Aussie Toilets for Travellers
How to Find a Public Toilet When Travelling in Australia
Finding a clean, well maintained toilet when travelling can be tricky. Here are two examples of innovative approaches in Australia that help travellers.
Toilets can become a matter of great importance when you’re travelling. It can be a real struggle in an unfamiliar place to find a clean, convenient, convenience!
And if you’re travelling with small children, you know there’s a strong chance you’ll be asked to find a toilet with a fair degree of urgency.
So it helps to plan in advance and know where the best comfort stops are. If you're travelling in Australia, you can look up the location of toilets online. If you're visiting Tasmania, make sure you plan to stop at Campbell Town.
Finding a Toilet When You’re Travelling in Australia
Tasmanian software company Human Solutions was onto a winner when they developed a National Public Toilet Map for the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing in 2004. This website allows Australian travellers to locate toilets in the area they are planning to visit, or even print a list of public toilets and instructions on how to get to them for handy reference. Useful information is provided about each toilet, including location, opening hours, features (such as baby change facilities), accessibility for people with a disability and links to other nearby toilets.
So successful was this initiative that the company was asked to present a paper about the development at the World Toilet Forum in Shanghai, China.
The National Public Toilet Map also allows you to plan your journey by entering your departure point and destination to see a list of all the public toilets along the way.
Don't leave home without it!
How Building a Toilet Block Led to a Tourist Boom
Tasmania is the island state of Australia. You can arrive by car ferry from mainland Australia at Devonport in the North West. It’s then about a three hour drive to the capital city Hobart in the South. Definitely long enough for a toilet stop, particularly if you have children in the car.
The most obvious half-way stopping point is the small rural community of Campbell Town which, until just a few years ago, boasted three gas stations with very basic cafes and amenities. You had to be reasonably desperate to stop and pay a visit.
But all that has changed since the local council had the foresight to build the highway’s best toilet block. Situated to one side of a village green, next to an excellent children’s playground, the toilets are always clean and well maintained, with facilities for the disabled and parents with babies, and there’s plenty of parking.
So welcome has this development been that Campbell Town is now the “toilet of choice” for many users of the highway.
This has had a huge flow-on effect for all the local businesses. High quality coffee shops have sprung up along the main road and the supermarket, newsagency and gift shops capture the passing trade that previously just used to pass without stopping.
The local Member of Parliament even described it as a "Toilet-driven economy".
It is indeed a toilet-led recovery for one rural town.
