flood warning, and the fact that their caravan park land goes to the edge of
the Murray River means they needed to do all they could to prevent the flood getting into the main
part of the park.

They started building levees and doing all they could to prevent any damage, but they didn’t have
enough time to get it all finished before the evacuation order came through. It was a really tough to
face the fact that your business, gardens, buildings etc are about to be flooded. Will it just come to the
door level or go way over the top of the buildings.

When the water had stopped rising, according to Geoff you couldn’t really see where anything was.
They have a fantastic book on the office counter which is full of photos from various people telling the
story of the flood and the recovery. It’s a fantastic book and gives you a visual understanding of what
Geoff and Barb went through.

The recovery started as soon as the water left the park. It took two years of cleaning up, repairing,
rebuilding, planting gardens and grass, before they could partially reopen. The local community
helped out as much as possible because they wanted to see the park back in action.

We arrived there in October 2026 and were blown away by what we saw. If we hadn’t been told there
had been a flood, we wouldn’t have known it had happened.

We choose a grass powered site with a fitted mat. The other powered site options are drive through,
or slab, on a gravel base. The amenities (with laundry) were close by and the building was great,
plenty of room, and very clean.

That’s not the end of what is available on this park. The camp kitchen is really well kitted out and the
BBQs are close to the camp kitchen. There’s a kids playground, and a lovely little swimming pool.

There are new cabins on site too. Each one still has its wheels and can be hitched up and towed off if
necessary. Geoff told me that they often get two couples or families who want cabins close to each other. So, they have a couple of sets of two cabins with an undercover joint verandah the length of the
two long sides. The space is almost like three cabins! Plus they do have smaller cabins for couples.

When we were wandering around we came across a really interesting garden. This garden has all
sorts of fruit and vegies growing. You can pick what you want, but it has to be eaten on site. That’s all
to do with the fruit fly thing in the Riverlands. We did a taste test and the Strawberries were superb.
One of the local farmers has a sales wagon outside the park with avocados, pumpkins and jam made
from local fruits.

We walked down along the river bank, and saw heaps of birds, the space for unpowered camping, the
canoes that you can hire to paddle on the river.

The water supply is the Murray River, so it’s not for drinking or cooking. But, there is fresh water on
the park to cover those needs. I used it for washing in my on-board washing machine and my clothes
came up just fine. Not a water mark or colour streak effect on anything light or dark.

Geoff, Barb and everyone who pitched in to help have done an amazing job. We really couldn’t tell
that the whole park had been devastated by the flood. What we saw was a really lovely park, all the
facilities we wanted, full of peace and special things like those gardens for every guest.

We did a day trip to Loxton and saw the Loxton Tree of Knowledge. What does it show? The height of
the water at every flood. 2022 was the second highest and only beaten by 1956. So, that sounds like
it will be a long time before another nasty flood. Mind you any flood would have to deal with some
solid levees around the park!