Paul and Pam's Website - Queensland Australia
April 2024 - a shortish trip north
In between doctors, optometrists and audiology visits we decided on a short north trip...probably just over two weeks. This trip will be over familiar territory, good reason for this: at this time of the year a phenonium occurs, it is called the Great Mexican Stampede, it commences just before ANZAC Day, thousands of southerners (Mexicans) start their annual trek north, caravans, motorhomes all with 'foreign' plates, while they are welcome they do tend to take over many of the popular campsites, with this in mind we aimed to stop at places we knew were big enough and unlikely to be chokka. Likewise we booked ahead at several caravan parks, something we rarely do. Click on the buttons below to see where we went.
Our first stop on this trip...Wooroolin RV camp is a place we have often visited, about 200km from home up the South Burnett, a little north of Kingaroy....just one night here.
Elliott Heads Tourist Park....some 15 km from Bundaberg, on the coast. Click below for slide show.
ANZAC Day Dawn Service - while in Elliot Heads we attended the dawn service...a truly moving experience...see our shots below. Click below for slide show.
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Maryborough Equestrian Park and Showgrounds.
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This is a huge camping area...located just 5 km from Maryborough....everything needed is here, not many trees however, shade is lacking. You would be hard pressed not to find a site here. Sites are booked online, a QR code is displayed on the amenities block notice board.
Click below for a slide show.
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Yallakool caravan park on Lake Barambah (aka Bjelke-Petersen Dam)
Yallakool has been a favourite campong spot for us for a number of years...the park is well run, the sites are of a decent size and the location is very relaxing....mobile coverage and WiFi is hit and miss and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The park has all we need, good water, dump point and level sites, a choice of cement slabs or grass...there is a small shop with necessities but is just a 20 km drive to the town of Goomeri. Click below for some photos we took.
Sadly, our stay at Yallakool was to be cut short by one day....on the Friday, the start of a long weekend, many, many campers arrived...we became stuck within some 9 groups!...There were many kids and as we were pretty much in the middle of these groups our site was continually being overrun by people, and kids, running through...during the evenings the parents would all gather and totally forget the kids who ran rampant....the noise continued to almost 11 pm...we decided to pack up and forfeit one nights site charge and go to somewhere quieter....we were to return to Wooroolin, a free camp!
The park has all we need, good water, dump point and level sites, a choice of cement slabs or grass...there is a small shop with necessities but is just a 20 km drive to the town of Goomeri. Click below for some photos we took.
Sadly, our stay at Yallakool was to be cut short by one day....on the Friday, the start of a long weekend, many, many campers arrived...we became stuck within some 9 groups!...There were many kids and as we were pretty much in the middle of these groups our site was continually being overrun by people, and kids, running through...during the evenings the parents would all gather and totally forget the kids who ran rampant....the noise continued to almost 11 pm...we decided to pack up and forfeit one nights site charge and go to somewhere quieter....we were to return to Wooroolin, a free camp!
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Chinchilla Showgrounds, Chinchilla.
Our move from Yallakool was vindicated...we arrived in Chinchilla Showgrounds, some 200km to the south west, to clear sunny skies, a light breeze and 25 degrees!...The BOM folk were spot on when they said 'for sunshine, go west young man'.
Chinchilla Showgrounds is up there with our best showgrounds....there is always plenty of room, many power boxes and potable water taps, our closest neighbour was about 300 m away!
The township of Chinchilla has everything one could want...we returned to the RSL for a meal (We are members). We have stayed here many times so didn't do much sightseeing, except a short drive to the Chinchilla Weir, a very popular RV camp is there, some powered sites but you would need to get there early for one of them....plenty of unpowered sites however. The weir was overflowing too.
Being a long weekend there were a lot there but still room to spare.
Chinchilla Showgrounds is up there with our best showgrounds....there is always plenty of room, many power boxes and potable water taps, our closest neighbour was about 300 m away!
The township of Chinchilla has everything one could want...we returned to the RSL for a meal (We are members). We have stayed here many times so didn't do much sightseeing, except a short drive to the Chinchilla Weir, a very popular RV camp is there, some powered sites but you would need to get there early for one of them....plenty of unpowered sites however. The weir was overflowing too.
Being a long weekend there were a lot there but still room to spare.
Wooroolin revisited
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Our move from Yallakool was vindicated...we arrived in Chinchilla Showgrounds to clear sunny skies, a light breeze and 25 degrees!...The BOM folk were spot on when they said 'for sunshine, go west young man'.
Chinchilla Showgrounds is up there with our best showgrounds....there is always plenty of room, many power boxes and potable water taps, our closest neighbour was about 300 m away!
The township of Chinchilla has everything one could want...we returned to the RSL for a meal (We are members). We have stayed here many times so didn't do much sightseeing, except a short drive to the Chinchilla Weir, a very popular RV camp is there, some powered sites but you would need to get there early for one of them....plenty of unpowered sites however. The weir was overflowing too.
Being a long weekend there were a lot there but still room to spare.
Chinchilla Showgrounds is up there with our best showgrounds....there is always plenty of room, many power boxes and potable water taps, our closest neighbour was about 300 m away!
The township of Chinchilla has everything one could want...we returned to the RSL for a meal (We are members). We have stayed here many times so didn't do much sightseeing, except a short drive to the Chinchilla Weir, a very popular RV camp is there, some powered sites but you would need to get there early for one of them....plenty of unpowered sites however. The weir was overflowing too.
Being a long weekend there were a lot there but still room to spare.
The Chinchilla Showgrounds stay was our final stop on this trip.
We have come to the conclusion that the caravanning scene in Australia has changed completely...we have been involved with camping and caravanning for almost half a century!. Sadly, many of the changes we see are not for the better. Many folk have now joined the 'craze' and the result is packed roads and campsites. The cost of using a caravan park anywhere near the coast, and not just during school holidays, is now ridiculous, a site fee of $60 to $80 and more is beyond us and many in similar situations to us, We are pensioners but rarely do we find and site rate discounts.
Our favourite site are what we can find in places such as Chinchilla Showgrounds above....places like this can still be found but they are no longer common...we hear that many local county councils, the common owners of showgrounds are being pressured to either restrict, or even stop caravanners staying there. This leaves recreation grounds and free campsites, these spots can still be found but one needs to search for then, many of these do not have power facilities which even when one has solar batteries and batteries we need mains power for our washing machine.
This may sound somewhat depressing but we have no intention of just staying home...we expect our future trips will be shorter and we have a list of favourite places we intend to return to....so, please call back occasionally, perhaps slip us an email to hear of our plans. paulfgreig@gmail.com
Thank you for following along and the best of luck to you. You may wish to see the Home Page of our website....the link is below.
We have come to the conclusion that the caravanning scene in Australia has changed completely...we have been involved with camping and caravanning for almost half a century!. Sadly, many of the changes we see are not for the better. Many folk have now joined the 'craze' and the result is packed roads and campsites. The cost of using a caravan park anywhere near the coast, and not just during school holidays, is now ridiculous, a site fee of $60 to $80 and more is beyond us and many in similar situations to us, We are pensioners but rarely do we find and site rate discounts.
Our favourite site are what we can find in places such as Chinchilla Showgrounds above....places like this can still be found but they are no longer common...we hear that many local county councils, the common owners of showgrounds are being pressured to either restrict, or even stop caravanners staying there. This leaves recreation grounds and free campsites, these spots can still be found but one needs to search for then, many of these do not have power facilities which even when one has solar batteries and batteries we need mains power for our washing machine.
This may sound somewhat depressing but we have no intention of just staying home...we expect our future trips will be shorter and we have a list of favourite places we intend to return to....so, please call back occasionally, perhaps slip us an email to hear of our plans. paulfgreig@gmail.com
Thank you for following along and the best of luck to you. You may wish to see the Home Page of our website....the link is below.