So we went to Bigriggen this weekend (arrive Sat, leave Mon). The site has new owners (since Jan). We've been here 3 or 4 times before, our last being in Dec. I don't think we'll go back again - at least never on an expected busy weekend.
In past times we've been twice on long weekends (where you expect it to be busy). It has never, ever been like it was last weekend. We ran into a lady who said she has been going there on this weekend every year for the past 9 years. She won't be returning. Apparently the new owners allowed an increase from 800 to 1500 people on the site. You can imagine what this does to the small amenities block. There are 3 showers each for the men and women. There are 3 toilets each for the men and women. They bought in an extra 8 porta-loo's to attempt to cope. No extra showers. The porta-loo's were emptied but not cleaned. You can imagine the smell. The showers had a line-up 4-8 people deep for most of the day and night. We resorted to showering at midnight. We went elsewhere when we could to use other toilets (yes, we drove somewhere else and bought coffee, food, etc just to use a decent toilet).
The previous owners also pretty thoroughly kept on top of the idiots. The new owners, not so much. Example - at 11pm on Sunday night 3/4/5 very drunk guys came wandering through the middle of the campground and everyone's sites. Quite happy to make plenty of noise and swear. Including abusing a family that told them to shut up because they had just woken their baby. One idiot even returned an hour later to abuse the family once more. Management were told and apparently had been to see the guys quite a few times already the previous day (about doof-doof music and abusing people). Previous management would have kicked them out straight away. New management let them stay and disrupt everyone.
We were very sad to see the place in this state. We absolutely love going to Bigriggen and this time took two other families to enjoy it as well. We expected it to be busy. Even this busy, we still have room for our four families and setup. But the amenities were a complete and utter disaster. So sad. We will likely go back on a non-busy weekend, but not for a long weekend or in the school holidays.
Time to find a new place less than 2 hours from Brisbane northside I think.
If anyone else has experiences of Bigriggen this year they can share, please do chime in.
