Camel Rock Brewery rewarded for holiday park innovation

The Big4 Wallaga Lake Holiday Park was on Thursday night awarded the National In-park Innovation Award at the 2017 national Big4 conference for its on-site Camel Rock Brewery and Cafe.

While a micro-brewery is nothing new, building one inside a tourist park is – hence the recognition of Camel Rock as “innovation”.

It was also key in keeping Big4 Wallaga Lake ticking over throughout the recent off-season and winter months.

The micro-brewery has been running at the park for six months, with owner/manager Steve Watson “very happy” with the way it’s going.

“One of our challenges is no all-weather, all-year-round activities and the park being very seasonal,” he said.

“This was a way of trying to reduce seasonality and offering something unique.

“It’s actually going a bit better than we anticipated – but that’s a good problem to have.”

In June, builder Brad Munckton picked up the Master Builders Association award for Best Regional Commercial Refurbishment under $500,000 his work on the brewery.

Now with the Big4 national award to its name as well, Mr Watson couldn’t be happier.

“It was a fantastic night,” he said of Thursday night’s ceremony held in Brisbane, with comedian and actor Shane Jacobson as emcee (Mr Jacobson is an ambassador for Big4 Holiday Parks)

“It’s very important to recognise the whole team.

“While I came up the idea, the whole team pulled together to make it happen – every team member across the park had input and helped out.”