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It all began in the mid 1970's when the Resort's host was flying
over Litchfield Park in his capacity as an aerial photographer.
Well actually it began millions of years ago because in Litchfield
Park, we are talking about one of the world's oldest great-unspoiled
landscapes but that's another story.
Through his photographic work and their four-wheel excursions
into the area, Bob and Robin Davis became aware of the splendid
tourist attractions that would become increasingly accessible
from the town of Batchelor over the next thirty years. When the
"opportunity" arose to carve a tourist caravan park
from virgin scrub, they knew that the years of backbreaking work
were a challenge with their name written on it.
They opened Batchelor Caravillage, now part of the Batchelor
Resort in 1986 and gradually built it into one of the most tourist
friendly stops in the Territory.
While they were building their own great tourist escape haven,
alongside them two equally brave and reckless souls were engaged
in bringing "the flashiest pub in the scrub" from a
dream to a reality. The Rum Jungle Motor Inn opened in 1987.
From the
beginning as they each struggled with the difficulties of building
a first class facility in a remote and largely un-serviced area,
the families from the Inn and Caravillage became friends.
Because of their intimate knowledge of the attractions within
the Park and the then relative inaccessibility of these attractions
to standard vehicles, Robin and Bob started Litchfield Park Tours
and commenced the "Waterfall Crawl" into Litchfield
Park. Encouraged by Robin and Bob, and as the roads became more
accessible, other tour operators became attracted to the area.
Once the level of service available to Caravillage from these
other operators was adequate, Litchfield Park Tours was closed
after a very successful ten years. Caravillage became the logical
pick up point for the new operators and because of its active
role in tourism in the area, Batchelor Resort remains the main
regional pick up point for tour operators active in Litchfield
Park.
From their respective vantage points Robin and Bob from Caravillage
and Jackie and Laurie from the Rum Jungle Motor Inn eyed each
other's properties and thought "wouldn't it be marvellous
if we could join these two properties together and build a really
first class tourist operation." So when the Rum Jungle Motor
Inn came up for sale in 2000, Robin and Bob finally got their
chance and Batchelor Resort was born.
Encouraged by family and other financial backers, they became
firmly embarked on the process of upgrading and integrating
these
two adjoining businesses into an all-encompassing resort. The
Rum Jungle Motor Inn has been upgraded from 2 stars at the time
of purchase to 4 stars, matching the rating of the Caravillage.
Today the caravan park has been separated in ownership. Batchelor Resort is still a 4-star resort offering spacious, comfortable motel rooms, fine dining
for up to 100 guests, bistro dining for up to 80, bars, take-away
food, souvenir shopping, bottle shop, fuel, conference facilities
for up to 60, swimming pool, outdoor cooking facilities and much more. A short walk over the link path takes you to the 18-hole mini golf and the daily bird feeding.
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