Kalumburu - worth the trip?

Hi Scoey,

Have only been as far as the Mitchell Falls turn-off, but friends that we were travelling with went up and spent a night at Kalumbaru and quite enjoyed it. In that part of the world it pays to keep flexible as road conditions vary quite a bit depending on when the grader has been through. When the road is rough you might decide that the Mitchell Plateau is far enough, or you could have suffered some vehicle damage - in those situations you will feel disappointed if you cant do what you set out to do. IMHO its better to take it as it comes and do what you can.

Cheers,

Val

what Mick o said plus take a fishing charter as well, we caught plenty!

We have spent 2 months each year in the Kalumburu area each year for 4 years.
Enough said?
Some slide shows scattered HERE

The Kalumburu Aboriginal Corporation actually owns Carson River Station (has done for many years) and has leased it to some pastoralists, so make sure that you obtain appropriate permissions if you wish to venture out there. Those permissions are not always available.
Camping is available at the Mission in town or at McGowans Island Beach and at Honeymoon Bay out of town.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Hi Scoey

Absolutely YES. We went fishing in a boat with the people from the camp - you can only take what you can eat while in Kalumburu so we threw back more than we kept. The fish were the best I've ever eaten.

The mission tour is a must. The collection of artifacts from around the world is mind boggling.

We stayed three days at the McGowan Island Beach camp.

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Motherhen

G'day, Kalumburu great ! We were there in August this year and would highly recommend it.
Its a very nice, clean aboriginal community that has all supplies, the exeptional highlight for us was camping at McGowans Island for 4 days.......could have stayed a lot longer....
If you do decide to stay around Kalumburu we chose not to stay in town and went to McGowans Island approx 20km's out of town, its not usally shown on hema maps but its just south of 'Honeymoon Beach' ( we checked Honeymoon beach camp out and decided against it ), and you can get local maps from the community centre which is where you get your pass aswell.

We camped at McGowans Island ( which has all facilities ) on the beach sand , under the mango tree which was very nice, watching magnificent sunsets, shucking fresh oysters, all this whilst watching from 'a far' the salties swimming around in the water !

And the fishing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have never caught so many huge fish in such a quick fishing trip in all our lives.........!!!! Blue Bone, Finger marks, Jew Fish & Spanish Mackeral .

A lot of people were complaining about the roads, but we came to the conclusion that the worst part of the road was the firts 60km's to Drysdale Station and then futher to the Mitchell turn off, after the Mitchell turn off the road got better and more tolerable.................. and as it turns out the people complaining about the roads had'nt even been there.

Yes the roads certainly do depend on when the grader was last through and traffic, but the best thing to do is not to be turned off by the stories that you hear and make your own judgment when you are there...............one thing is for sure, had we always taken other peoples opinions for gospel on road conditions, we wouldnt have got of the black top, we all have different tolerance levels and driving styles...........

In closing, Kalumburu and sorrounding areas.............Well worth a visit !!