Casey Gardens Residential and Tourist Park

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Casey Gardens Residential and Tourist Park - Melbourne Victoria

Delightful main entry to Casey Gardens

Reception at Casey Gardens

It's always a problem visiting a large city as usually inner suburban parks are very dear and cramped and normally noisy. If you came to our home city of Brisbane we would direct you to Aspley in the north or Rochedale in the south. Now both these parks are first class, but more importantly nice and roomy and only a minute or so off the main highway. Lets face it - navigating in a huge strange city is a well known cause of marital breakdown! Similarly Melbourne has some excellent near city parks, but if you want to stay close to the factories of A'van or Jayco Australia at Hallam the choices are very limited.

Boom gate at the front entrance

Lots of lovely greenery

One would think that with a name like Casey Gardens the park would be a sea of greenery. Well it is from the front entry, but it deteriorates to almost desert at the rear of the park. The gardens are there, but up the back it has an uncared for look as roads obviously aren't swept and there are little piles of rubbish yet to be picked up. In its heyday this would have been a truly beautiful park, as it's the permanents vans and dongas that has totally ruined it. Easy to fix though - move all the permanents up the back - plant shrubs in front of all fixed vans - sweep up the leaves and weed the gardens. It's funny though in that there are some really caring permanents as the photos below show. Sadly these are in the minority.

Typical ordinary cabin

Lovely wide bitumen streets

Having said these nasty things the park is still acceptable as value wise you just cant beat it. How many parks give you a very nice onsite ensuite and power for just $16.50? Wow! So instead of moaning as you look out your van window at the less than salubrious surroundings think of all the spare cash you will have to spend on yummy naughtiness as you walk down Acland Street - the most tempting cake shop street in Oz!

Acres of bitumen!

Office complex

Seriously though we were looking for a park out of the city close to Dandenong yet near to the railway as we needed to stay four days whilst we had very very extensive warranty work done at the A'van factory at nearby Hallam. We looked at Twin Bridge at South Dandenong and it beat Casey hands down as it had everything that Casey didn't EXCEPT price and the train. So it was a no contest. Our stay at Casey proved to be most enjoyable, as lets face it, you are only there to sleep and everything is OK as long as the amenities are clean and noise isn't too bad and Casey was very good in both these critical areas. Let's face it, you wont get perfection in big cities as there is just so much happening and cities never go to sleep either!

All sites have annex pads and ensuite - site 2

Electric cleaning cart

Each site faces a rear four unit ensuite. From the outside these look absolutely dungy and grotty as there are cobwebs trapping pine needles and most have mould. There are no eaves and they are painted a very dirty khaki. Had they had eaves and been done in Colorbond or similar they would still be in pristine condition. There are a few examples in the park of this type and they look great. Inside the dungy ones though is a different story. They are wonderful - don't judge a book by its cover springs to mind. Each has its own hot water system, excellent fluoro over a very large mirror and are really clean. Full marks to the young cleaning lassies - they do a fantastic job! There is also a bit of spare space to store your odds and ends. It looks as if they were purpose built on site. They would be totally at home in a national park because of the colour and the rough sawn wood finish. The amenities which they replaced have been converted into lovely two bedroom flats. The laundries are still public though.

Dongas are fantastic for a National Park

Hook ups on the dongas

Noise wise during the day the park is not too good as it backs directly onto the railway and there is also a boom gate with ringing bells at the level crossing. Sundays are the quietest except for an outside phone bell at the office which rings incessantly as no one answers the phone until after 9AM. So no sleeping in on Sundays here! We did become more tolerant of the noise after about the fourth day.

House proud permanent

Another lovely example

The present management have been here six years and they let this park down badly. Two new assistant managers started two weeks before our visit. The simple task of buying a vacuum sweeper would go a long way to making the grounds more appealing and much safer. As things stand you could easily be injured from flying stones during whipper snipping. One cleaning lass we had a long chin wag with mentioned that she had only seen the owners once in all the time she had worked there. Most cleaners appear to be on contract. All this park needs is closer supervision of the permanents at the rear of the park and lots more greenery in this area.

More neat permanents

This is nice!

The clerical side of management is very good. Apparently, like many before us getting warranty work done at A'van, Jayco etc. we needed a site plus a cabin the day our van was dropped off, to store all the stuff you tend to cart around with you on long trips - we had travelled down from Brisbane basically just to get our van fixed properly. To keep our costs down they let us have the keys at 8am to transfer all our gear from the van. This saved us $40 a night - a very nice thought and appreciated too! Thank you Casey Gardens!

On the negative side though the office is completely closed all day on Sundays and there is just about zero touristy info available. Now the donga we stayed in, No. 86 is just simply the best available. You just cant fault it. Everything is quality and the attention to detail is unbelievable. Things like the choice between reverse cycle air-conditioning heat or Rinnai gas, all in the same room. Our biggest moan on dongas over the years is low light levels. The bedroom in this one sports four lights same as the lounge. Even the sink has a drain up on the draining board. How about a pull out draw for kitchen scraps. The lounge has a nice corner wall unit for the 21" remote TV and a very nice pair of nested tables. The brand in case you come across another is Rainbow, made in Melbourne.

What an excellent cabin!

Gas AND reverse cycle air heating

The cost in January 2001 was $66 a night. Absolutely recommended and it overlooks the pool and car is under excellent shade. Don't get too excited though as at present it is the only one of its type in the park. Oh yes - it also has a second bedroom sleeping four - even has bedside tables. Now you might be wondering why on earth we needed a two bedroom unit. Well have you ever completely emptied out your van and towing vehicle. Well it comes as a wee bit of a shock as to just how much there is. Ours wasn't heavy, as towing with a four cylinder vehicle we are acutely aware of weight - just lots of light stuff. Well our instant New Years resolution was to REDUCE and CUT BACK on Christmas presents as most of our extras were pressies mainly light but very bulky quilts. We did take photos, but we dare not publish them for fear of losing our credibility with fellow travellers forever!

There are two laundries all with Speed Queen machines. Cost though is well above average at $3 per load. Heaps of drying lines though. The laundries are open 9AM till 9PM. We had to get them opened because they were still shut at 9:30AM! Another slight problem is the cleaners start on them as soon as they are opened. Oh well - who wants to wash and iron anyway. There is no iron or board or folding area, BUT hand washing facilities are absolutely superb and very clean and lots of hot water. Free power is available for ironing.

There is no provision for tent camping in this park at all, so there is no camp kitchen. There are lots of areas suitable for tents for at least 50 sites, but alas rather oddly this is not catered for. There are no rules posted anywhere except on the pool fence. There is a well looked after pool with a few tables and a couple of gas BBQs. These have seen better days and quite frankly turned us right off. However the rest of the area around the pool is very nice - we particularly liked the rough log tables - yummy! Being in the Metropolitan area TV is great, but channel 2 is weak, all mobiles work, Telstra phone onsite and the water is fine. Talking about water, this is a great park to wash your car and van as there is so much concrete on the sites and you don't have to move to do it either.

We stayed on Site 2 with the van until we moved to the luxurious cabin. Site 2 had a problem in that at sunset four big arc lights are just across the road and if you have an A'van it's like daytime inside! A better bet would be Site 5 just up the way a little as it is away from the lights and has a lot more shade and looks out over the pool. The sites by the way have concrete for both the van and car and it is possible to get to the loo without leaving concrete. Yes this is one park that caters for vans with a rear door even if it was by accident. If you don't like backing you can easily push your van in. There are no drive through or unpowered sites at all. There is a boom gate operated by swiping a magnetic card. Us oldies had a lot of trouble doing this as the reader is in the middle of a garden! No key or boom gate card deposit - just an honesty box near the gate for returns. We feel this rather negates the extra security offered by a boom gate.

Delightful waterfront at St Kilda

Very nervous eginning skate boarder!

Shopping wise everything is within walking distance. Out the back door and 200 meters brings you to a good size supermarket with excellent fruit and veggie and open till 10 at night. There is an excellent bakery, but they don't open long hours and start at 7:00AM. The newsagent opens very early and closes at 6PM. If you don't want to cook there are three pizza shops fighting head to head, with large ones for $5.90 before you present a discount voucher! A nice little fish and chippy (Webb Street is the nicest) and other food places selling stuff we can't even pronounce! You can even get your hair done, teeth fixed or get legal help - its all right there at the back of the park.

Excellent walking opportunities

Port Phillip Bay on a miserable day

We couldn't find an Internet Cafe though. The nearest really huge shopping centre is at Dandenong and Coles etc. trade 24 hours if you are an insomniac. Nearing completion is a huge Westfield centre less than a kilometre away and up the road on C404 is a small 24 hours Coles. In fact the park is smack bang in the middle of shops galore. How they all make a living is beyond us and even more are in the pipeline.

The Winki Pop shop?

The nearby Dandenong shopping centre

The trains - oh dear! The local station Narre Warren was our first introduction to The Met. Vandalism at railway stations in Melbourne is appalling and this one is no exception. Signs explaining what to do were obliterated. We asked someone what Zone we were in - 3. Off we went - inserted credit card, in went the pin - waited a couple of minutes - pushed the zone button, return ticket button and we got a ticket. Oh dear - only one ticket so we had to do it all again. Is that the train we hear? On the train we got talking to some locals and were told we had paid too much! ($10.80 each) Ouch! Four less cakes at Acland Street. Over 60's get to travel for $2.50 all day! A local told us that you don't need a Seniors Card just proof of age and you must not work more than 35 hours a week so we were told. There is also a much cheaper off peak ticket, but we were told this is likely to be scrapped.

The station right beside Casey Gardens

The fantastic Melbourne trams

The trip into Melbourne from this area at least is pretty boring and you tend to become disgusted at the apparent lack of civic pride. Graffiti is absolutely everywhere. However, it is easier and far less stressful than driving and there is no parking hassle at the end. We eventually picked up a Met Map in town and life became a lot easier. Why our park didn't hand these out is a bit of a mystery - all one gets at check in is a park map with sites marked, but no other info on hours etc. Your ticket lets you travel on trams as well - all you do is stick it in the validating machine each time you board - a wo9nderful system.

One can't help but compare our puny efforts at public transport in Australia with say Singapore. The trains there are white glove clean, no eating allowed, zero chewing gum and spotless seats and windows. Perth have got the best Aussie system so far. One Melbourne train even had graffiti on the floor. On the plus side though they are well and truly looking after the handicapped and the front carriage of all trains is set up for this - a bit like the airport trains in London. The driver pops out and places a special ramp at the door. You can also take a push bike for free in off peak and at half fare in peak. Parliament Station is an example of how nice one can get with zero vandalism. Is this perhaps because it is near you know what?


	Biggest newsagency in the Southern Hemisphere!

Melbourne itself is fabulous. We started in St Kilda down by the beach and worked our way back. It is a vibrant, full of life city and there is something there to impress anybody. Just walking out on the pier seeing all the volley ball being played on the beach gave us a buzz. Be sure to visit the biggest newsagent in Oz the Village Belle - it will totally blow you away. Sorry the picture is out of focus we only took the one. A little gem just for Queenslanders - Barramundi sells for only $13.50 a kg compared to flake at $19.50 a kg. A visit to the Queen Victoria markets is mandatory. Tours are also available that include "tastings"! The highlight of any trip to St Kilda has to be the famous Acland Street. This is dieters nightmare territory as it has at least a dozen continental cake shops and every sort of eatery imaginable! The photos below are all in tempting Acland Street.

Oh, of course this is caravanners paradise so a trip to all the accessory places is obligatory - how else can you get the nose weight right without buying heavier stuff to put up the back? The most tempting place by far is Carac at South Dandenong - no internet yet that we could find. The staff are all knowledgeable and no one is at all pushy. We liked things like fridges turned on and working and large digital thermometers inside so you could compare makes. There are displays showing how to put hot water into your van etc. Want to replace your solid jockey wheel with an easy to move pump up type - they will sell you just the fork if you wish. We got an excellent water tank contents gauge for $50 ($70+ in Brisbane) and made in Australia with easy to follow instructions. Another great item is 12 volt hair dryers for $20. You can even compare different TV aerials actually working. This just doesn't happen in Brisbane! Sadly they do not have a website just yet. Unlike Queensland the big guys Camec and Coast to Coast RV are just wholesalers with no showrooms, so don't waste your time tracking them down like we unfortunately did!

Dandenong Shopping Plaza - always busy

Toy Shop for all caravanners!

Day trip opportunities are endless. A trip up to Belgrave for a ride on Puffing Billy is a must. It is a little on the dear side at $25 each for the most popular trip up to Lakeside. Now if you are really energetic you can get a single fair up and walk back down on excellent shady trails mostly following the train, We didn't try this as it was 38 degrees during our trip! You can dangle your legs out the carriage if you wish. In a word - quaint! If you are into photography don't bother going on total fire ban days as they use a boring diesel and NOT Puffing Billy! After the trip a good move is to explore the surrounding National Parks - head for Monbulk, Silvan and Lilydale if you have time. Simply use C404 - this also brings you back to the park. There is a fantastic Puffing Billy website with lots of ideas to make your stay more enjoyable. All the photos below are on Puffing Billy - a wonderful fun filled day!

Another great must do trip is down to Frankston and to follow the coast. What a beautifully picturesque coastline. Some beaches have little bathing huts just like English beaches. One recently sold for $140,000.00! The sad news is a dreadful shortage of caravan parks near the beaches due to the high real estate values. We found some beachfront parks, however these had been taken over by permanents. McCrae has about the best foreshore reserve come camp. This was bursting during our visit in January 2001. A quick look through "A Guide to Mornington Peninsula" does not have a single ad for a caravan park. The only alternative is to commute as we did from a park outside the area. It is so lovely there though that we suggest you persevere - you might get lucky and try leafy McCrae outside school holidays.

Waterside walks are on most headlands

Yet another jetty

Heading to Sorrento on the Bay

Train them young!

Getting back to Casey. You can actually see the park from the Princes Highway, but the main entrance is on a side street. Sadly the Caravan Park street signs (white, not the usual blue) are a bit on the small size and some thoughtless clown has one pointing the wrong way! Look on your map for Dandenong then look for Narre Warren just past it. Turn off at the Webb Street shopping centre sign (blue 12 on it). Go over the level crossing and the 3rd on the left is Centre Street. Turn here and after 200 metres it miraculously/confusingly turns into Fullard Road and the park is on your left after another 300 metres. The entrance is on a blind bend with lots of loose gravel so caution is needed. You can write to them:- Cnr Cranbourne and Fullard Roads, Narre Warren, 3285, Vic, Australia. Phone is (03) 9704-7663, but sadly there is no email as yet.

Yet another pier come jetty - are we in England?

Marinas on about every second beach!

No pets allowed and not disabled friendly at all ensuite wise. Some cabins do have a nice ramp though. Sorry we sound a bit like whinging Victor from "One Foot in the Grave" on this park, but it does have a few minor management related problems that could easily be fixed. As there will be fellow vanners with warranty problems needing accommodation whilst their van is worked on, and others wanting a low cost park near the city, here it is with all the warts! At least the review is possibly more reliable than any star rating. On the plus though we absolutely recommend the unit we stayed in as it was first class and the ensuites are spotlessly clean inside. Value wise you just cant beat it!

Bob and Chrissy Eustace

Click on the compass for a map of the general area