V & C Impressions

Almost Grey Nomads in Australia

Tag: dog friendly

  • Banksia Bluff Campground – Free

    Banksia Bluff Campground – Free

    This is a free campground that has to be booked, and boy, were we surprised by how good it was. Very dog friendly and heaps of walking tracks to go on and beaches and tracks to explore.

    If you are following these blog posts, our previous campsite was Lake King Waterfront Park.

    • Website: Banksia Bluff Campground
    • Fee Category: Free
    • Booking: Yes
    • Dog Friendly: Yes
    • Amenities: Toilets
    • Dump point: No
    • Pool: No
    • Fire pits: Yes
    • Telstra: Good
    • Starlink: May have problems with trees
    • Generator: No
    Banksia Bluff Campground campground D
    Banksia Bluff Campground campground D

    Our Experience

    You do have to be self contained and unfortunately there is a no generator rule. When we saw that we decided to kept our stay short as we didn’t know how much tree cover we would have. It turned out we could have stayed longer as our campsite was quite open however as it was already booked we weren’t able to extend it. Other sites are not so fortunate, with some having a lot of tree cover.

    Our campsite was sheltered by the bushes, good in windy conditions, but if there on a hot day it may mean a trip to the beach, which is only a 1 minute walk away. It is a very well laid out and it is easy to find your campsite.

    If you come here with a dog, you will have to look at the website closely before booking, as there are, I think 2 which are NOT dog friendly, campsites C, D, E, F are dog friendly. Also not all campsite are caravan suitable, again check the website forms carefully for your requirements.

    The toilets were flushing, and even had toilet paper there. Different campgrounds had different toilet blocks. There is also plenty of bins, and recycling options.

    Overall it appears that they have done quite a lot of work here. There is a day area that has BBQ. Walking tracks with boardwalks in place that looked fairly new.

    Campfires are allowed. Campsite C has a communal fire pit where as the rest that we saw had one at each site. You can buy firewood from the main office, but be aware it is expensive at $29 / bag.

    Pics from around the area

    Weather

    Looking at the weather data, the temperatures look fairly steady throughout the year, and unfortunately the rain looks pretty steady as well. Just will have to be lucky in trying to avoid the rain. We stayed here towards the end of March 2025 and we had no rain.

    Weather Averages – Marlo

    MonthJanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
    Temp Max C26.225.524.020.917.815.315.116.218.320.122.124.0
    Temp Min C14.914.613.110.88.46.45.66.27.69.211.512.9
    Rain Avg (mm)72.566.583.3100.958.289.855.563.163.684.776.6139.6
    This table will show the average temp min/max rainfall per month

  • Faithful Bingara Riverside Camp West

    Faithful Bingara Riverside Camp West

    • Website: WikiCamps
    • Fee Catagory: Donation
    • Booking: First in, no bookings
    • Dog Friendly: Yes
    • Amenities: No
    • Pool: No
    • Telstra: Data Flakey
    • Starlink: Depends on site, lots of trees
    The family at Faithful Bingara Riverside Camp West
    The family at Faithful Bingara Riverside Camp West enjoying an afternoon drink.

    Our Opinion

    There are 2 campsites here, one on each side of the river. The bigger one is accessible off White Rd, while the one we stayed at is accessible off Gwydir Tce. Drive by the golf club on a dirt road, turn right into the camp ground. There are a few pot holes to navigate. This campsite is a lot smaller than the one on the other side of the river.

    There are other campsite further down the river, which would be worth checking out, they all seem to get positive feedback on Wikicamps.

    We enjoyed out time here, making some new friends with the campers already here. The river itself was flowing at a moderate pace, and we were right next to it. The site was level, the grass nice. You would normally pay for a site like this, we couldn’t believe our luck with this one.

    You do have to be self contained, as there are no facilities. There are a few dump points around town so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

    This is going to be one of our favourite places to be if we are in the area. Just depends how busy it will be on the day as mentioned earlier, this campsite is small, the other one on the other side of the river is huge. The town looked nice, we didn’t spend much time there.

    A few Pics from campsite and lookout

    Bingara bridge with the Gwydir river
    Bingara bridge with the Gwydir river
    The view of the Bingara town from H.F. Batterham Lookout
    The view of the Bingara town from H.F. Batterham Lookout
    The view of the Bingara town from H.F. Batterham Lookout
    The view of the Bingara town from H.F. Batterham Lookout
    Sign for H.F. Batterham Lookout
    H.F Batterham Lookout
  • Kirra Beach Tourist Park – Gold Coast

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park – Gold Coast

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park

    Our Opinion

    If you want/need a dog friendly park in this area of the Gold Coast, your options are limited, fortunately this park is an excellent place to stay. It is well laid out and run, and in a great location. Excellent clean facilities, which were cleaned daily.

    Only a 5 minutes walk to Kirra beach, which has Cafes, Gym, tourist shops. The site size/cost is average for this type of location, with all of the sites we saw being reasonably level.

    Being at the southern end of the Gold Coast means you are in the quieter area, with most activities being a 30 minutes drive north. Going south into NSW 45 Minutes drive to Byron Bay. Tambourine Mountain is another location worth checking out. Also the famous Surfers Paradise.

    Only thing to be aware of is the close proximity to the airport, with planes starting to take off at 6AM and going through the day until about 10PM. Didn’t bother us, others may be more sensitive to the noise.

    There are plenty of trees in the park, so depending on what site you get, solar may not work very well.

    We were here for 2 weeks during November, we would stay again and also not hesitate to recommend this park to anyone else. The big trees give plenty of shelter from the wind, as we found out as a few storms came through in the evening. Also the trees provide plenty of shade.

    Images from the Park and beach

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park sites
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park sites
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park on site Pizza
    Kirra Beach
    Kirra Beach with Surfers Paradise in the background
  • Farnborough Beach

    Farnborough Beach

    Great for Dogs, Kids, and a Lovely Beach Drive

    When travelling with a dog, you soon realise that many areas are not dog friendly. They are what I describe as dog tolerant.

    By dog friendly, I mean the ability to let the your dog run freely about, with you keeping an eye on him or her, of course. After all you do need to clean up after them, and also just as importantly make sure they don’t get themselves into trouble.

    Well, this beach is dog friendly, and to boot you are allowed to drive on it.

    It is about 10 minutes north of Yeppoon, easy to get on the beach with a 4WD, head north and find a spot to have a picnic. Bonus is, during the week your dog can be off leash.

    The beach is firm, so easy to drive on, and when the tide is low, there is heaps of beach for the dogs to run around.

    When we were there, it was relatively quite, a few other people with their dogs running around, but since the beach is so big, especially at low tide, it was easy to find a spot away from other people.