SOS Children’s Villages camp site listed for sale with multimillion-dollar price hopes
A campsite for vulnerable children is being sold to raise funds for more targeted family intervention programs.
Hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged children are believed to have stayed at the Clayton Bay campsite, on the Fleurieu Peninsula, which was purchased a decade ago by SOS Children’s Villages, the world’s largest charity for children without parental care.
But a realigning of the Australian arm of the organisation with its overseas operations has prompted the listing of the 3.59-hectare grounds, which is expected to fetch between $2.25m and $2.475m that will be used for intervention and prevention programs.
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SOS Children’s Villages Australia president Peter Whatson said the programs would give better “bang for buck’’ by directly engaging parents of at-risk children, compared to camps that provided short-term respite to young people from ongoing, challenging home environments.
SOS Children’s Villages camp site at Clayton Bay has been listed for sale after more than a decade in operation.
The 3.59ha site has been listed with price hopes of over $2.25m.
The lakefront property has been developed progressively since the 1950s to provide a comfortable standard of accommodation for approximately 80 people.
“We’ve had some really good camps with kids that have come from terribly disadvantaged
backgrounds and … (given them the opportunity to) spend time with children of similar backgrounds’’ Mr Whatson said.
“Sometimes, we would have a scenario of (reuniting) siblings from the same family (who were removed from the care of their parents) that haven’t seen each other for years.
“It’s been a brilliant campsite. It’s changed a lot of lives.
“But the world is changing and we … think we can do a lot more.
“Rather than actually running camps … we have determined to use that money (from the
campsite sale) to self-fund programs … for orphaned children – which could mean children
identified as (being removed from the family home because) their parents have drug issues or
are in jail.
“Family strengthening is a big part of the European model (of SOS Children’s Villages) and we will be looking at that in a little more detail here (in Australia).’’
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Clayton Lodge, built circa 2003, overlooks the lake.
The property comes with a number of buildings, designed to accommodate school groups and outward-bound organisations, with outdoor water sport activities, including canoeing, kayaking, rafting and sailing.
The property is located on the lake at Clayton Bay, approximately 90 kilometres southeast of Adelaide.
Among those to be impacted by the impending sale is Operation Flinders, a not-for-profit that helps teenagers who may be facing challenging life circumstances.
The volunteer-based organisation has long used the Clayton Bay campsite for its Next Step program.
With direct frontage to Lake Alexandrina, the camp offers the opportunity to undertake a range of water activities, including canoeing, kayaking, sailing and rafting, as well as hiking and cycling.
Already, several private schools and community and charity groups have expressed interest in purchasing the campsite, which has a mix of dorm, cabin and lodge-style accommodation to sleep up to 80 people.
The campsite is on the market through Mark Forde of Harris Real Estate, with offers closing on December 4 at 12 noon.
