Park owners, Charlie and Karen Azzopardi are pleased to be able to reopen and welcome guests back to the park following recent floods that forced the park to close.
Deniliquin Riverside Caravan Park re-opened last week after an extensive recovery program following the Edward River floods.
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Park owners Charlie and Karen Azzopardi said that while their first twelve months in the park had been tough, it also demonstrated how strong and supportive the Deniliquin community is.
“We bought the park off Andrew and Shelley Hall in September 2021 during the COVID pandemic,” Karen said.
“We knew this would present immediate challenges, but we also knew that once the pandemic was over, we’d have a beautiful park that we could share with Deni locals and visitors alike.
“What we didn’t count on was a one in 100 year flood completely submerging the lower section of the park, forcing us to cancel our peak period bookings and close the entire park.
“Given the predicted flood height, we engaged Murray Constructions to remove all the cabins from the top section of the park to keep them safe from water ingress.
“This was a massive job, and I can’t thank the Murray Construction team enough – they worked so hard in tough conditions, they really went above and beyond.”
The flood peaked on November 22, but the floodwaters were slow to recede which held up flood recovery works.
But Karen said the Deniliquin community spirit ultimately shone through, which meant the park managers were inundated with offers of help from complete strangers.
“Karen Martin contacted us and said ‘let me know what you need’,” Karen said.
“We’d never met Karen before, but here she was, randomly offering to help.
“Karen used her contacts to galvanise help from so many people that were, at that point, strangers to us.
“Storage of our goods was a massive issue, but local community members and businesses happily came and picked up our property and organised safe storage at people’s homes, farms and businesses.
“It was astounding the see this level of community support” Charlie added.
With the river now back to ‘normal’ levels, the Azzopardis were excited to have re-opened the caravan park in time for Australia Day, despite the need to rebuild the lower section from scratch.
“The cabins are all now back in place in the top section of the park and we’ve re-opened this area to guests,” Karen said.
“Unfortunately, some parts of the lower section suffered irreparable damage and will need further work.
“Above all though, we’re extremely grateful for the support we’ve received from Deniliquin and are excited to be able to welcome people back to our beautiful park.
“We’re aware of the need for accommodation providers to be open to enable visitors to stay in town, so we’re thrilled to be able to offer this once again and thus, support all local businesses.”
Murray Constructions removed all cabins from the top section of the park to save them from flood water.
The lower section of the Deniliquin Riverside Caravan Park was completely inundated during the pre-Christmas floods.
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