IT LOOKS a holiday resort, but for some it’s a last resort.

Aspley Acres Caravan Park is a place people go when they have nowhere else to go. A refuge for Brisbane’s struggling underclass.

Out of sight, until a police helicopter hovers overhead and officers storm through doorways in the early morning.

“We call it Junkieville,” says shirtless resident, Caleb Smithson, 17.

“I came here because I had nowhere to stay. I need to get out. It’s a freaking s---hole.

“There’s a crime scene once a week, on a good week. I walked into the toilets one day and there was a dude sitting there with the door open, shooting up. My little brother comes to see me. I don’t want him seeing that.”

The Courier-Mail was speaking to Caleb hours after police swooped on the park in a crackdown on squatting and anti-social behaviour.

The night before, a man was on the street with a knife, yelling about losing access to his son, says Caleb, who was not among those arrested yesterday.

About a week ago a caravan burnt down. Three weeks ago a policeman was bitten during a fight.

CRACKDOWN: Forty cops raid crime-ridden caravans

Gum trees, fig trees and jacarandas form a peaceful canopy over the caravans and cabins, 13km north of the plush apartment and office towers of the CBD.

It’s a roof over the head for 800 people – families, singles, pensioners.

There’s a four-week minimum stay. Not everyone makes it that long, but others have been here for decades.

An 86-year-old widower and resident of more than 20 years says: “It’s like the three little monkeys. You see nothing, you hear nothing, you speak nothing. Otherwise you might not wake up the next morning.

“It’s a halfway house – half way between a nut house and a jail. That’s as far as I’ll say.”

True to form, he does not want to give his name.

Across from him, a young, heavily-tattooed man pulls out a silver cask of wine, plonks it to the ground in front of a caravan and pours himself a drink. It is just after midday.

After the commotion of the early morning raids, when media joined the police on the residents’ doorsteps yesterday, all is quiet.

The place is spotless. Not a piece of rubbish on the street. Painters splash a fresh white coat on the buildings. Some of the structures are old, but most are neat and tidy. Then a woman walks down one of the pleasant, narrow lanes, red-faced, furious and screaming.

“Come and fight me you c---,” she yells, taking a swing at a companion.

Caleb, the shirtless teen, says: “Now you get an idea of what it’s like here. If you come here for a day, you’ll know what this place is all about.”

The cleaners here are first class, residents say.

Lesley Anne Wratt has been living in one of the caravans with her husband Steve since May last year after moving over from New Zealand following the Christchurch earthquake.

“It’s s--- to live at Aspley but we’re stuck,’’ Ms Wratt, who is strongly opposed to drugs and crime, says.

The owner of the park, Warren – he doesn’t want his surname used to shield his family – says it is nothing like it has been portrayed.

He says people who go on camera and sound off about his caravan park being the most dangerous place in Brisbane are grabbing their 15 seconds of fame.

He takes me on a tour. Offers to meet me at 2am or 3am. It’s safer here than in the CBD or Fortitude Valley any day, he says.

People are there who, because of job loss, ill health or relationship breakdowns, would be on the street without the caravan park.

Ex-cons come there, he confirms. But the majority, whatever their background, work. A resident arrives in a high-visibility work jacket as he speaks.

“We give people a chance. We talk to them. We ask them if they will live by the rules,” he says. “It’s a good community. It looks after people who may not have a credit rating that would allow them to rent conventional housing.

“They rebuild their credit rating here. They pay on time, they transition back to traditional housing.”

Drugs are everywhere in society, he says. Assaults can happen anywhere.

“I’m not saying all is right in the world. I’m saying we’re no worse than other places.”

When people play up and break the rules, they’re evicted. But there’s a legal process. It takes time.

There’s a long line of other landlords there too, but there’s a stigma with caravan parks that see them singled out.

Warren says you wouldn’t see police blocking off and storming an entire housing estate – but the results would probably be similar.

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media_camera Aspley Acres caravan park resident Harken Kochan and son Cypress. Picture: Glenn Barnes

DRUGS RULE THE ‘ROUGHEST PLACE IN QUEENSLAND’

DAD Harken Kochan is reluctant to leave his partner and three-month-old son alone at their home in the Aspley Acres Caravan Park.

“It’s the roughest place in Queensland,” Mr Kochan said. “It’s not for the weak-hearted … you’ve got to be ready to stand your ground because I’m telling you it gets rough, especially weekends, it gets really rough.

“You see fights all the time and people getting stabbed and apparently a caravan got burned down a week or two ago.”

The 23-year-old said the drug deals that riddle the park are not often in public view but the violence is on show. He noted the culture nearby community cafe owner Adam James alluded to, whereby threats are made against those willing to speak with police.

“If anyone goes to the cops they’ll just get beaten straight up,” Mr Kochan said.

Mr James told The Courier-Mail of a case where an informant had a brick thrown through her window with a death threat attached.

Despite seeing a police presence every day, Mr Kochan said he’d welcome even more frequent visits by authorities.

“If there was police there more that would be better for me,” he said. Things are so bad he says he and partner Ashleigh Kochan, 21, are looking to move away with son Cypress.

“It’s not a place to live long-term at all,” he said.

Neither Mr or Ms Kochan nor Mr James were charged in yesterday’s raid.

Tom Buchanan, 21, was arrested and charged with breaching bail because he was meant to reside at another address. He returned to the park yesterday to collect his belongings and his pregnant girlfriend.

Buchanan said the couple spent a couple of nights in a friend’s caravan at Aspley after being kicked out of their previous home. He said he had lived on the streets since he was 11.

He was facing drug-related charges and a burglary charge for breaking into his mum’s place.

His mum found him inside her home, cooking a meal, and called the police.

Now, he said, only Aspley Acres was standing between him and a prison cell.

“I can’t go homeless because then I’m under arrest and off to jail,” he said.