Are you wondering which is Australia’s worst resort? This small, forty-year-old timeshare resort located north of Mandurah could fit this description to a tee.
Silver Sands Resort is not actually in the Mandurah Proper. It’s outside that main area. From the roadside, it looks like a prison or some kind of mental institution. On the inside, it attempts to be an enclosed paradise but it’s surrounded by a series of bars, cages and gates. There are some strange bars on top of the roof too. (I half-expected riflemen to be walking back and forth looking for trouble.) There must be a lot of crime in Silver Sands.
A motley group of foul-mouthed gardeners and maintenance men move about the site, led by the world’s worst resort manager, Ivan Hill and his arrogant wife, Dianne. Together, they mishandle the day-to-day running of the resort on behalf of Classic Holidays. The rooms they offer to guests are old, tired that have stairs everywhere (no elevators to the second floor). At night, you can’t even see your way along the resort’s pathways. There are lights all around them but they either don’t work or aren’t used. (Correction: They came on two and a half hours too late!)
It doesn’t have a great vibe. The office staff don’t smile and don’t care. Even the cleaners appear to be down in the mouth. I’ve never experienced such a depressing holiday place in all my life. Silver Sands Resort may well be the worst resort in Australia.
-M