Pardoo will do

Nice grassy powered sites

When staying on the Degrey River we went for a drive a little further north to Pardoo Station just to check the place out.

rock hole in Pardoo Creek - OK at high tide

What an oasis in the bush – green lawns, hot showers, power, unlimited bore water, swimming pools, a general store, restaurant, movie stars (not really), big caravan sites, bowling green (only two rinks), and numerous fishing spots (on high tide) – and all for a reasonable $30/night if you stay 7 nights. 

the mud ramp at high tide

The station is a working cattle station with usually over 3000 head of beef cattle but due to the high prices they had recently mustered so only breeders around when we visited.

The whole place is well planned with over 150 powered sites and numerous amenity blocks well placed throughout the camp. Check out their website here

going to be a long cast!

Fishing required some planning – due to the 6-7 meter tides the only time to fish was an hour or two either side of high tide. Even then you can only beach fish when tides are over 6 meters else you have 200-300 meters to the water. Also it was a 3-8 kilometer drive to the fishing spots.

nice big estuary cod and master angler

We did OK with me catching a (just) legal threadfin salmon and a dozen or so of fat yellow in whiting, and Linda with the catch of the day (as usual 😢) a 3-4 kg Estuary Cod.

small threadfin salmon

There is a boat launching area off the mud-banks at Pardoo Creek only usable for 2-3 hours around high tide – too late back from fishing and your 20 meters away from the edge down a massive mud bank. When we first had a look I thought it was a bit dodgy so I didn’t bother putting the boat together – but after watching the locals I will certainly be putting the tinny in next time we visit.

There are folks at the station who stay for 3-6 months every year and it’s easy to see why. All the luxuries of a 5 star caravan park, good fishing, and $25/night (or less) if you stay a month or longer. When we stayed it was around 30C every day and a comfortable 14C at night – bloody lovely.