This station has prepared the campground a bit better than the last place. There is actual grass to camp on, nice after being in red dirt for the last 2 days.
The amenities block is in a tin shed, it is bigger, with multiple flushing toilets, hot showers for males and females.
There are multiple fire pits spotted around the campground, trees for shelter, and the grounds were reasonable level. A camp kitchen is also available.
Unfortunately for us, when we were there the station was on skeleton staff, so nothing was open, except the gas pumps, and the campground. There is a bar and a shop.
Petrol and Diesel is available, at outback prices.
There are free camps along the Plenty / Donohue Hwy, but why not support these stations along the way, and make you trip a bit more comfortable.
Feedback
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Have you stayed at Tobermory Station? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
This was our first stop over when doing the Plenty Hwy. At 340 Km from Alice Springs, and being a relatively easy drive, it was good to get here, as we were uncertain as to what to expect of the Plenty Hwy.
This is a basic campground, we paid $20 for the night, firepits are placed around the campground, just pick one to park next to.
There is no powered sites here.
The facilities are basic, but clean enough. They are combined toilet and shower, one each for males and females. Bonus is the toilets are flushing and the showers are hot. That’s pretty good considering how remote this place is.
The more important thing to consider is fuel, there is petrol and diesel here. The tuck shop has basic supplies, drinks, chippies, chocolate.
The campground felt safe, as well as being relatively level, there is the typical red dirt everywhere.
You can free camp along the Plenty Hwy, but why not support these Stations, and maybe the facilities will make the journey a bit more pleasurable.
Feedback
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Have you stayed at Jervios Station? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
We have recently completed the Plenty/Donohue Hwy, starting from Alice Springs going over the Queensland border the highway becomes Donohue Hwy to Boulia. An epic 750 Km stretch of road.
When we wanted to go from Birdsville to Alice Springs in 2019, we gave the Plenty hwy a miss due to it being too rough. We drove up to Berkely Hwy, then back down to Alice Springs. A massive detour. This is why the Plenty/Donohue Hwy is sometimes described as the world’s longest shortcut.
Back then, we stayed at the Gemtree Campground, during our stay we were advised that there was a plan is to completely seal the Plenty Hwy by 2025.
I can advise , that as by the date of this post, the Plenty/Donohue Hwy is about 50% sealed.
We split this journey up into 3 sections, Alice Springs to Jervios Station, next section is to Tobermory Station, then the last section is to Boulia.
Road conditions
KM from start of Plenty Hwy
Description
0 – 171
Sealed
171 – 210
Un sealed, pretty good condition
210 – 271
Sealed
271 – 277
Unsealed, road works, – Jervios Station
277 – 507
Unsealed, Bull dust in sections, deep ruts in places.
Getting to Jervios Station was not too difficult, with about 45 Km unsealed, and non of it too challenging. Ruts to deal with, but not too severe.
The toughest part is between the 2 stations. Google maps will say 6 – 7 hours, for a stretch that is about 230 Km long. We managed it in about 4.5 hours, and that was taking our time, with as much care as possible. Our average speed in this section was about 70 Km, we also lowered our tyre pressures. Bull dust patches need to be handled with care, especially if towing a caravan.
From Tobermorey Station to Boulia (Donohue Hwy), this is the easiest stretch, even the unsealed parts are some of the smoothest we have come across, not many areas had much in the way of ruts to deal with.
Checking Present Road Conditions
Before embarking on this trip you should check to see present road conditions –
These roads can flood easily, this will make them un-passable.
Also time of year, This is NOT a summer road, November – April, temps will get close to if not exceed 40 C, also this is the wet season, so expect flash flooding.
It was an adventure, not one I am keen to repeat too soon. Would I do it again? Yes I would, especially in a few years time, as hopefully they have made more progress on sealing the road.
This is a free campground just a short drive from Roxby Downs. Lots of space, and if you go over the sand dune, lots of flat spaces to choose from .
Once you turn right into Andamooka Rd, turn right again to go over the sand dunes, the pictures here are of that side.
Website: N/A
Fee Category: Free
Booking: No
Dog Friendly: Yes
Amenities: Nill
Dump point: No
Pool: No
Fire pits: No
Telstra: Ok
Starlink: No problems
Generator: Yes
Champagne Corner campsite at dusk
Our Experience
We stayed here for a full day, there were some people on motocross bikes buzzing around, but they stayed well away from us.
You have to be fully self sufficient here, there are no facilities.
While there is plenty of red dirt around, the ground is level, and there is plenty of space to spread out. If it is wet, I would not suggest coming here.
There is minimal road noise, and having the town of Roxby Downs about 5 minutes drive away is a bonus. Most supplies that you would need will be available there, and at normal prices too.
Today Roxby Downs, originally the name of the local station, is a pleasant modern town which houses mine workers and their families. It is a classic modern mining town which provides its residents with all the amenities. Being purpose-built it has an attractive wide main street, good quality housing, pleasant streetscapes, a modern school, a cinema, shopping centre, sports facilities, a hotel motel and caravan park
We thought this was a great place to hang out for a day or two. Even though we have no idea whose land this is, we found it quite central to two towns.
Feedback
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Have you stayed at Champagne Corner? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
Spuds Roadhouse outside pub area, view of the campground and gas station
Our Thoughts
The campground next to Spuds Roadhouse is not actually run by them, it is managed by the Outback Communities Authority. Having a look at their website for details about his campground did not reveal any information.
There are no bookings, so first come first serve. Take note that this place can fill up fast in the afternoon during peak travel season. You would want to get here by 2pm. We got here at 3pm, and managed to get one of the last spots available.
At the roadhouse you can get a beer, meal, and a few supplies. Bear in mind it will be outback prices, and the selection is not the best.
Petrol / Diesel is available, at slightly inflated prices, we paid $2.28/ L for petrol, Diesel will be similar.
As you can see there is a lot of puddles everywhere, there was some rain the previous day, so some campsites were just mud and hence unusable.
All in all, it was a good campground with all the usual facilities, it felt safe, the ground was reasonably level, we would definitely stay here again when passing through.
Feedback
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Have you stayed at Spuds Roadhouse? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
This is our review of this campground, which is a donation camp, we stayed here for one night. We would definitely stay here again, the whole campground and facilities are top notch.
Website: N/A
Fee Category: Donation
Booking: No
Dog Friendly: Yes
Amenities: Toilets / Showers
Dump point: Yes
Pool: No
Fire pits: No
Telstra: Good
Starlink: Good
Generator: Yes
Blyth Showgrounds entrance
Our Experience
The campground is well maintained, with great (near new) facilities, even including showers. It is about 140 Km north of Adelaide.
You must be fully self contained, which means keeping grey water, and disposing of it down the dump point which is by the toilets.
The campgrounds are reasonably level, quite, and felt safe. There is a notice about sports days, while the grounds are not closed to campers, it will become busy.
The town Blyth is just a short 5 minutes walk away, there is unfortunately not much going on there, with a population of 300. Even the local hotel as closed down, maybe that’s temporary.
The sporting facilities are top notch for a town with not many people in it.
A more popular town for visitors is Clare, which is just 13Km down the road. It is a major wine town with about 30 wineries.
Blyth is a small town in the Mid North of South Australia, located 13 kilometres west of the renowned Clare Valley. The town is located on the lands of the Kaurna people, the indigenous people who lived there before European settlement.
It has a population of 306, the farming community spanning the plains between the Clare Hills and the Barunga/Hummocks ranges.
Located approximately 132 kilometres north of Adelaide, the district’s climate and soils are well suited to wheat, barley, legumes, hay, sheep, cattle and pigs.
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Have you stayed at Blyth Showgrounds RV Park? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
The first visit was in the middle of summer where the temps were hitting mid 30’s. It was hot, and also no power (powered sites already pre-booked).
The facilities were decent, clean, so no problems there. You do have to be self contained as the is no water hookups, and also, where we parked there is no where to put the grey water. You park on a solid road surface. If it has been raining for a bit then this place will be good.
There have been changes between the two times we have visited.
The second time here and they changed the way you can park in the first area you come to. You now reverse in and the last two sites closest to the Golf shed are powered sites so don’t go in there unless you want power. More unpowered sites further down by the bowling green and toilet/showers.
This second time was in winter, good thing though is we were on power, so we could run our A/C for heating.
Town is a short walk away, about 5 minutes, and the Murray River is right nextdoor.
If we are passing through, we would definitely stay here again. Just have to watch out for the weather, in summer it can get very hot, in winter overnight can get very cold.
Feedback
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Have you stayed at Tooleybuc Sports Club? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
What does it cost to live full time on the road in Australia?
A difficult question to answer as everybody is different in their setups, wants and needs. For us, a couple on the road towing a caravan with their dog, taking our time getting around. Below is a breakdown of what it has cost us so far.
This is our second 5 months on the road, our first 5 months was covered in this post.
Expenses – Jan to May 2025
What Happened?
Looking over these totals, you can see we have had a few unusual (one off) expenses. Below I will go through some of these.
Tolls: Due to an overseas trip in June, we spent some time going between Sydney and Oberon. Since we are towing a caravan and are unfamiliar with this area we stuck to the motorways which involved toll roads, expensive ones at that!
Experiences: We have pre-paid a Horizontal falls tour for September, that was expensive.
Subscriptions: We seem to have a lot of subscriptions, i.e Google, Microsoft, Binge, Netflix, the list goes on, need to look at this.
Medical: It’s a fact of life that as you get older, things don’t work as well as they should, both of us have minor medical issues that require medication and visits to the doctor and/or specialists from time to time.
Caravan repairs/Maintenance: No our caravan is not falling apart, it actually is holding up quite well. As you travel you can end up in places where some items you thought would not needed, suddenly become needed. i.e a gas heater, shade sail track for the right side of the caravan, Stone Stomper, this also includes a service and some minor repairs.
Dog Expenses: Shadow had to go to the vets to fix some problems, the other cost is mainly grooming. He does not malt, so he needs regular visits to the groomer, otherwise he turns into a smelly ball of fur.
Caravan Parks: As stated in the earlier 5 months, we are hoping to spend less in this area. In the first 5 months we spent $4,400, this time $3,400. That’s a good improvement.
Things to Note
Car & caravan insurance and registration, both are expensive. Registration is not something you can do anything about. After spending some time on getting insurance quotes from about 6 companies, we stayed with our present insurer RACQ, who turned out to be very competitive. We pay about $4,500 in total.
Phones & internet – we are with Telstra. The phones, tablet and a mobile hotspot for the caravan are on plans. We only use Starlink when going remote otherwise it is paused. Our Telstra bill is about $230 / month. We are buying phones as part of the plan, about 1 year to go.
Summary
Now that another 5 months have passed, how are we going with our budget? Again unusual expenses crept in. The caravan modifications were a big one. Next week will be some new tires for the Patrol.
Also, due to a previously planned overseas trip (planned 2 years ago), and also a Rugby British Lions game in Adelaide, we have been at the bottom of the country in the middle of winter when we originally planned to be north at this time of year. Once these 2 items have been completed, we will be heading back to the right area of Australia for this time of year.
We did make progress on our accommodation expenses, with a reduction of about $1,000 over the 5 months.
Takeaways was also improved on, another $500 or so saving there. We need to save more in this area. Maybe a seperate list of what we actually buy in this category will help.
Fuel
Fuel, a slight change there. we did 10,100Km which cost $4,000, which works out at $21/100Km.
Subscriptions is an area that needs to be looked at. I think we have too many, currently running at $286 / month. Wow, that’s out of hand.
So our new average per month, EXCLUDING the caravan mods, insurance, rego and phone plans is –
Average/month = $5,582 or per week = $1,395
Previous 5 months
Average/month = $6,300 or per week = $1,600
An improvement, lets see what the second half of this year brings.
Feedback
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Let us know in the comments below.
And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
Our experience at Sandy Point reserve was a good one. In fact this campsite has to be one of the better free ones we have been to so far. If you are traveling through Hay, or want to stay a day or two, then consider this campsite.
This campground is large, with plenty of sites available. I would be surprised if you got here and could not find anywhere to park up for the night. After saying that, I would be careful of the trees, they are large and there was a sign saying ‘beware of falling branches’. A few gum trees around.
The toilets are actually pretty decent for free. In fact you could say they are better than some paid campgrounds we have been to, amazing.
There is no dump point (see below) or potable water.
Fire pits are everywhere, and since we were here in the middle of winter, it was nice to get a nice fire going in the evening.
NOTE: No firewood collection on site so come prepared with your own supply.
This campground is on dirt so in the wet it may not be a place to be. There are plenty of deep potholes around, which looked like when it was wet, people got stuck and struggled to get out.
There are showers at the Information center and you can also ‘borrow’ their bikes if you want. A dump point at the SES center, about 2 minutes drive away.
There is silo art that you see on the way in and very close to the camping area. Suggest setting up then take easy walk there.
You are not far from the river and there is a day area where there are bbqs and picnic table. Very well set out.
The town Hay is just a few minutes walk away.
Hay is a wonderful sleight of hand. Drive through the town and you feel you are in a prosperous and substantial rural town. Drive out of the town and you are on the great, flat Hay plain with its low-lying saltbush. Every famous person who has visited or stayed has commented on the flatness of the surrounding land.
It was a shame we could not stay longer (had to get to Adelaide), we will definitely be back, and stay for a day or two.
Feedback
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Have you stayed at Sandy Point Reserve? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
This is our review of our stay at Carcoar Dam, a positive one considering how busy it was.
We stayed here with friends over Easter weekend. It was very busy, we still managed to find a spot to camp and would recommend this campground to anyone. The dam itself is nice with not many mosquitoes around, were we just lucky? or far enough away from the water?
This campground is a reasonably large one, with some level sites, but also a large portion of the campground is not level, but manageable. If you are in a caravan, there is another large section which is not caravan suitable due to the slope of the land, even with leveling blocks you will struggle.
The toilets are adequate / usable with some of them being broken, the showers are broken and are completely unusable, it is free so expectations have to be in line with this price point.
The dam itself seems to be a water sports hot spot, plenty of water skis, boats, kayaks around and some people trying their hand at fishing.
Carcoar Dam is stocked with Murray cod, golden perch (yellow belly), silver perch and trout. Redfin is the most common catch.
A very popular place over Easter weekend, and I would imagine over most public / school holidays as well. A great place to check out if passing through.
Weather
Carcoar Weather Averages
Month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
June
July
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Temp Max C
29.8
29.2
26.3
21.0
15.8
12.3
11.5
13.4
17.4
21.3
24.9
28.2
Temp Min C
13.3
13.2
10.7
6.5
3.3
1.4
0.3
1.1
3.3
5.9
8.5
11.3
Rain Avg (mm)
62.5
50.5
50.9
52.1
59.5
85.4
78.1
78.3
64.9
78.5
63.0
60.9
This table will show the average temp min/max rainfall per month for Carcoar, NSW.
Looking through these numbers, summer will be the best time, while for me personally I would avoid winter, the overnight temps are getting too close to 0 for me.
Feedback
We love hearing from fellow travellers — your thoughts help others too!
Have you stayed at Carcoar Dam? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying our campsite reviews, subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox:
This is a free campground by Thompson Creek, which is a short drive from the small village of Burraga. This is one of the better free-camps we have come across in our travels so far.
We didn’t have a look at the village because this was only a overnight stop on our way to Oberon.
Website: N/A
Fee Category: Free
Booking: No
Dog Friendly: Yes
Amenities: Toilets
Dump point: No
Pool: No
Fire pits: Yes
Telstra: No
Starlink: Good
Generator: Yes
Burraga Dam campground
Our Experience
To get here we had to go along some winding country roads, nothing too serious. The road into the campground is about 1 km of dirt road, again nothing to worry about, any vehicle should be able to manage.
This is a large campground with plenty of sites. You enter the main section where there is plenty of sites to choose from, then another track further on takes you to another section. the only thing to be aware of is that the campsite close to the water have a bit of a slope on them, so leveling blocks will be needed.
Also, for us caravaners, don’t go too far into the campground as the trees are more closely packed together, with lower branches, we saw some spots where turning around could get tricky.
We found 2 toilets here, a flushing one, and a long drop. We used the flushing one, it seemed to be well maintained and clean.
There are fire pits everywhere, every campsite has one.
Apparently there is fishing here, the dam would be ok for Kayaking, and also there seems to be some 4wd tracks leading from the campsite.
Burraga is a small village in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, located within the Oberon Shire. It rose to prominence in the late 19th century due to the discovery of copper in the area. The establishment of the Burraga Copper Mine transformed the village into a bustling mining town, attracting workers and supporting a growing local economy. At its peak, Burraga boasted a thriving community of approx 1800, complete with infrastructure such as a post office, school, and shops and 2 hotels, both of which have been burnt down.
However, the prosperity was short-lived. As copper prices declined and the mine became less profitable, operations eventually ceased in the early 20th century. The closure marked the beginning of Burraga’s decline, and much of the population moved away in search of work elsewhere. Today, Burraga stands as a quiet rural village (population 80), with remnants of its mining past still visible.
Our time here was a relaxed one, with Cathy working her 3 days, we didn’t do much, a quick look around town…….
The campground is a nice flat mowed grass area, with all the usual amenities available, grey water was just put on the ground somewhere around your campsite, water and power points are next to the campsite. A dump point is on site.
The Cowra town is just a short 2 minute drive away.
We didn’t do much around town to do, there is the POW campsite, not much left of it, also there is the Japanese Gardens, $20/adult we passed on it, unfortunately we are on a bit of a budget these days.
Over the past three decades some country towns have grown and prospered, others have declined both in importance and population. Cowra has grown. Located on the Lachlan River it has become the commercial and administrative centre of a shire where livestock, wool scouring, vegetable growing and processing, vineyards and tourism are the main drivers of the local economy.
https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/cowra-nsw
I am sure there is more here, and at another time we will have more time to get a better look around.
