The name change is part of an overall business plan approved by Port Stephens Council on October 28.

The council is moving ahead with plans to turn the disused resort into a low-cost camp ground with a target to open before this Christmas.

The council was successful in its bid to pay a reduced rent to Crown Land which owns the site on Gan Gan Road at One Mile Beach.

The result was pivotal to council's plans for a camp ground, with further money to be made through the sell-off of the resort's 11 cabins for tender early next year.

According to council's corporate services manager Carmel Foster the cabins will still be available during the Christmas break up to when they are sold.

Until the proceeds from this sale are made the council will have to front $450,000 from the property reserve for basic setup costs, administration and marketing, leaving some questioning the site's worth.

Councillor Geoff Dingle said the site has cost ratepayers between $15 and $17 million since the council purchased it in 2001.

When the council bought the resort for about $2 million it was a nudist retreat which was turned into an eco resort, before a several unsuccessful trading seasons saw it close in 2013.

Port Stephens Council has repeatedly tried to sell the site, with no adequate tenders leading to a fresh idea to relaunch it as a camping ground.

"You've got to ask what they were thinking," Cr Steve Tucker said at the meeting.

"A beach resort that's a kilometre from a beach, and an unpatrolled nudist beach."