Category Archives: Explore Australia

Top 5 most popular campsites in Australia

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Johanna Beach, Tourism Victoria

In the list of the top five most popular campsites on the Explore Australia website, only Victoria and Queensland make an appearance, leaving Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, in the dust.

The most popular camping area, Darlington Park camping area in Queensland, just beat out Victoria’s Johanna Beach camping spot for the top spot. Although Johanna Beach tends to be more popular in the warmer months, Darlington Park prevailed due to all of the campers who head north for winter.

Here’s the top five in order of popularity.

1. Darlington Park camping area, Beaudesert, Queensland

Arrive at Darlington Park camping area’s 12 hectares of well-shaded grounds and you’ll start to understand why this campsite is so popular. Add in a cricket oval along with a playground for the kids, plus friendly staff and excellent facilities (as well as being dog-friendly), and you’ll soon be adding your voice to the chorus of fantastic reviews Darlington Park camping area gets on our website.

Around 25 kilometres outside of Beaudesert, this camping area is an easy stop for people travelling up the inland route from Victoria to Queensland.

2. Johanna Beach camping area, Great Otway National Park, Victoria

Just off the Great Ocean Road, hidden behind sand dunes at one of the best surf beaches in Victoria, Johanna Beach camping area really doesn’t need further explanation of its popularity. While facilities are limited (you need to bring your own water), people come here for a quiet and relaxing weekend at one of the most scenic campsites in Australia. Anything else is an added extra. Best of all, Johanna Beach is free, dog-friendly and doesn’t take bookings. So it’s first in best dressed!

3. Burgess Park camping area, Beaudesert, Queensland

The sister campsite to Darlington Park camping area, Burgess Park is around 10 kilometres further out of Beaudesert. It is also significantly smaller, covering 1.2 hectares of land. But it is still a great spot to camp, and it backs on to Christmas Creek, which means there are plenty of opportunities for fishing and swimming.

4. Sheepyard Flat camping area, Howqua Hills Historic Area, Victoria

Sheepyard Flat camping area in Victoria’s High Country is located in the Howqua Hills Historic Area, an old gold-mining district. This is a delightful campsite, with easy access to bikeriding, horseriding, fishing, swimming, 4WD tracks and walking paths along Howqua River. Being quite a big camping area, Sheepyard Flat is popular with groups. If you are after a more isolated spot, there are more secluded sites further up in the historic area, including Davons camping area.

5. Blanket Bay camping area, Great Otway National Park, Victoria

Blanket Bay camping area is so popular with campers you have to enter a ballot to camp there over the summer and Easter holidays. Along with Johanna Beach camping area, Blanket Bay is in Great Otway National Park, although these sites are at opposite ends of the national park.

To the south-west of Apollo Bay, Blanket Bay is only around 30 kilometres from the spectacular Cape Otway Lighthouse and is one of the only campsites that gives Johanna Beach a run for the crown of most scenic campsite in Victoria. A well-shaded camping area, it’s also near an ocean beach.

 

 

     

Top 5 spring national parks

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Spring is the perfect time to get out and explore Australia, as wildflowers are blooming into brightly coloured life, especially in our national parks.

We’ve picked our top five national parks to visit this spring, whether you’re planning a daytrip, a weekender or an extended adventure. And while we haven’t included any national parks that shut over the wet season on the list, early spring is your last chance to visit many of the national parks in the Northern Territory, Queensland, and even a few in Western Australia and South Australia.

Finke Gorge National Park, Northern Territory

Finke Gorge is one of the most spectacular national parks in the Northern Territory. The park’s most famous attraction is Palm Valley, where you’ll find the graceful shapes of red cabbage palms (Livistona mariae), a plant species that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

The main activities in the park are bushwalking and four-wheel driving. But if you feel up to a more challenging and extended trek, you can head to the neighbouring MacDonnell Ranges National Park, where you’ll find sections of the Larapinta Trail.

Finke Gorge National Park is about two hours west of Alice Springs, and there’s limited camping in the park.

Fitzgerald River National Park, Western Australia

If you love native wildflowers, Fitzgerald River has more than 1800 types of plant species on show. The park is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, in recognition of its stunning array of flora.

Spring is the best time to visit, with a variety of activities on offer to visitors. For naturalists, you can enjoy some birdwatching, or watch whales frolicking off the coast until the end of October. There are also a variety of walking tracks, as well as excellent fishing and inland kayaking.

Grampians National Park, Victoria

One of Victoria’s best-loved national parks, the Grampians bursts into a riot of colour over spring. This is celebrated in the Grampians Wildflower Show, held in Halls Gap in October.

It’s hard to get bored in the Grampians. In between enjoying the flora and fauna (the Grampians are home to over a third of Victoria’s animal species), you can go fishing, bikeriding, horseriding, rock climbing, abseiling, canoeing, walking, swimming or take a scenic drive.

Mount Remarkable National Park, South Australia

Situated at the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, Mount Remarkable lives up to its name with a stunning array of wildlife and native plants. From kangaroos to possums and lace monitors, you’ll be kept busy with wildlife-watching opportunities. The national park is also home to some beautiful plant species, including a variety of wattles, blue gums, river red gums and orchids.

Bushwalking is the main activity in the national park, with the epic Heysen Trail passing through its boundaries. But as well as studying the native animals, you can take a look at some manmade historic artefats, with some remains of European settlement still visible.

Wollemi National Park, New South Wales

Wollemi National Park feels almost like a magical wilderness, especially since the Wollemi pine, a new-to-us plant species, was discovered here in 1994. And although you’re not allowed to visit the pine, it makes the park feel like a prehistoric playground just waiting to be discovered.

Situated in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, the park is only a couple of hours from Sydney, and has plenty of activities to enjoy, from canoeing on the Colo River to birdwatching some of the 235 bird species in the park. The park is also a rich source of Aboriginal history.

What’s your favourite national park to visit in spring?

Image credits: Grampians National Park, Tourism Victoria; Palm Valley, Tourism Northern Territory; Alligator Gorge, Flinders Ranges, SATC; Wollemi National Park, Destination New South Wales

 

     

On the road with the Filmer family

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Jasmine Filmer is back on the blog to share the unique hurdle her family had to overcome when planning their road trip, and where in Australia they are now.

When planning our road trip, we did have to overcome a major logistical problem. My husband has a rare blood condition that requires fortnightly infusions of a drug at a hospital, so we had to plan our trip to make sure we could get it to each of the treatment locations. There are other patients in various parts of Australia receiving this treatment, but none in Central Australia or the Top End (which was where we wanted to spend a fair bit of our time). Thankfully, doses were arranged in Alice Springs and Darwin, which meant our trip could become a reality.

We have done over 20 000 kilometres since leaving home. We had made it to Central Australia on the morning of our fourth day and the kids loved Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon. We weren’t sure how they’d go on the walks as they were pretty long (3 hours for Kings Canyon), but they both did a great job.

After the Red Centre, we headed across the Tanami Track and into the Bungle Bungles. Mark and I had done the Tanami 10 years ago on our honeymoon and it hasn’t improved one bit! It was still very hot and humid at the Bungle Bungles (38.6°C in the shade at 9.45am after we’d returned from our walk), and I have never seen the kids sweat so much in their lives.

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Picking vehicle-based accommodation: part 2

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Part 2 of our round-up of the vehicle-based accommodations on offer, and the pros and cons of each.

5th wheeler

More popular in the US than in Australia, the 5th wheeler is gradually making some penetration into the Australian touring market. They are commonly imported from the US, which can be difficult when it comes to the decor, repair, support and maintenance aspects of these vehicles.

Five years ago, Mick and Julie threw in their jobs, cars and house, and moved into a decked out 5th wheeler. They hit the road and have been travelling Australia ever since. They chose a 5th wheeler because it offered them more room than a conventional caravan. With three slide-out sections it meant the couple could stretch out when setting up for longer periods of time. The height of the roof was also much higher than other caravans they looked at.

Mick and Julie, who are currently in Queensland, love their 5th wheeler, but admit that the scarcity of 5th wheelers in Australia means that caravan parks are occasionally not suitably equipped to accommodate for the size of their rig – and parking can sometimes be a problem.

Camper

A camper is a family-friendly option that won’t break the budget. It’s part caravan, part trailer, with the base and roof generally made of fibreglass, while the middle section is canvas. Because campers can compact down, they are very fuel efficient, and once expanded out, offer plenty of space for sleeping, eating and relaxing.

While a camper does require a bit of set-up upon arrival at your destination, converting the trailer into holiday accommodation is quick and easy. The normal layout of a camper is with beds at each end, comfortably accommodating a family of four.

Add-ons, such as annexes, can expand this living space even further. As campers are fitted with off-road suspension, camper owners can generally take their vans wherever they want, even off the beaten track.

Camper Trailer

A camper trailer tows like a trailer, but once set up provides cosy tent accommodation.

Billy and Jane Hodge and their four kids regularly camp with their camper trailer ‘Colin’. They’ve even completed an epic Australian road trip with the trailer tagging along behind.

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