Sunday, Aug 20, 2017 at 10:56
My opinion of Gnaraloo? Well, we stayed in the "premium" stone cabins for a couple of days, and the points below, sum up our experience.
1. The 75kms from Quobba to Gnaraloo has to be the worst "road" I've experienced in quite a while.
I knew it wasn't all that flash, from research I did, prior to leaving - but it was in exceptionally poor condition.
Couldn't get over about 70kmh for most of that section, with many sections down to 30kmh.
The road was littered with lost tentpoles, broken-off mudguards, and a multitude of broken pieces of caravan, camper trailer and boat trailer components, that had all fallen off on the corrugations and potholes.
Despite that, people had towed on-road caravans up to Gnaraloo. I hate to think what condition the frames of their vans were in, after that road!
2. Gnaraloo is a great spot, with something for everyone - fishing, surfing, parasailing, great beach at Gnaraloo Bay, and just plain relaxation.
3. The Station owners obviously do everything on a shoestring budget, which shows in everything they do.
They would be better off to borrow some money, and use it to upgrade their facilities to a better standard all-round, and to present a more professional operation.
Perhaps the problem is that no-one will lend them any money. I do know the stations have a problem with the pastoral-lease, land-use regulations, and I understand the W.A. Govt and various groups are working on solutions to provide better laws and regulations, to assist station owners to provide better tourist facilities, within the framework of pastoral leases.
The campsites are just that - remote campsites, with only tracks leading to them.
There's a small
shop at the 3 Mile
Camp, selling basics, and a pretty average condition toilet block located there.
4. The stone cabins are very basic, and you get a choice of positions. Their layout looks like they fell out of an aeroplane, with their landing spot down to chance.
For the money, they are pretty poor value - unless you reckon the scenery, views, and location, are worth 90% of the cost.
Our cabin had windows so filthy, you were battling to see any view! Yes, I know it's a remote spot, and the fine brown bulldust is everywhere - but these people run a completely understaffed operation.
The furniture in the cabin was pretty disgusting for $180 a night. I reckon I've seen better couches thrown out on the kerb, than what the cabin was equipped with. Fair dinkum, I reckon they salvaged it from a tip in
Carnarvon!
It was totally unusable. I wouldn't let my dogs sleep on it, for fear of them becoming crippled.
The stove installation appeared to be half-finished, and it appeared to be a used stove that was installed. The griller never worked, but the oven did. One stovetop burner never worked. The beds were all shockers - luckily we took our two mattress toppers, and we needed them both!
We could cope with the limited power alright - but the filthy, ancient outside BBQ needed to be dumped and replaced with a new one.
However, the shower and hot water setup was quite satisfactory, as was the general basic layout of the cabins.
5. Some more rule-tightening around the operation is needed. We didn't appreciate the dropkick couple in the cabin right next door, who lit up their firepit with a pile of smoky wood - and who then sat around it, smoking, while they burnt all their beer carton boxes, plastic rubbish, and other disgusting smelly rubbish - not caring that the wind blew all the smoke and stink into our cabin.
There are some people you need 400 metres space, away from. Can't really blame the Gnaraloo Station owners for the bad habits of some campers, but tight camping rules are needed when dealing with lots of visitors of varying habits. The best
places we stay in, are tightly-run - such as
Eighty Mile Beach.
6. No internet, no TV, and none of the "necessary" accoutrements of "civilisation" definitely make it a "remote" experience.
Once the kids get over whinging about not being able to Farcebook or get on the 'net, they will probably find the simple pleasures again, such as running on the beach, climbing rocks, sliding down dunes, and finding strange bits of flotsam and jetsam, and strange little animals and bugs.
We're long past having kids to worry about and control, but I can remember what it's like.
7. To sum up, Gnaraloo is a lovely spot, but it's let down by station owners who lack professionalism in their camping and accommodation planning, and execution.
They carry out improvements with inadequate inputs, both in money and in labour, and with inadequate planning.
Everything is higgledy-piggledy in layout, with tracks running everywhere, amateur signage, and everything possessing an air of poverty-stricken desperation.
The fact that they are still running goats (on both Gnaraloo and Quobba) is particularly bad - and I note that quite a number of people are exceptionally angry about these station owners still running them, when these stations are already marginal, and already degraded.
This country is the superfine, brown-bulldust type of dirt that blows and breaks down immediately the cover is removed, and the topsoil is exposed.
Running goats should never be allowed on these two stations, under any circumstances.
The access road into Gnaraloo needs a lot of money spent on it, and despite the station owners best efforts, it still falls a long way short of being acceptable.
It really needs some major expenditure on it, but I can't ever see the Gnaraloo owners ever doing that.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay there, but we felt we didn't get value for money. For the campers, who relish the "bare-bones" setup of having to be almost totally self-sufficient, and who like to feel they have left "civilisation" behind, Gnaraloo probably rates very highly - even if you do half-wreck the camper or van, just to get there!
Cheers, Ron.
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