Insights · Holiday Park & Caravan Park
A complete engineer-led ductwork specification guide for Australian holiday parks, caravan parks, RV parks and glamping resorts — covering the standards, the per-space sizing logic, the material choices that survive 20 years of coastal humidity and chlorinated air, and the SBKJ machine configurations that fabricate the duct to spec on the first run.
A modern Australian holiday park is not one building. It is a dozen building types crammed onto one title — a reception and office, an amenity block (often two or three), a camp kitchen, sometimes a fully licensed restaurant, an outdoor pool with a covered pool hall, a function room rented for weddings and corporate retreats, a fleet of 40 to 200 tourist cabins ranging from single-room sleepers to three-bedroom family villas, a glamping precinct of safari tents or eco-pods, a camp store selling ice and bait, a powered-site grid for caravans and motorhomes, a dump point, a battery and EV charging compound, and a manager's residence. Each of these spaces sits under a different section of the National Construction Code, a different Australian Standard for ventilation, a different material durability requirement and a different acoustic target. Treating the park as a single HVAC project is the most common — and most expensive — mistake made by builders who arrive from a single-asset background, whether that is residential, office or hospitality.
The two industry bodies that set the tone for the sector are the Caravan and Camping Industry Association (CCIA) at state level, and the Caravan Industry Association Australia (CIAA) at national level. Both publish operator handbooks that touch on amenity hygiene, water reuse and dump-point design, but neither writes ventilation standards directly. The compliance load sits across the Australian Standards series — AS 1668.1 (fire and smoke), AS 1668.2 (mechanical ventilation), AS 1668.4 (natural ventilation), AS 4254 (ductwork construction), AS 4674 (commercial kitchen exhaust), AS 3666 (cooling tower water quality), AS 1838 (swimming pool water treatment), AS 5034 (battery installation hydrogen exhaust), and AS/NZS 3000 (electrical wiring for the charging compound and plant rooms). Layered on top is the NCC Volume One Section J energy-efficiency provisions, which apply to every non-residential building including the amenity block and reception, and the relevant state-level Public Health regulations on legionella, drinking water and pool water.
The other complication is that a holiday park is almost always a coastal, riverside or alpine asset. Discovery Parks, BIG4, NRMA Parks and Resorts, Reflections Holiday Parks, Top Tourist Parks, Aspen Parks and the state-government Family Parks portfolio (Wyangala Waters, Burrendong, Copeton, Pindari, Glenbawn) all run their flagship assets within a few kilometres of saltwater or on the edge of a freshwater impoundment. That puts the entire exposed exterior of the building into the ISO 9223 C4 or C5-M corrosivity zone — far harsher than a metropolitan office. Material selection on the ductwork therefore looks more like a marina or shipboard project than a city office fit-out. We routinely specify 316L stainless for any outdoor exposed duct on coastal parks, with galvanised G300 Z275 only used where the run is fully indoors and the relative humidity stays under 70 percent year-round.
This guide walks through the park space by space, giving you the standard, the design rate, the material choice, the acoustic target and the SBKJ machine configuration that fabricates the duct. Use it as a checklist when you are scoping a new build, a major refurbishment or a stage-two cabin expansion. Cross-references to our companion guides on hotels, residential, cafes, marinas and the AS 1668.2 reference are listed at the foot of the page.
The Australian holiday park market is dominated by a handful of large operators and supplemented by hundreds of independents. If you are a duct contractor, a mechanical consultant or a builder pricing this work, you will almost certainly encounter one of the following names on your tender list.
Discovery Parks is the largest holiday park operator in Australia by site count, owning or managing more than 75 parks under the Discovery and G'day Parks banners since the Ironbridge Capital acquisition. Discovery's standard cabin product is a 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom prefabricated villa with reverse-cycle split systems in each room, low-static ducted residential systems in the larger family villas, and centralised plant in the larger reception, restaurant and function-room buildings. Discovery has a consistent visual identity across the portfolio which means their duct fit-outs are usually specified to a master schedule rather than redesigned park by park — useful for fabricators who can win the master agreement.
BIG4 Holiday Parks is the largest franchise group with more than 180 parks under franchise agreements. Because BIG4 is a franchisor not an owner-operator, ductwork specifications vary park by park and are typically set by the franchisee's mechanical consultant. The brand standard covers signage, booking systems and minimum amenity quality but not HVAC plant. BIG4 parks range from caretaker-run regional sites to large flagship resorts at Anglesea, Phillip Island and Beachport.
NRMA Parks and Resorts operates more than 33 parks across Australia under the NRMA Group, including premium coastal assets at Treasure Island, Stradbroke Island, Murramarang and Phillip Island. NRMA tends to specify higher-end cabin product including premium villas and self-contained beach houses, with full ducted reverse-cycle systems and centralised plant in their major hospitality buildings. The mechanical specification standard is closer to a four-star hotel than a traditional caravan park.
Top Tourist Parks is an independent operator group representing more than 90 quality independent parks. Like BIG4, ductwork specifications are set park by park.
Holiday Parks Australia is a smaller independent marketing group.
Family Parks is the trading name for the New South Wales state-government caravan park portfolio operated through Water NSW and other state agencies — Wyangala Waters, Burrendong, Copeton, Pindari and Glenbawn are the headline assets. These parks sit on Crown Land at major water-supply impoundments and undergo periodic government tender processes for cabin construction and amenity upgrades. State-government procurement means full NCC compliance documentation, full AS 1668.2 calculation submission and competitive tendering through eTendering NSW.
Reflections Holiday Parks is the New South Wales Crown Reserves trust operator with 41 parks across the NSW coast. Reflections has a sustained capital program upgrading legacy mid-century amenity blocks and installing new tourist cabins. Their amenity block specification is one of the more interesting in the sector because they typically run high occupancy in summer and effectively zero occupancy in winter, which puts an unusual duty cycle on the exhaust fans and corrodes any non-stainless ductwork rapidly.
Aspen Parks Property Group operates a mixed portfolio of tourist parks and mining-camp accommodation across regional Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. The mining-camp side specifies industrial-grade plant including hot-zone cooling capacity, dust filtration to MERV 13 minimum and red-zone amenity blocks rated for fly-in fly-out occupancy peaks.
Worldmark by Wyndham operates timeshare resorts across Australia at Coffs Harbour, Phillip Island, Port Macquarie, Port Stephens, Coolangatta, Golden Beach, Kirra Beach, Sea Temple Resort and Spa, and Wanaka. Worldmark resorts run a four-star hotel mechanical specification.
Hidden Valley Eildon Country Club is a boutique resort and golf operator on Lake Eildon in Victoria with a sophisticated mechanical fit-out across the clubhouse, function room, accommodation and pool.
Resort Brokers is an intermediary brokerage handling sale transactions across the management rights, motel and holiday-park sector. Not an operator but a useful pipeline source for new ownership refurbishment work.
On the glamping end of the market, Wildlife Retreat at Taronga in Sydney is the flagship urban-conservation glamping site with 62 sealed cabins on the Taronga Zoo escarpment. Paperbark Camp at Jervis Bay is a long-running luxury safari-tent operator with twelve elevated tent platforms set in coastal eucalypt forest. Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia is a remote off-grid eco-camp on the Cape Range. Bamurru Plains in the Northern Territory is a luxury floodplain safari operator near Kakadu. Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island is an island-resort operator under the Baillie Lodges brand. Bay of Fires Lodge and other Tasmanian walking-trail lodges operated by Tasmanian Walking Company use lightweight tent or eco-pod accommodation that nevertheless meets full Tasmanian Building Code requirements where conditioned space is provided.
The caravan and recreational vehicle manufacturing sector is dominated by Jayco Australia, headquartered in Dandenong Victoria, which is the largest caravan and RV manufacturer in the country. Avida, Coromal and New Age Caravans are also significant Australian manufacturers. None of these are HVAC duct customers in the conventional sense — caravan air conditioning is a 12 V or 240 V rooftop monobloc unit, not a ducted system — but the relevance to a holiday park ductwork project is that an increasing share of guests bring high-end caravans with onboard battery banks that require AS 5034-compliant charging facilities at the park's powered-site grid.
Before walking through each space, it is worth setting out exactly which Australian Standard covers which scenario, because the holiday park environment touches more standards than almost any other single-asset class.
AS 1668.1 — The use of ventilation and air conditioning in buildings, Part 1: Fire and smoke control. Applies to any conditioned space where a fire-isolated path is required, including the plant room, the function room of any size and any building above two storeys. Covers smoke spill, smoke pressurisation, fire dampers and the construction class of ductwork penetrating fire-rated walls. In a holiday park context this is most relevant in the main reception-restaurant building where fire-rated walls are penetrated by supply ducts and require AS 1530.4-rated fire dampers at every penetration.
AS 1668.2 — Mechanical ventilation in buildings. The day-to-day workhorse for holiday park ventilation design. Sets the minimum outdoor air rate per occupant per space type in Table 3.3. Office and reception are 5 L/s per person on the lower band. Restaurant and function rooms with sedentary occupancy are 7.5 L/s per person. Higher activity spaces like indoor pool decks are 10 L/s per person. Amenity rooms get a fixed exhaust rate of 25 L/s per water closet and 25 L/s per shower head. Where mechanical exhaust draws air from one space, AS 1668.2 requires the makeup air to be either ducted from outside or transferred from an adjacent cleaner space — never from a kitchen or amenity exhaust path.
AS 1668.4 — Natural ventilation of buildings. Where a designer wants to claim natural ventilation in lieu of mechanical, the openable area must meet the 5 percent of floor area rule with cross-ventilation paths. This is common in glamping tents, outdoor amphitheatres and some camp kitchens, but rarely possible in modern hotel-style amenity blocks because the building envelope is too tight.
AS 4254 — Ductwork for air handling systems in buildings. The Australian construction standard for sheet-metal ductwork, equivalent in scope to SMACNA in North America or EN 1505 / EN 1506 in Europe. Sets the gauge schedule, the seam construction, the support spacing, the maximum unsupported span and the leakage classes (Class A, Class B, Class C). Most holiday park ductwork is specified to AS 4254 Class B for general supply and return, Class A for pressure-tight kitchen exhaust and pool-hall return.
AS 4674 — Construction and fit-out of food premises. Governs commercial kitchen exhaust including the grease-laden vapour extraction, the hood face velocity (0.25-0.5 m/s for canopy hoods over a six-burner range), the duct material (stainless steel mandatory, no galvanised in the kitchen exhaust path), the cleanout panel spacing (every 3 m on horizontal runs and every floor on verticals), and the discharge location relative to outdoor air intakes and openable windows. AS 4674 is the standard your local council environmental health officer will quote at you on the site inspection.
AS 3666 — Air-handling and water systems of buildings: Microbial control. Three parts: design, installation and operation, and performance-based maintenance. The standard's headline scope is cooling towers and warm-water systems above 7 kW heat rejection, where quarterly water sampling and an authority-registered risk management plan are mandatory. Larger holiday parks running centralised chilled-water plant with a cooling tower fall under AS 3666 in full. Smaller parks running individual air-cooled splits avoid AS 3666 scope.
AS 1838 — Swimming pool water treatment. Sets the water quality, chlorination, pH, total dissolved solids and combined chlorine targets for any public pool. Where the pool is enclosed, the ventilation system must accept and dilute the chlorinated air return without corroding the duct interior — which is the source of the stainless-steel duct requirement in any pool hall.
AS 5034 — Installation of secondary batteries in buildings. Covers ventilation of any installation of secondary batteries including lead-acid, nickel-cadmium and lithium-ion. For caravan and RV bulk charging compounds, the standard requires dedicated mechanical exhaust sized to keep hydrogen concentration below 2 percent of the lower explosive limit, typically 2-4 air changes per hour for an enclosed charging shed. Lithium-only chargers avoid the hydrogen scope but still require thermal-management ventilation.
AS/NZS 3000 — Electrical installations. The Wiring Rules. Covers every electrical aspect of the plant room, the charging compound and the powered-site grid.
NCC Volume One Section J — Energy efficiency. Sets the minimum thermal envelope performance, ductwork insulation thickness (R1.0 supply duct in occupied space, R0.8 return), and HVAC plant efficiency. Holiday park amenity blocks and reception buildings fall under Section J in full. Cabins under 100 square metres can sometimes claim Volume Two residential coverage but most jurisdictions treat them as Class 3 short-term accommodation under Volume One.
The amenity block is the single most demanding HVAC environment in any holiday park. It runs at high occupancy at peak hours, sustained high humidity, chlorinated water aerosols from the shower compartments and ammonia from urinals. The ductwork sits inside the wettest, most corrosive air in the entire park, and is rarely accessible for service because it is typically buried in a fixed plasterboard ceiling above the shower rooms.
The AS 1668.2 exhaust requirement is 25 L/s per water closet plus 25 L/s per shower head, running continuously during operating hours or on occupancy sensing. For a representative 8-WC, 8-shower amenity block, this is 400 L/s of mechanical exhaust. The makeup air is provided either by transfer grilles from the adjacent dry circulation area, or by direct outdoor air introduction, and is sized at 80 to 90 percent of the exhaust rate so the block stays under a slight negative pressure relative to the rest of the park — preventing odour migration to reception.
Material selection is the defining choice. Galvanised G300 Z275 ductwork lasts 4 to 7 years in this environment before rust perforates the seams from the inside. We have seen Reflections Holiday Parks and Family Parks portfolio assets where the original 1980s galvanised exhaust was still nominally in service after 35 years, but the duct interior was essentially a thin rust pipe carrying the same air through corroded seam gaps. The replacement specification we recommend across all amenity blocks is Grade 304 stainless steel for inland sites and Grade 316L stainless for any coastal park within 5 km of saltwater. The 15 to 20 percent material premium on the stainless versus galvanised is paid back in the first replacement cycle, and the typical service life is 20 to 30 years.
The duct geometry for an amenity block is almost always rectangular, low-velocity, low-pressure. Typical sizing is 400 x 200 mm for the main trunk, branching down to 250 x 150 mm at each shower compartment exhaust grille and 150 mm dia round flex tails to each individual fixture. Velocities sit at 4 to 5 m/s in the trunk and 2 to 3 m/s at the grille face for a quiet operation.
Acoustic target is NC-40. The amenity block is one of the few park spaces where slightly higher background noise from the exhaust fan is acceptable, because the masking effect is helpful for guest privacy. A target much below NC-35 in an amenity block tends to make every conversation in the next cubicle audible. NC-40 is achieved with a duct face velocity at the grille of around 2.5 m/s, an external static pressure on the exhaust fan of 200 to 250 Pa, and the fan itself either roof-mounted or located in the back-of-house plant cupboard with 1.5 m of acoustically lined duct between the fan inlet and the first ceiling grille.
For the SBKJ machine config, the amenity block specification is the strongest justification for a stainless tooling package on the rectangular duct line. The standard SBAL-III auto duct line runs 0.6 to 1.5 mm galvanised coil. With the stainless tooling upgrade, the same machine runs 0.8 to 1.5 mm Grade 304 or 316L stainless coil without retooling between batches — meaning a single duct fabrication shop can serve both the galvanised reception ducts and the stainless amenity block exhaust on the same project.
The reception and office building is a relatively benign HVAC environment. Occupancy is moderate (1 to 3 staff plus arriving guests in queue), thermal load is dominated by solar gain through the front-of-house glazing and equipment heat from the booking computers and printers, and the air quality requirement is the standard AS 1668.2 office band of 5 L/s per person outdoor air.
The design temperature target is 22 to 24°C, with relative humidity controlled by the cooling system to 40 to 60 percent. Most holiday park reception areas are sized at 60 to 120 square metres of floor area, with a connected back-office and a kitchenette for staff. The HVAC plant is typically a single ducted reverse-cycle split system in the 12 to 18 kW range, supplied through a low-velocity rectangular galvanised duct system with linear slot diffusers in the customer-facing area and ceiling cassette grilles in the back-office.
Material is galvanised G300 Z275 throughout because the air handled is conditioned office air with no moisture, no salt and no contamination load. Acoustic target is NC-30, achieved through standard noise control — return air boot with acoustic lining, supply slot diffuser at 2.5 m/s face velocity, fan-coil unit either ceiling-cavity-mounted with a separate plant cupboard return path or roof-mounted on a service platform.
The interesting design wrinkle in a holiday park reception is the visitor queue handling at peak check-in and check-out windows. A typical Discovery Parks or BIG4 flagship park has 80 to 200 arrivals between 2 PM and 6 PM on a Friday afternoon, with the queue often spilling outside the air-conditioned envelope. The mechanical engineer should size the supply air to handle the peak occupancy with the door open and outside air infiltrating, not the average occupancy with a closed door. A common error is sizing on the office baseline and producing a building that overheats on the busiest two hours of every week.
Pool ventilation is the second-most-corrosive environment in a holiday park after the amenity block, and the design has its own dedicated guide on this site. Cross-reference our companion aquatic centre and swimming pool HVAC duct guide for the full treatment.
The short version: pool hall ventilation under AS 1668.2 requires 10 L/s per person outdoor air for the deck area and a separate spray-zone treatment for any wet surfaces. AS 1838 governs the pool water itself. Because the chloramine-laden air aggressively corrodes any galvanised duct interior, the entire pool hall supply and return system is specified in 316L stainless steel. Velocities are kept low at 3 to 4 m/s in the trunk to minimise droplet entrainment, and the duct is routed with full drainage to a low-point sump that captures condensate from the return air path.
Smaller holiday parks with a single outdoor pool avoid almost all of this complexity because the pool is open to atmosphere. The mechanical scope reduces to a pool-house amenity block with shower and toilet exhaust under the standard 25 L/s per fixture rule, and a small pool-pump room ventilation duty of 6 air changes per hour. Larger parks with an enclosed pool hall — typical of premium Worldmark, NRMA and Discovery flagship assets — carry the full pool-hall design including the dehumidification plant and the 316L stainless duct.
The licensed restaurant, casual cafe and bar in a holiday park hospitality wing carries the standard commercial food premises requirements under AS 4674 plus the AS 1668.2 outdoor air rate for the dining occupancy. Cross-reference our companion cafe and quick service restaurant HVAC duct guide for the full treatment of the kitchen exhaust side.
Key design rates for a 100-seat holiday park restaurant: dining outdoor air at 7.5 L/s per person gives 750 L/s, the kitchen exhaust hood at 0.4 m/s face velocity over a 3.0 m long canopy gives 1,200 L/s exhaust, makeup air at 90 percent of kitchen exhaust gives 1,080 L/s, and the bar serving area needs its own 200 L/s exhaust if smoke from the gas char-grill drifts to the customer side.
Material is split. The dining supply and return runs in galvanised G300 Z275 rectangular duct fabricated on the SBAL-III line at standard gauge. The kitchen exhaust runs in Grade 304 stainless steel throughout the entire path from hood collar to roof discharge, with cleanout panels at every horizontal bend and a minimum 1.2 mm gauge on the welded seams. SBKJ Stitchwelder machines fabricate the stainless kitchen exhaust with continuous welded seams that meet AS 4674's pressure-tight construction requirement.
The acoustic target for the dining area is NC-35, with the kitchen exhaust generally not acoustically treated because the discharge is roof-mounted and the duct riser is concealed in a chase. The bar acoustic target depends on whether the bar carries live music, in which case the design crosses over into the function-room rules.
Function rooms are where larger holiday parks make their non-room revenue — weddings, corporate retreats, school camps and conference business. The mechanical specification is similar to a hotel ballroom in scale and complexity, with a much higher peak design occupancy than the daily average.
The design rate for a function room with mixed seated and standing occupancy is 8 to 10 air changes per hour, equivalent to roughly 10 L/s per person at the peak design occupancy. A 300 square metre function room sized for 200 seated guests at peak runs 2,000 L/s outdoor air at design, balanced by exhaust through both the rest-room exhaust path and any kitchen serving from an adjacent prep area.
The thermal load is dominated by occupancy heat — 200 guests at a wedding dinner deliver roughly 25 kW of sensible heat into the room — plus lighting, AV equipment and catering hot-hold trolleys. The plant is typically a centralised chilled water system with VAV (variable air volume) terminals, allowing the supply air to modulate down to 30 percent on a half-empty Wednesday lunch and ramp up to full on a Saturday wedding.
Duct material is galvanised G300 Z275 throughout, because the function room sees conditioned recirculated air with no special corrosion driver. Acoustic target is NC-35 for general function use, NC-30 if the room hosts conferencing or AV-heavy events where speech intelligibility matters.
The function-room HVAC carries the additional complication of fire-rated penetration. A function room over 200 square metres typically triggers a fire-rated wall separation from the rest of the building under the NCC, which means every duct penetration requires an AS 1530.4-rated fire damper. The duct fabrication sequence must therefore include the damper boxes and the spigot connections at the correct rate-grade.
The camp kitchen is a curious building type unique to the caravan park and holiday park sector. It is a covered or enclosed cooking space provided for guests to prepare their own meals, typically equipped with electric or gas cooktops, hotplates, a microwave bank, a sink-and-drain area, and shared dining benches. It is not a commercial kitchen — guests cook for themselves, not for the public — so it does not fall under AS 4674 commercial kitchen scope.
Ventilation is sized per occupancy under AS 1668.2 at 10 L/s per person for active cooking, with a recommended single canopy hood over the cooktop bank. For a 20-person camp kitchen with a four-burner cooktop bank, the design is 200 L/s outdoor air plus a 300 L/s canopy hood over the cooktops to capture smoke and steam during peak cooking hours.
Material is galvanised G300 Z275 for the supply duct and Grade 304 stainless for the canopy hood and the first 3 metres of exhaust duct, transitioning to galvanised on the roof-mounted discharge run. This split spec reflects the lower grease load compared to a commercial kitchen — guests cooking sausages and eggs do not deposit the same grease film as a commercial fryer running at 180°C for eight hours.
Acoustic target is NC-40 because the camp kitchen is by nature a noisy social space. The exhaust fan can be a roof-mounted utility fan running on occupancy sensing.
The tourist cabin is the bread-and-butter of the modern holiday park, and the largest single fit-out volume in any major capital program. Discovery Parks, NRMA Parks and Resorts and BIG4 flagships all run cabin fleets of 50 to 250 units per park, with capital programs replacing aging cabins on a 15 to 20 year cycle.
The standard cabin product is a 30 to 70 square metre fully self-contained unit with one to three bedrooms, a small kitchenette, a private bathroom and either a covered deck or a small outdoor sitting area. Mechanical specification is residential-grade — a single inverter split system in each bedroom plus a larger living-area unit, or a low-static ducted residential system in the larger family villas.
Cross-reference our companion residential HVAC duct guide for the detailed treatment of the low-static residential ducted system. The summary for the holiday park context is that the duct is fabricated in galvanised G300 Z275 rectangular section at the low end of the SBKJ SBAL-III gauge range (0.5 to 0.6 mm), the velocities are kept low at 3 to 4 m/s for quiet operation, the acoustic target is NC-30 inside the cabin, and the supply is delivered through standard residential ceiling diffusers in each bedroom and the living area.
The cabin ductwork is short-run (typically under 15 metres total path) and low-pressure, so the fabrication economics favour pre-cut packs delivered to the cabin assembler. Many of the prefabricated cabin manufacturers serving Discovery Parks and BIG4 — including the Victorian-based and Queensland-based prefab cabin builders — buy their duct in flat-pack form from a single fabrication shop and assemble on the cabin production line.
The seasonal usage pattern is worth noting. A coastal cabin in NSW or Queensland runs 90 percent occupancy in the summer school holidays and 20 percent occupancy in mid-winter. The mechanical plant needs to handle the start-up surge from a 4-week vacancy (a closed cabin in summer hits 35°C internal temperature easily) and provide rapid pull-down within 30 to 60 minutes of guest arrival. Sizing the cabin air conditioning purely on steady-state load misses this requirement.
Glamping — short for glamorous camping — is the fastest-growing segment of the Australian holiday park market and the most exacting on the HVAC design. Premium operators like Wildlife Retreat at Taronga, Paperbark Camp at Jervis Bay, Sal Salis at Ningaloo, Bamurru Plains in the Northern Territory and Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island charge $600 to $1,800 per night for a tent or eco-pod, and the guest expectation is for hotel-grade thermal comfort and acoustic silence inside a canvas or timber-canvas hybrid structure.
The mechanical design starts with a small inverter split system in the 2.5 to 3.5 kW range per tent. Because the tent envelope is thermally lossy compared to a concrete cabin, the plant is sized larger than the equivalent floor area would suggest — a 30 square metre safari tent typically takes 3.0 to 3.5 kW of cooling capacity versus 2.0 to 2.5 kW for an equivalent concrete cabin.
Duct routing in a glamping tent is the design challenge. The tent cannot have a visible ceiling cassette or wall-mounted split head if the operator wants the canvas-roof aesthetic. The solution is concealed flexible duct routed under the timber decking, supplying air through floor or low-wall grilles in 316L stainless steel — the stainless specification reflects both the coastal corrosivity (most premium glamping sites are coastal) and the need for a grille material that does not stain or discolour over the asset life.
Acoustic target is NC-25 to NC-30 inside the tent — significantly quieter than a standard hotel room because the canvas envelope does nothing to mask the indoor unit fan noise. This means a low-noise inverter indoor unit at the smallest fan speed setting, generously sized lined flex duct (200 mm diameter typical for a 3 kW unit), 4 to 6 m/s face velocity on the floor grille, and a minimum 3 m run of acoustically lined flex between the indoor unit and the first grille.
The SBKJ supply scope on a glamping project is typically the stainless rectangular feed duct from the plant compound to the tent slab. The final 2 to 3 metres of flexible duct from the slab to the indoor unit is field-installed by the mechanical contractor. The plant compound itself, where the outdoor condensing units sit alongside the hot-water plant, is a hidden service zone behind the tent precinct and is itself ventilated to AS 5034 if it shares space with the battery bank for off-grid operation (Sal Salis and Bamurru Plains both run on hybrid solar plus battery storage).
The on-site manager's residence is a standard suburban-style 3 to 4 bedroom house, treated under NCC Volume Two residential rules and ventilated under the residential AS 1668.2 occupancy bands. Cross-reference our residential HVAC duct guide for the detailed treatment.
The duct is fabricated in galvanised G300 Z275 rectangular section at residential gauge (0.5 to 0.6 mm), with a low-static ducted residential system serving all bedrooms and the living area. No special holiday-park considerations apply except that the manager's residence often shares a plant cupboard with the reception building or the amenity block, which means the duct fabrication run can be combined with the reception scope at the same fabrication shop.
The camp store sells ice, bait, ice creams, basic groceries, fishing tackle and the inevitable t-shirts and stubbie holders. From an HVAC perspective it is a small retail space — typically 40 to 80 square metres — with conditioned air at 22 to 24°C, AS 1668.2 outdoor air at 5 L/s per person, and a separate cold-drinks display fridge bank that runs its own integrated refrigeration with no ducted condenser path.
Duct material is galvanised G300 Z275 throughout. Acoustic target is NC-35 for retail. Specification is straightforward — a small ducted reverse-cycle split system in the 7 to 10 kW range, supply through three or four ceiling diffusers and return through a single ceiling grille.
The interesting wrinkle is the freezer chest for ice and the cold-drinks display, which add a small but persistent latent load (moisture from open-door browsing) that needs to be picked up by the conditioning system. The plant should be sized 15 to 20 percent above the simple sensible load to handle this.
Many holiday parks include an outdoor amphitheatre, kids' club open shelter or outdoor cinema area. These are open-sided structures with a roof but no enclosed walls. Mechanical ventilation is not required because the AS 1668.4 natural ventilation provisions are met by the open envelope.
HVAC scope on the amphitheatre is typically limited to outdoor misting fans for summer comfort and outdoor radiant heaters for shoulder-season events. No ductwork is involved.
The dump point is the chemical-toilet discharge facility for caravans and motorhomes. Outdoor location, typically a concrete slab with a flush-grate inlet, a high-pressure hose for cleaning the cassette, and a connected sewer or holding-tank outlet.
The HVAC consideration is biological aerosol management — emptying a black-water cassette aerosolises faecal bacteria into the immediate surrounds. The standard mitigation is siting the dump point at least 6 metres from any food premises ventilation intake and at least 15 metres from any sleeping accommodation outdoor air intake. This is a site-planning consideration not a ductwork specification, but it commonly drives the routing of the AS 1668.2 outdoor air intake on the adjacent amenity block.
The fastest-growing new infrastructure in the Australian holiday park sector is the dedicated battery charging compound for caravans, motorhomes and electric vehicles. AS 5034 covers the ventilation of secondary battery installations, AS/NZS 3000 covers the electrical wiring, and the relevant state-level building codes cover the structure itself.
For an enclosed charging shed with lead-acid bulk chargers, AS 5034 requires dedicated mechanical exhaust sized to keep hydrogen concentration below 2 percent of the lower explosive limit. Typical sizing is 2 to 4 air changes per hour, with the exhaust grille at high level (hydrogen is lighter than air and accumulates at the ceiling) and the makeup air intake at low level. Duct material is galvanised G300 Z275 because the air handled is dry and hydrogen-free at the duct interior.
For an open carport-style charging compound, natural cross-ventilation is permitted under AS 1668.4 provided the openable area exceeds 5 percent of the floor area and the wind path is unobstructed. Most new-build holiday park EV chargers use this approach because it is cheaper and simpler.
Lithium-only chargers (Tesla Wall Connectors, ChargePoint, Tritium, JET Charge, EVSE Australia units) do not generate hydrogen and avoid the AS 5034 scope for hydrogen exhaust. They still require thermal-management ventilation for the charger unit itself, which is typically a small wall-mounted fan integrated into the charger enclosure.
The ISO 9223 corrosivity classification system rates atmospheric corrosion on a five-level scale from C1 (interior dry) to CX (extreme marine). The Australian east coast holiday park belt — from Coffs Harbour to Phillip Island — sits predominantly in C4 or C5-M. The Northern Territory coast (Bamurru Plains, Kakadu region) sits in C5-M. The Western Australia coral coast (Sal Salis, Ningaloo) sits in C5-M. The Tasmanian east coast (Bay of Fires Lodge) sits in C4 to C5-M depending on exposure.
In C5-M, mild steel corrodes at 80 to 200 g/m²/year. Galvanised G300 Z275 (275 g/m² zinc coating per side) has a calculated coating life of 1.5 to 4 years before red rust starts breaking through, after which the underlying steel corrodes at the bare-steel rate. Grade 304 stainless corrodes at under 5 g/m²/year and is appropriate for all internal locations but can pit at flange joints in heavily chlorinated atmospheres. Grade 316L stainless corrodes at under 1 g/m²/year and is the only economic material choice for outdoor exposed duct on a coastal park.
The practical implication for the fabrication shop is that any holiday park job on the coast needs to fabricate at least three duct material grades on the same project: galvanised for interior conditioned spaces, 304 stainless for amenity block exhaust, and 316L stainless for outdoor exposed runs and pool hall return. The SBKJ SBAL-III auto duct line with the stainless tooling package handles all three on the same machine with a tooling swap between batches — typically a 45-minute changeover for the operator.
Holiday park guest expectations on acoustic comfort have risen sharply over the last decade. The same guest who was happy with NC-45 mechanical noise in a 1990s budget cabin now demands NC-30 in a 2026 premium villa. The acoustic envelope of the park therefore needs to be designed top-down, not specified one-off per building.
The standard targets we recommend:
Achieving these targets is a function of fan selection, duct face velocity at the grille, length of acoustically lined duct between the fan and the first grille, and breakout noise through the duct walls. For a typical holiday park job, the acoustic strategy is folded into the duct fabrication specification with lined flex tails at every diffuser, lined rectangular duct in the first 3 m downstream of every fan, and standard unlined duct elsewhere.
The standard SBKJ machine recommendation for a holiday park duct fabrication shop is:
The fabrication shop layout for a holiday park project is typically a 600 to 1,200 square metre workshop with coil storage at one end, the SBAL-III line running down the centre, the Spiral Tubeformer on a parallel bay, the Stitchwelder dedicated to stainless kitchen exhaust, and a final assembly and packing area at the dispatch end. Total capital outlay for a complete holiday park duct fabrication shop is in the USD 200,000 to USD 400,000 range — well within the budget envelope of any major regional duct contractor servicing the holiday park sector.
A typical major holiday park build runs over 12 to 18 months from ground-breaking to opening. The duct contractor sequencing is:
The single most common scheduling failure we see is the duct contractor arriving on site before the slab and framing are square and plumb. A 10 mm out-of-square slab forces field modifications to every rectangular duct connection, which slows the install by 15 to 25 percent. The pre-fabrication shop discipline is to wait for an as-built dimension check before cutting any duct.
Air balancing on a holiday park is run space by space, with each diffuser balanced to within ±10 percent of design flow. The amenity block exhaust is verified by a 24-hour continuous-run test with humidity sensors at three points to confirm the design exhaust rate is sustained. The pool hall is balanced to a negative pressure of 5 to 10 Pa relative to the adjacent reception, preventing chloraminated air from migrating to the front-of-house.
The function-room fire dampers are tested under the AS 1851 inspection regime — every damper closed and re-opened with the fan running, and the closure verified through the smoke control matrix. The kitchen exhaust is tested with a smoke pencil at the hood face to verify the AS 4674 face velocity meets 0.25 m/s minimum.
Handover documentation includes the as-built duct drawings, the AS 3666 risk management plan if a cooling tower is in scope, the AS 4254 fabrication certificates, the AS 4674 commercial kitchen exhaust certificate from the local council environmental health officer, the AS 1838 pool water treatment commissioning records, and the AS 5034 hydrogen exhaust commissioning records if a battery charging compound is in scope. The operator's facility manager receives a single bound copy of all of the above, plus the operator and maintenance manuals in English.
A well-specified holiday park HVAC system runs 20 to 30 years before major refurbishment. The wear items are the exhaust fans (10 to 15 year service life), the diffuser grilles in the amenity blocks (5 to 8 years in chlorinated air even with stainless), the kitchen exhaust hood and the first metre of horizontal duct (annual cleaning, 8 to 12 year duct replacement), the pool hall return-air filters (quarterly replacement), and the AS 3666 cooling tower fill (annual disinfection, 5 to 7 year fill replacement).
The major duct itself — if specified in the correct material grade — runs the full asset life with no replacement. This is the strongest economic argument for stainless steel in the amenity block and pool hall paths. A galvanised duct that needs replacement at year 7 costs more in install labour than the original duct cost; a stainless duct that lasts 25 years costs 15 to 20 percent more on day one and never needs replacement.
SBKJ Group has supplied duct fabrication machinery to mechanical contractors across the Australian holiday park sector for more than two decades. Our typical customer is a regional mechanical contractor doing 2 to 8 holiday park projects per year alongside their hotel, residential and light-commercial work. The SBKJ machine fleet supports the full material range on a single shop floor.
The SBKJ Box Hill North VIC office handles all Australian and New Zealand pre-sales engineering, contract negotiation and after-sales service. Our engineers reply to spec queries within 12 hours and can run a complete duct fabrication audit on a holiday park project plan within five working days. Cross-reference our companion hotel and hospitality HVAC duct guide for the broader hospitality treatment, our cafe and quick-service restaurant guide for the kitchen exhaust path, our residential HVAC duct guide for the cabin and manager-residence treatment, our marina and yacht club guide for the coastal material selection logic, and our AS 1668.2 Australian ventilation code reference for the standards walkthrough.
Get an itemised SBKJ quote for your holiday park project →
AS 1668.2 requires mechanical exhaust from amenity blocks at 25 L/s per water closet and 25 L/s per shower head, running continuously or on occupancy sensing. For a typical 8-WC / 8-shower amenity block this is 400 L/s of exhaust, balanced by 80 percent makeup air. Outdoor air rates for any conditioned amenity zones still fall under the 5-10 L/s per person occupancy band.
Amenity blocks run at 70-95 percent relative humidity continuously with chlorinated water aerosols and ammonia from urinals. Galvanised duct lasts 4-7 years in this environment. Grade 304 stainless lasts 20+ years and 316L lasts 30+ years in coastal C5-M zones. The 15-20 percent material premium is recovered in the first replacement cycle.
AS 1668.1 covers fire and smoke control. AS 1668.2 sets occupancy-based outdoor air rates of 5-10 L/s per person. AS 4674 governs commercial kitchen exhaust including grease-laden vapour extraction, hood face velocity 0.25-0.5 m/s and stainless duct construction. A BYO camp kitchen is sized to peak occupancy not commercial kitchen rates — typically 8-10 ACH with a single canopy hood.
AS 3666 applies to any cooling tower above 7 kW heat rejection, which large holiday parks typically deploy when central chillers serve the pool, restaurant and function room. Cooling towers require quarterly water sampling, annual cleaning and an authority-registered risk management plan. Smaller parks running individual air-cooled splits avoid AS 3666 scope. Pool water itself is governed by AS 1838.
Premium glamping tents use small inverter split systems (2.5-3.5 kW) with concealed flexible duct routed under the timber decking, with floor or low-wall grilles in 316L stainless to handle coastal salt and high humidity. Acoustic specification is NC-25 to NC-30, achieved through low-noise indoor units, lined flex duct and 4-6 m/s face velocity. SBKJ supplies the stainless rectangular feed duct from plant compound to tent.
AS 5034 covers ventilation of secondary battery installations. For caravan and RV charging compounds with bulk chargers, dedicated mechanical exhaust is required to keep hydrogen below 2 percent of the lower explosive limit — typically 2-4 ACH for an enclosed charging shed. AS/NZS 3000 governs the electrical wiring. Lithium EV chargers do not generate hydrogen but still require thermal-management ventilation.
Got a spec question on a holiday park, caravan park or glamping project? An SBKJ mechanical engineer replies within 12 hours — not a salesperson.
Ask an engineer