Discipline and Punish in the Caravan World

"In examining the construction of the prison as the central means of criminal punishment, Foucault builds a case for the idea that prison became part of a larger “carceral system” that has become an all-encompassing sovereign institution in modern society. Prison is one part of a vast network, including schools, military institutions, hospitals, and factories (and caravan parks?), which build a panoptic society for its members. This system creates “disciplinary careers” (Discipline and Punish, 300) for those locked within its corridors." (Wikipedia)  It seems the managers of our Townsville caravan park have been reading Foucault. They are pursuing a disciplinary career and seek to create a Panopticon for their subjects, who will become docile under The Gaze of Management. Little do they realise this only makes delinquents of us all. Here is a small selection of the park's disciplinary signage, the full extent of which it took us most of our stay to read. 

The one above was particularly hilarious, it concerns speeding and says, in part: "Don't think for 1 minute that you will not be seen speeding in the early hours of the morning or late at night, someone is always watching."

The many pleas about "santitary items" (sic) were reasonable enough, but the following one brought out the delinquent in me.

I wanted to amend it to say, "When you flush, please don't use the brush because that's what you pay us to do"


Time to get out of caravan parks and do some more unplugged camping.