Judy and Lorraine Golightly with their coveted award

VICTORIA'S Beacon Resort at Queenscliff is celebrating after being named Australia's best tourist and caravan park.

The park, a member of the BIG4 chain, collected the prestigious accolade at the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards in Hobart.

Owner Lorraine Golightly commented: "This is the start of our 40th year at BIG4 Beacon. It is a thrill to win this converted award and be a part of such an exciting and growing industry.  Our team work tirelessly to achieve excellence in customer service ... and this is a great recognition to their dedication."

It now offers an indoor heated pool and therapeutic eight-seater spa, tennis court, games room, function room, giant jumping pillow and a year-round free activities program for children.

Beacon Resort also recently installed architecturally designed cabins which, it claims, have set a new standard for Victorian holiday parks. They have all the modern conveniences, including an iPod dock, adjoining deck with a private BBQ, LCD television and stone top benches.

The park, which records more than 100,000 visitor nights a year, has collected more than 30 awards since being founded in a cow paddock in 1970.

BIG4 Holiday Parks chief executive officer Terry Goodall congratulated the park on its "fantastic achievement".

"They have worked hard to provide unique facilities for visitors and to maintain a standard that distinguishes BIG4 as industry leaders," he said.

Six of the seven nominees for the award were BIG4 members. They were the Deniliquin Paringa Holiday Park (NSW), Renmark Riverfront Holiday Park (SA), St Helens Holiday Park (TAS), MacDonnell Range Holiday Park (NT) and Beachlands Holiday Park (WA).

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