Great Ocean Road Has Australia's Best Holiday Park

The Great Ocean Road Tourist Park at Peterborough has been voted Australia's Best Holiday Park in a national competition run by Turu.com.au and Woman's Day.

Park managers Dean and Sarah Hellessey were surprised and delighted to win from a strong field of parks right around Australia.

Their idyllic coastal hide-away scored more than 2,000 votes in the inaugural search for Australia's Best Holiday Park.

A member of the Top Tourist Parks group, it is within easy reach of the Twelve Apostles and the many other scenic delights of the iconic Great Ocean Road.

State winners were the Big 4 Maroochy Palms (Queensland), South West Rocks Tourist Park (NSW), Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort (WA),Adelaide Caravan Park (SA), Scamander Tourist Park (Tasmania) and Kings Canyon Resort (NT).

The competition was run by Turu.com.au, Australia's premier search engine for caravan and camping holidays, and Australia's number-one selling weekly magazine, Woman's Day, which will show off all the winning parks in a great holiday parks feature in April.

Turu.com.au general manager, Robert Gallagher, said the Great Ocean Road Tourist Park - and all the finalists - exemplified the 1,800 outstanding holiday parks listed on turu.com.au.

"Any one of these great parks would make a wonderful holiday destination," he said.

"We are introducing the joys of holiday parks to a whole new audience who might not have considered parks before, and the winners show how many great parks there are."

Dean and Sarah Hellessey attribute their win to great support from their many loyal patrons and their little local community of Peterborough - and to major upgrades in recent years.

"In the past three years or so, we've had a major capital program including a new camp kitchen, barbecue, TV room and games room, plus a jumping pillow and a proper basketball ring," Sarah said.

"Previously we just had a small barbecue hut, and the new all-weather facilities have really been appreciated by our guests,especially the campers.

"We're not a fancy resort - we're more a really good family park- but we do have little extras like hand towels and toiletries in the bathrooms, and we get amazing feedback."

All of Peterborough has joined the Hellesseys in celebrating their success, with the local paper and scenic helicopter tour operator among the first to congratulate them.

Turu.com.au lists almost 1,800 holiday parks around Australia and has hosted more than 650,000 visitors and generated more than 75,000 booking enquiries in its first six months.

Turu is owned by Bauer Media Group, the world's largest magazine publisher, with over 500 magazine titles around the world,including this one.