Bush Camping in the Top End

In Kakadu stay well away from the water :)

I did not PRE book any camp sites, I was there in June/August.

Maîneÿ . . .

Gooday,
it can get pretty busy in the Kakadu/Darwin region during the dry season, and at times it can be difficult to find a free spot in a van park. However, my suggestion is that you book in advance where you can (3-4 days ahead at least). That way, you can plan something else for a few days if they are booked out. Even finding camping spots in the NP can be difficult at times, especially when all the tour operators have pre booked camping sites.

A little planning and common sense and you'll be fine. Just have all phone numbers etc on hand so that you can arrange bookings without having to chase numbers and locations.
regards

Thanks for your reply. I'm sure this question has been asked by many and often, but as a new adventurer to the top end, I'm beginning to get over whelmed. I'm well experienced in camping in the outback of S.A., but interstate is another question.

Hi sq58,

Recommend visiting this Kimberley website which is run by a very knowledgeable Kununura lady, and is a rich source of Kimberley material. Unfortunately, free bush camping is now very limited in the Kimberley, in fact virtually non-existent unless you risk ignoring the wishes of the land owners.

On the above site you'll find a free downloadable guidebook - well worth the download, and details of a more comprehensive guidebook available for purchase. Highly recommend.

It's a wonderful area. Enjoy!

HTH

John

I bush-camp wherever I can find a place.

Yeah well...Kakadu has restrictive camping i.e normally booked and paid camping. May/June it shouldn't be too busy there and booking may not be essential

Outside of National Parks, my rule of thumb is that if there isn't a fence deliberately keeping me out, I will find a camp a short way into the scrub and out of sight. There are many places throughout the north....just follow your nose :-) I start looking for a likely camp from 3.30pm each day.

In all my years of traversing this land I have never been moved on. Warned, yes...but never moved on ...LOL


Cheers

We just nose a couple of 100 m into the scrub if it's open enough.

At the larger watercourses there's often a track or two along the banks which can make it easy. However, there weren't many of these on the Gibb it has to be said.

But there is very good free camping at Willare bridge at the Derby end.

Cheers.

Ok, let me help.

May I suggest you travel the Kimberley in May/ mid June, The Kimberley should be well open by this time, whereas Kakadu is still opening up in May.

I haven't been to the Kimberley for a while so I can't help much in the way of camping.

However, I live in Kakadu. There is no free camping as such, but it is $5 per person per night for basic bush camps and $10 per person per night for managed camp grounds.
Basic is drop toilets, managed is hot and cold showers, cleaned daily, toilet blocks, then there are the resort style camping areas.

Cooinda is large but expensive. this is attached to the Yellow Water cruise, no bookings required for camping.

In Jabiru there is Lakesview Park, booking essential, very clean and only 15 sites with ensuite toilets.

Aurora Lodge and Caravan Park, also clean but large with share toilet blocks and no pre-bookings taken.

Then 50 kms towards Darwin is the Aurora Kakadu Resort caravan park clean and tidy you may have to book.

Managed Kakadu park sites are:

Merl on the East Alligator River area.

Muirella Park 35 kms south of Jabiru, the Kakadu Culture Camp is also situated there.

Garnamarr Campground is on the Jim Jim road 12 kms from Jim Jim Falls, 4WD only and the gravel road can be very corrugated for first 50 kms.

Mardugal is not far from Cooinda.

Gunlom Falls camping area is 100 metres from the falls itself, with a nice picnic area. There is a basic camp site 15 kms before at Kambolgie Creek, this road is 40kms long and can get corrugated.

My choice of free camps is Sandy Billabong 6 kms from Muirella Park via 4WD track. This is a basic camp, not many people go there. It is fantastic to watch the sun rise and the billabong come to life while enjoying a cuppa.

This LINK is to our Web site. Anja updates the site with blogs on Kakadu and opening and closing times of various places etc, there is also maps, and visitor info on Kakadu as well.

On the maps page just zoom in and you will find all the Resorts and camping ares.

I hope this helps.

Cheers Steve.

We toured the Kimberley last year, and Kakadu this year. It was more convenient to stay in the Parks campgrounds to be on site and ready for early and late walks to avoid the heat. They are very pleasant campgrounds. We are usually solitary bush campers. I doubt you can book Parks camps in WA or NT. We had no trouble getting in. Some are free - eg the King Edward River crossing campgrounds on the Mitchell Plateau Road. This was my favourite camp, although fairly full most nights; all nice people and a good atmosphere. It is on a lovely river pool.

In Kununurra, the CPs can get full in peak season, but most have plenty of unpowered sites when the powered ones are full. We stayed at Hidden Valley CP for the out of town feeling.

Our best camp guides and even better as tour planning guides were Jan Hollands Priceless Camps series (WA and NT only). I purchased the set of three from the ExplorOz on line shop. These are not recent publications, and fee structure in Kakadu has changed. Those with only a pit toilet that used to be free are now $5 per person per night honesty box. Serviced camp grounds are $10 per person per night, have good water, and usually hot showers as well. I note that Kakadu will be re-introducing a park entry fee from 1 January 2010 (NT residents excluded). Some free camping is allowed, with permission from the Rangers.

There is a rest area just before you get into Kakadu coming from Pine Creek that would be suitable as a free camp for the first night. It is on a loop of old road. We did not stay there. There is really nothing suitable along the northern access road. We had planned to stay at Leaning Tree Lagoon after leaving Kakadu as it was listed in brochures as free camping, but it has now been closed to camping (and no long listed in Camps Australia Wide 5). There was nothing else nice along the road, so without wanting to divert far, we continued into Darwin where we needed to spend a few days on maintenance, shopping and sightseeing.

The nearest you'll get to a caravan park along the GRR is Drysdale River Station. We chose this over their bush camping at Miners Pool so we could catch up on the washing. The price difference wasn't great anyway, and the camp area is one big paddock in which we could get well away from the masses.

Motherhen

Hi. Thanks everyone who replied to my post. You have helped me a lot in working out whether to book at parks or just get in early at bush camps. It's not looking as daunting as I first thought.

There is a lot of info on the net, and some interesting books here on exploroz.com. I have the 'Camps Australia Wide' book now, so I believe I'll be set right.

Thanks everyone and happy travels !!!!!

We did Kimberley, Darwin, Kakadu and more in 2006. See my Blog on the trip here

The only places we booked in advance were Broome and Cape Leveque. Even at those places, we would have had no trouble. For Darwin we rang on the way into town and had no trouble (Lee Point). In 5 years of travel (6 months per year first 4 years and full time for past year), these are the only booking we have ever made. We have never had a problem, but rarely stay in CPs. In 12 months of full time travel, we have stayed in just 3, all in the past 6 weeks in Tassie.

The main reason we don't book is to provide travel flexibility. We like a spot, we stay longer. Don't like it, we move on. We have a general plan, but only do detailed planning a few days in advance - and even that has been known to change.

I support Motherhen's comments on Jan Holland's books. They are a great guide and give better info on the more remote areas like GRR, Mitchell Plateau etc than Camps Australia. Between Camps Australia Wide and Jan Holland's books, you should have heaps of info and options.

I'd be very surprised if you have trouble finding good camp spots.

Our Kimberley trip is still our favourite. We'll be back to do a lot of it again, plus a couple of things we missed first time within a couple of years. I'm sure you will love it too.Image Could Not Be Found

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Norm C

Also don't forget you can check out many caravan parks and some parks camp grounds on line on Badger's:http://home.vicnet.net.au/~badger04/

These reports are contributed by travellers and i am currently entering Kakadu. They do not appear instantly as the entries are checked before posting.

Also on line for free camps is http://www.ozcamps.net/ which again is made up from contributions. I have not found the time to add to ozcamps as yet.

http://garystratton.com/default.asp?iId=KKILM is another on line caravan park listing which i have referred to when seeking dog friendly parks (although we do not travel with a dog ourselves, we know plenty of people who do).

Mh