Camping area for kids

Definitely try Wee Jasper – pet friendly, kid friendly. The main camping area has showers, toilets, playground and bbq, all right on the river. Other camping reserves not so many facilities but still fantastic and all have proper toilets. Micalong Creek has terrific swimming hole! It’s only 1 hour from Canb.

Oops – bad spelling on Orroral.

Saltwater Beach is booked out during school summer holidays. Don’t even bother making the drive without ringing the National Parks office first. If you avoid Victorian school holidays and Victorian long weekends, you should be fine.

Mt Clear is pretty good. Aurural Valley is good too. Avoid both in high fire danger weather.

For a trip a little further afield you could try Saltwater Creek in Ben Boyd National Park. Great fishing, a nice beach, the occasional seal and really nice camping spots amongst the trees. It gets really busy in peak times – Summer school holidays, easter etc. but I’ve been there in February and March and there might be one of two other campers there. The road it can be a bit rough, but very do-able in a 2WD if you take it easy.

Brou Beach south of Bodalla – has a dry dunny – no shower. Beach not optimum for swimming – steep shelving, but the camping is nice, the other users, it being off the track a bit tend not to be of the bogan fringe and in season the fruit bats are a joy to watch – and there is a lake to paddle a canoe around in.

Lilli, The road to Mt Clear campsite is a combination of sealed and unsealed roads, which is able to be driven by two wheel drive vehicles. Your VW should be fine if you don’t mind a few bumps and a bit of road dust. You must turn left of the dirt road to access the campsite, if you just veer left you’ll not miss it. The Namadji visitor centre is along the sealed part of that road a couple of clicks past Tharwa on the left, you shouldn’t miss that too. I can’t help you with the price.

Try Micalong Creek at Wee Jasper. 100km easy drive from Canberra. It’s quiet 99% of the year and you can swap the shower for a swim in the waterhole complete with waterfall (ok it’s only a small one but it’s great on a hot day).

For anyone who has recently been to Mt Clear: what is the road like on the way out there? I had a look via the map provided and can not really tell whether the last approx 10-15k are sealed or unsealed? We only have a small VW hatchback and I’m wondering whether this would make the drive or not?

Also, are the campsites clearly indicated when you are approaching or are they easy to miss? Last silly question: where on earth is Namadgi Visitor’s Centre and how much is a camping permit?

Sorry for all the questions – I haven’t been camping by myself (used to go with Scouts) so I’ve never really had to worry about these things previously!

I second Woods Reserve, I was there last weekend. If you want to go a little further, Abercrombie Caves out behind Goulburn is fantastic, with a great river, caves to explore, yabbies to catch and not too crowded but probably other kids for him to play with.

Here ya go, http://www.tams.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/13243/campinginnamadgi0504.pdf. Any of these are recommended and are listed in order of distance from the burbs.

Annon Gungan, Yes, there are several short bushwalks to lookouts with spectacular views. Take a camera and binoculars. Cunninghams Gap is at the top of the great dividing range along the inland road from Brisbane thruogh Sydney, and is a place bushwalkers and campers should experience.