Camp sites and caravan parks pump up the glam factor
There’s no need to rough it at these holiday spots across the land.
One of the side effects of the coronavirus crisis has been a return to many of the things we had forgotten we love, such as the joy of jigsaw puzzles and the pleasure of making perfect scones or loaves of sourdough. This may also be the year we rediscover how much fun staying in a caravan park or at a camp site can be. If you haven’t been to a van park recently you’re in for a surprise. Modern holiday parks, as they prefer to be known, feature facilities — including cabins and villas — that outclass many bricks-and-mortar resorts. All you have to do is get there.
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BIG4 NRMA South West Rocks Holiday Resort, NSW
Half-hidden by paperbarks beside Trial Bay near the township of South West Rocks on the NSW mid-north coast, this pet-friendly holiday park has been a family favourite for years. It has a fantastic waterpark playground and adventure activities for children, but that’s not why it makes the cut for inclusion on this list. It has a range of cabins, cottages, campsites and powered caravan sites with private ensuites as well as glamping safari tents, but it’s the Ngurra Lodges that steal the show. Decorated with two-storey photographic images of the melaleuca and banksia trees around them, the villas blend in so well with their surroundings they are almost invisible. Inside, expansive windows add to the feeling of being more outside than in. For those who don’t feel like self-catering there’s an on-site restaurant, and it’s an easy stroll into town, which has a good choice of dining venues (a favourite is the bayside pub on the main street). For brunch or lunch with a knockout view, take a 15-minute walk along the beach to the nearby Trial Bay Kiosk beside the sandstone ruins of the convict-built jail.
■ South West Rocks is 460km north of Sydney, 480km south of Brisbane, via the Pacific Highway; big4southwestrocks.com.au.
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BIG4 Apollo Bay Pisces Holiday Park, Victoria
At the time of publishing, camping and caravanning in Victoria is permitted only for travellers who do not need access to shared facilities. Even when these restrictions are lifted, nothing beats having your own bathroom and, while most modern caravans and RVs have onboard toilets and showers, for those travelling in an older rig or a gorgeous vintage van, a caravan site replete with private ensuite is a luxury. BIG4 Apollo Bay Pisces Holiday Park, in the middle section of the Great Ocean Road (pleasantly low on traffic in the absence of international travellers), has drive-through sites. Not having to reverse-park your van at the end of a long day’s haul is a bonus, and an ensuite means no tramping across the park in the middle of the night. Top-end choices are the three-bedroom beach houses that look straight out to sea. The property is on a headland with sweeping ocean views, and a cycle/walking path runs 1.5km along the coast to restaurants in town.
■ Apollo Bay is 190km southwest of Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road;
big4apollobay.com.au.
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Takarakka Bush Resort, Carnarvon Gorge, QLD
Like most modern holiday parks, Takarakka offers the full range of accommodation options, from places to pitch a tent and park a van to cabins, studios and safari tents. But it’s the location that makes this place special, just five minutes from Carnarvon Gorge. One of western Queensland’s most spectacular spots, it has walking trails leading to mossy hanging gardens, cascades, sinuously curved ravines with walls so close you can touch both sides at once, waterholes and rock art galleries. You don’t have to go far to meet wildlife; there are lots of resident kangaroos, echidnas are often seen ambling across the grass and the creek is a great place to see platypus in the early morning or late afternoon. Guided walks through the gorge are available, and the bush bar opens for happy hour each afternoon.
■ Carnarvon Gorge is just over 700km northwest of Brisbane; takarakka.com.au.
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Rawnsley Park, Flinders Ranges, South Australia
One of the oldest sheep stations in the Flinders Ranges, Rawnsley Park is still a working farm shearing about 2000 sheep each year. The owners have been welcoming travellers since 1968, first to simple cabins, then a caravan park and now to luxury eco-villas with skylights for star-gazing in bed. Prepare your own meals — there’s a small shop with groceries in the caravan park — or dine in the Woolshed Restaurant; the slow-cooked station-grown saltbush lamb is superb and there is an extensive list of Southern Flinders and Clare Valley wines. More than just a place to stay, the station is a holiday destination in its own right. It offers a range of bushwalking tracks, scenic flights and 4WD tours to mountain-top lookouts and deep inside the many gorges of Flinders Ranges National Park. A heli-swag experience choppers guests to the top of the Chace Range, where a camp-oven dinner and freshly made-up swag await for an overnight stay and the morning brings a return flight back to the station.
■ Rawnsley Park Station is 430km north of Adelaide via sealed roads;
rawnsleypark.com.au.
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Palm Valley, Red Centre, Northern Territory
Palm Valley is an oasis-like pocket of rare red cabbage tree palm in the middle of the desert on the southern edge of the West MacDonnell Ranges. It’s part of Finke Gorge National Park but the facilities, which include hot showers and flush toilets, are pretty good. Access requires a 4WD and off-road van or trailer. The last 16km follow the sandy bed of the usually dry Finke River and the track beyond the campground to Palm Valley is a bit of an adventure — it’s rocky and slow going — but the 5km walk through the valley is worth it. Alternatively, the two-hour Mpaara Walk climbs to rocky ridgetops for views of a natural amphitheatre. Storyboards along the way recount an Arrernte legend told to children to discourage them from venturing into the hills alone. A shorter 45-minute jaunt goes to Kalarranga Lookout for equally tremendous vistas.
■ Finke Gorge National Park is 140km southwest of Alice Springs;
nt.gov.au/leisure/parks-reserves.
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Lake Argyle Resort, East Kimberley, Western Australia
Lake Argyle Resort is home to possibly the best caravan park pool in the country, a 35m infinity pool overlooking the second-largest man-made lake in the country (beaten by Lake Pedder in Tasmania); it’s 20 times larger than Sydney Harbour. The lake is a fantastic spot to watch the sun go down with a glass of wine in hand. Alternatively, take a sunset cruise or spot birds and wildlife on a morning lake excursion. The waters are home to an estimated 35,000 freshwater crocodiles, the highest density of freshies anywhere in Australia. The caravan and camping area has about 100 shady powered sites, but it also has villas with spectacular lake views. There’s an onsite bar and restaurant and a range of tours and cruises, including Ord River cruises to and from Kununurra.
■ Lake Argyle is 70km south of Kununurra via a sealed road; lakeargyle.com.au.
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Lime Bay, Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania
Port Arthur’s World Heritage-listed convict ruins are well known, but just a few kilometres across the peninsula are the Coal Mines, where the “worst class” of convicts from Port Arthur were sent to be reformed. Forced into hard labour, they had to work, and sometimes live, underground. Wandering around the crowd-free but evocative ruins, with their cramped and gloomy subterranean cells, provides a vastly different experience from the more popular Port Arthur attraction. Lime Bay State Reserve is just 4km from the Coal Mines Historic Site and 40km from Port Arthur, and the large grassy camping area is right on the edge of Lime Bay. It’s basic — there are toilets, a couple of picnic tables and a few fireplaces — but the waterfront outlook more than compensates.
■ Lime Bay State Reserve is 115km southeast of Hobart; parks.tas.gov.au.