Big Rig Caravan Parks: Where a 10-Metre-Plus Van Actually Fits

If you tow a long van, “big rig friendly” is the most hopeful phrase in Australian caravanning. A park’s “large” site can be a 25-metre drive-through bus site. It can also be a powered site that takes vans up to seven metres.

So we went looking for numbers. We read the official site pages of 63 holiday parks across every state and territory, most of them advertising large, big rig or drive-through sites. Fifty gave a maximum length, four gave only a minimum and nine gave no length at all. Those that did give a number did not all mean the same thing by it.

Measure your rig before you book

Caravan brochures often quote body length, parks often quote overall length, and the gap between the two catches people out every summer. Three numbers matter:

1. The van’s overall length, drawbar included. A van sold on its 23-foot body is longer on the road. Zone RV lists its Summit at 7.1m of body and 8.8m overall. That extra 1.7m is everything outside the body, mostly drawbar and coupling.
2. The whole combination. A Ford Ranger XLT 4×4 double cab pick-up with a tow receiver is 5,406mm long. Hitched to that Summit, the pair is roughly 14.2m nose to tail, before you add a bullbar or anything on the back.
3. The legal ceiling. In NSW, the overall length of a vehicle and trailer combination including its load must not be more than 19m. Few car-and-van combinations get close.

Write all three down. When a park quotes a number, the first thing to work out is which of them it is talking about.

Parks with room for the biggest rigs

This is a selection of parks from our sample with large stated maximums, covering every state and the Northern Territory. “Site” means the park gave the size of the site; “rig” means it gave the length of vehicle it accepts; “unclear” means the page does not say which. They are not the same thing, as the next section explains.

Taken from each park’s own page or its official chain or network listing on 15 October 2026. Big rig sites are usually limited in number, so book early and confirm your exact length with the park.

Five worth knowing about

BIG4 The Bend, Tailem Bend

The longest stated site we found: “6m wide x 25m long”, described as extra large powered sites for large RVs and buses. On the Dukes Highway between Adelaide and Melbourne, it is a useful stop for a combination that will not fit anywhere tighter.

Yarraman Caravan Park

A small-town park in southern Queensland with double-length drive-thru sites of 12m by 24m. That width matters as much as the length when you need to open an awning and park the tow vehicle alongside.

BIG4 Dunsborough Southern Stars

Proof that a big site is often a scarce site. The park has 12 big rig sites of about 20m by 13m. In the South West’s peak season, twelve does not go far.

BIG4 Howard Springs

Its big rig sites near Darwin take caravans and motorhomes between 9m and 12m, but the page is clear that all vehicles are required to be unhitched. If you were planning to stay hooked up for a quick overnight, plan again.

Hidden Valley Kununurra

A 45ft drive-through site in the East Kimberley, with an instruction more parks should copy: “please include the drawbar in your total length”. If you are heading that way, our guide to Kimberley and Top End holiday parks covers more options.

Why the numbers do not line up

Across the 42 parks where we could pin down a single maximum for their largest powered site, the middle figure was 12.2m, or 40 feet, which was also the single most common figure, appearing at seven of the 42 parks. But parks quoting the size of a site had a median of 15m, while parks quoting the length of rig they accept had a median of 11 to 12m, depending on how one ambiguous page is read. A 15m site does not mean a 15m rig is welcome; it may have to hold your van and your car.

Some pages contradict themselves. Streaky Bay Foreshore says it has “sites available up to 72ft in length for buses and large motorhomes”, gives a range of 16ft to 70ft on the same page, and tells guests they “Must ring if over 16ft (including draw bar)”. And “large” is relative: BIG4 Anglesea’s large powered sites take vans “up to 22 ft /7 m in size……max!”, and at the small end of our sample, Caseys Beach Holiday Park’s grass powered sites, aimed at smaller rigs, cannot accept caravans longer than 18 foot including the drawbar.

Tip: when a page gives no number, ask for one. Nine of the parks we checked described big rig or drive-through sites without any length at all, and “fits the biggest rigs” is not something you can measure against your tape.

Five questions to ask before you book

1. Is that the site length or the vehicle length? And does it include the drawbar?
2. Does the tow vehicle need to fit on the site too, or is there separate parking?
3. Can I stay hitched? Some big rig sites require you to unhitch.
4. How many big rig sites are there, and can I book a specific one online or only by phone?
5. Is the access road and turning space suitable for my full length, not just the site?

The parks that publish clear numbers are doing long-rig owners a favour, and they deserve the bookings. For everyone else, a two-minute phone call with your three measurements beats a three-point turn in a crowded park at dusk. For more on how park rules are changing, see what travellers are noticing at caravan parks, and for why vans keep getting bigger, the $400K caravan arms race.

How we did it: we searched the official BIG4, Discovery Parks and G’day Parks listings and individual park websites for pages advertising large, big rig or drive-through sites, or listing a site length in feet or metres, and recorded every stated length on 15 October 2026. The sample leans towards parks that advertise big rig sites, so it shows what parks say, not the size of every site in Australia. Feet are converted at 0.3048m.

Images via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and resized: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0 (featured image and gallery); Peterdownunder, CC BY-SA 4.0.