10 best Aussie off-grid campgrounds for caravans

There’s a saying among caravanners that home is where you park it. When you have a self-contained house on wheels, your backyard can be anywhere.

Words by Catherine Best for Escape.com.au

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Caravanning brings unmatched flexibility to stay where others can’t – without sacrificing any creature comforts.

Here are 10 of Australia’s best off-grid campgrounds where a caravan will ensure and enrich your stay.

LUCKY BAY, WA

With its sugar-white sand and mob of sunbaking beach kangaroos, Lucky Bay has long been the poster child for brand Australia. And while the outrageously photogenic beach – tucked between granite headlands within Cape Le Grand National Park – pulls its fair share of tourists, most are day visitors.

Why? You can only stay here if you camp. The nearest accommodation is in Esperance, a 50-minute drive away. Come as a day-tripper and you miss out on the joy of having the beach all to yourself at sunrise. The well-maintained campground has the best pit-toilets I’ve seen and hot showers. Not that the facilities matter when you have your own.

DEVILS MARBLES/KARLU KARLU, NT

A popular pit stop on any Red Centre road trip, the Devils Marbles/Karlu Karlu are a geological quirk about 100km south of Tennant Creek. The sheer size of the rounded granite boulders – scattered like a giant’s billiard balls in the middle of the desert – justifies the short detour off the Stuart Highway.

There’s not much else here. Most travellers stop for a photo and a wander, before the flies beat them back inside their cars. But it’s at dawn and dusk when the magic happens. Seeing the rocks glow like red-hot embers amongs the spinifex is something you can only witness if you camp. And if you’re in a caravan, you can freshen up with a shower afterwards.

RAPID BAY, SA

On the Fleurieu Peninsula, just 90 minutes from Adelaide, you’ll find a bolthole of golden sand squeezed between limestone cliffs and hills that tumble down from the Mount Lofty Ranges. Hugging the foreshore overlooking the shimmering Gulf St Vincent is a no-frills campground where you can unhitch right on the waterfront.

This dirt-cheap site with million-dollar views has limited facilities (toilets, barbecue and cold beach shower), which keeps the fussier and less-equipped campers away. The small village has a smattering of houses but no shops or accommodation. Bring your snorkel and say hello to the leafy sea dragons hanging out under the 400m-long jetty.

BAY OF FIRES/LARAPUNA, TASMANIA

The most scenic stay on the Bay of Fires isn’t where you think. It’s in a campground overlooking the water and costs absolutely nothing. The proximity to the beach at this chain of free camps north of Binalong Bay trumps any fixed accommodation you’ll find on this picture-postcard stretch of coastline.

The dress circle for caravanners is at Cosy Corner South. Here, a handful of secluded ocean-facing sites sit above the dunes, a stone’s throw from the sand and the bay’s fiery-orange boulders. The only facilities here are a pit toilet, so well-equipped caravanners can outlast any other campers.

NINGALOO/NYINGGULU, WA

Ningaloo is the holy grail of off-grid caravanning. A destination where you can park right on the sand overlooking the world’s largest fringing coral reef. Remote and unspoilt, it’s a place of luminous light, riotous sunsets and beach campfires under the stars.

There are five campgrounds in Nyinggulara National Park (formerly Ningaloo Station). Each offers unparalleled beachfront camping with zero facilities, except for a dump point where you can empty a chemical toilet. Only campers with a 4WD and robust off-grid set-up can venture here, so you can enjoy those languorous beach days without any crowds. If you want to emulate this experience without camping, the luxury safari tents of Sal Salis are your best hope, but expect to pay about $2500 a night.

BIG CRYSTAL CREEK, QLD

The swimming area at Big Crystal Creek is called Paradise Waterhole, which tells you everything you need to know about this idyllic campground. Forget resort pools with stuffy rules and shoulder-to-shoulder sunloungers – nature does things differently here. The campground is set under the gums in Paluma Range National Park, at the southern gateway to the World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics.

Day-trippers can make the one-hour journey from Townsville, but if you camp you can have the swimming hole to yourself at either end of the day and dry off by the campfire as kookaburras make their twilight serenade. Don’t miss the Rockslides upstream, where you can shoot down a natural slippery slide joining two dreamy rainforest pools.

LELIYN/EDITH FALLS, NT

On the western fringe of Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge), the Edith River tumbles off the sandstone escarpment into a series of tranquil plunge pools. You can make the day trip from Katherine, 45 minutes up the Stuart Highway, but it’s so much better to stay here overnight.

A handful of sites sprawl around the shaded lawns, a few hundred metres from the main swimming hole, home to basking freshwater crocs. Take the walking trail to the upper pools and waterfalls, and the swimming opportunities just get better. Leliyn has toilets, showers and even a kiosk, but the only beds are the ones you bring with you.

TEEWAH BEACH, QLD

The fashionable holiday-makers of Noosa can have the bustle of Hastings Street to themselves, for on the other side of the river is a beach camp where you can fall asleep to the sounds of crashing waves. Teewah Beach on Noosa’s North Shore is an off-grid campground set behind the foredunes in Great Sandy National Park.

There are seven beach camping zones along a 14km stretch of golden sand that forms part of the Cooloola Recreation Area. A site will set you back just $7.50 per adult a night. For that you get uninterrupted waterfront views and unlimited access to sand and salt. Teewah is also a springboard to Carlo Sandblow and the Coloured Sands. This 4WD-accessible campground is for self-contained campers only.

TOORONGO FALLS, VIC

In the misty Noojee State Forest, on the banks of the Toorongo River, is a campground unicorn – a free camp accessible to caravans within two hours of Melbourne. It gets extra points for allowing campfires. Unhitch here, among towering gums and tree ferns, and the babbling river will lull you to sleep.

Take a morning walk to Toorongo and Amphitheatre Falls and soak up the restorative benefits of all those negative ions. There are no hotel guests here, just cockatoos, black wallabies and the odd shy lyrebird.

SANDON RIVER, NSW

What’s better than a beachfront campground? A campground with the ocean on one side and river on the other. Welcome to Sandon River in Yuraygir National Park, where you also get a cute island, accessible on foot at low tide. This campground on the Clarence Coast, near Grafton, sits on a narrow promontory at the mouth of the Sandon River.

Nab one of the water-view sites and you can check the tide from bed. Fishing, boating and surfing are the popular pastimes here, but there’s nothing wrong with burying your face in a good book either. The campground is at the end of a 9km gravel road, so hopefully daily visitors won’t find you.

Catherine Best is the author of Ultimate Caravan Trips Australia.

This article first appeared in escape.com.au as 10 best Aussie off-grid campgrounds for caravans.