3 Mile Pool - Onslow

busy but private along the river

Three Mile Pool is a free camp area on the banks of the Ashburton River some 37 Kilometers from Onslow. The camping area is quiet extensive with 3-5 kilometers of options along the river. There is a 19ish km gravel road to get to the camping area which is a little corrugated (at least when we visited) and bloody dusty – but after dropping the tire pressure on the car and caravan to 30lb (hot) is was a reasonably comfortable drive in.

chilling out time

A really nice spot on the river with lots of bird-life, friendly cows, and white gums. Due to the many years of campers – fire wood is a little hard to find but a bit of scouting around with the trusty chainsaw in hand kept us well stocked. The camping area is on the fresh water section of the river but it’s not far down to the salt water section where folk we launching small tinnies off the bank when the tide was right. Believe it or not we did NOT go fishing whilst we were camped here for 5 nights (waiting to fish at Coral Bay which is our next extended stop-over).

couple of escapees outside the lock-up

Old Onslow Town ruins are worth a few hours of touring around(and good time to visit the dunny and dump point 😀) .

my favourite jail-bird

We spent some time at the old police quarters and jail and the historic cemetery with gravesites dating back to the late 1800’s.

you can see the massive Wheatstone Plant in the distance

Everywhere you go there is always the massive Wheatstone LNG Plant in the distance. Our Son Corey spent almost 2 years FIFO here during the construction phase.

this inscription struck a chord

A few hints/info for perspective visitors:

• Follow the Old Onslow Town signs to the camp area (not your Satnav as ours tried to direct us 30 km out of the way). Think WikiCamps gives the right directions.
• When you come in drive all the way to the causeway across the river and then head back the way you came in along the river track rather than the road to find your camp spot. Mostly easily navigable with caravan in tow just one spot where it’s a little tight.
• Check out the weather before arriving as we had 3 out of 5 days of strong (30-40 km ) SE/SW winds and as tempting as it may be to have your awning facing the river view - much better to have it facing north so it is comfortable to sit outside. You can always sit by the river anyway.
• There is a dump point and good clean drop toilet (BYO paper) at Old Onslow Town only a few kilometers from the camp area.
• Good internet and phone coverage – no TV (SAT only)