Great Lakes Council said they had no choice but to temporarily close the park immediately after they were issued with a defect notice from Country Energy on August 20.

The notice stated that the electrical installation in the park required urgent attention and needed to be brought up to standard within 14 days. After an investigation, council staff reported on the condition of infrastructure in the late urgent business at last Tuesday’s council meeting.

Council’s general manager Keith O’Leary said the temporary closure of the park was unavoidable and necessary due to the magnitude of the work required to ensure the park was safe,

“Public safety is always our prime concern and we can no longer guarantee that patrons would be safe. It will also be necessary to cut power to undertake remedial works and we can no longer provide amenities to park patrons whilst this work is undertaken,” he said.

Alternative accommodation at Hawks Nest Beach Holiday Park was immediately arranged for the park’s three permanent residents.

Concerns have also been raised by MidCoast Water at the public health risk posed by inadequate sewerage stations in the park, while the fire safety equipment has been assessed as being in extremely poor state of repair.

Council’s manager of administration services, John Dougherty said council would seek expert advice and go over the park with a fine-tooth comb before it was re-opened.

He said it is likely the entire installation will need replacing and that because of the enormous scale of work required an exact time frame was not yet known, but estimated that it could be at least Christmas before the park is reopened.

“This is a job that will take a matter of months not weeks,” Mr Dougherty said.

“Unfortunately this means cancelling all holiday bookings including Christmas bookings.”

Mr O’Leary said council hopes users of the park will understand.

“While we realise the park’s closure will also inconvenience many holiday makers, we must ensure the safety of the facility first and foremost.”

Adding further complications to the process is the plan of management proposed by council when they took the park over in May this year.

Currently plan is waiting on approval from the Department of Lands.

“We can’t commence any work until that is signed off,” Mr Dougherty said.

Holiday van owners still in the park were given the weekend to clean out any perishables and valuables before the power was cut early this week.