Free Camp Your Way Around Outback Queensland This Winter

Part 1

Outback Queensland is vast. There are a lot of different definitions of the outback but whatever it is, it’s massive. Outbackqueensland.com.au says its about 827,000km2. To put that in perspective, it’s about 3.4 times the size of the United Kingdom or just a bit larger than than US state of Texas.

This image of Queensland and the outback regions is courtesy of outbackqueensland.com.au. The areas in dark green are the parts considered to be ‘the outback’. Once you drive over the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, the country quickly starts to change, getting dry and very rural. You know you’ve hit the outback when bitumen roads are a thing of the past and there are red sand hills for as far as the eye can see.

I don’t know what idea people have of the Outback if they haven’t been there but I suspect visitors, and a lot of city dwelling Australians think it’s just big, dry, boring expanse of nothingness. I am going to attempt to change that opinion. Lets go!

In May of 2023, we drove about 8000 kilometres around the southern part of Outback Queensland. We were finishing off a trip that we originally started in 2020. Due to the whole of Southern Queensland being flooded, we had to abort our trip at Betoota and drive west to Alice Springs, Northern Territory. This time round we were in our new offroad, 4wd super rig.

Outback Queensland is quite flat and the ground (and dirt roads) become impassable quickly if there is a bit of rain. In the Channel country there can be a creek/stream crossing on the road every 1-2 kilometres.

Let’s get back on track. We decided to try and do the southern part of outback Queensland again and thought ,while we’re here, we would also make an effort to do a bit of a pub tour. You have to, don’t you?

We would drive from Dalby on the Western Downs and make a large loop taking in Cameron Corner (on the border with New South Wales and South Australia) and up to Innamincka in South Australia. Then we would scoot up to Betoota and Birdsville and over to Windorah and back around. There are a hell of a lot of little towns and pubs to visit along the way so we gave ourselves a month off work and got pubbing.

Towns and Pubs visited in the Outback

We did so much on this trip I think a list is worth it. There are actually tonnes of little towns and pubs out there in Woop Woop and there are even some pubs without towns!

• Nindigully Pub. Not much of a town but an amazing large, old pub with a huge free camping area on the billabong.
• Dirranbandi Pub. The Dirran Pub. Stayed at the Balonne Minor Free camp and had a beer at the pub.
• Hebel Pub. Not to be missed! Small town, food across the road and a cheap camp across the road at the store. (may have free camping at pub now).
• Lightning Ridge Hotel Motel. Just had a drink here on a cold rainy day. Vast pub and accommodation.
• Goodooga Hot Springs. Free camp here on outskirts of rough town with awesome Artesian baths.
• Charlotte Plains Station. No pub here, just a great outback station with its own artesian baths and springs. Well worth the cost.
• Cunnamulla. We didn’t stay here but we had a beer at the Hotel Cunnamulla and stocked up at the liquor store and supermarket. A great town.
• Eulo Queen Hotel, Eulo. This is a great spot in a small friendly town. The barman is a great bloke, the backpackers are clueless! We stayed at a free camp out of town.
• Royal Mail Hotel, Hungerford. Tiny town with a cheap camp ($10) and a very cool old hotel. Definitely worth the drive.
• Thargomindah. We stayed on the outskirts of town in a free camp and had a beer at the Bulloo River Hotel Motel. Quiet place all round.
• Cameron Corner Store. There is nothing at Cameron Corner except the dog fence and the store. Proper sand dunes and desert here. A must!
• Innamincka. We stayed at the town common campsite on the Cooper Creek ($5/night) and had food and refereshments at the Innamincka Hotel. Awesome.
• Cadelga Ruins. The drive from Innamincka to Betoota is a long one so we stayed here for the night. Stunning drive, dingos, wildflowers and free camp.
• The Betoota Hotel. The pub with no town. Betoota has a brilliant pub, a race day and that’s it. Free camp, coldies and some food. Perfect.
• Windorah. Had lunch and beer at the Windorah Star Hotel. My steak sandwhich wasn’t a steak sandwhich but it was nice. Free camp on Cooper Creek.
• Yaraka. A small town with stunning natural rock formations, a cheap camp and friendly pub. Had pizza, beers and a free tour here. 5 stars.
• Isisford. Had lunch at the pub (big parmi), a few beers and then stayed at a cheap camp, Oma waterhole.
• Stonehenge and Jundah. Lunch at the Stonehenge Pub and dinner the Jundah Hotel. Really friendly place and we stayed at the van park next door for the ammenities.
• Eromanga. We stayed at the Eromanga free camp and had dinner at the Royal Hotel, Eromanga. Quiet town with a brilliant old pub. Dinosaur stuff too.
• Noccundra Hotel. No town here, just a waterway to free camp at and a very nice stone pub. Dinner and beers while chatting to the owner. Excelllent.
• Yowah. An opal mining town and sadly no pub for various reasons. Stayed at the van park for cheap and had artesian baths all to ourselves.
• Toompine South Western Hotel. Another pub with no town. Very nicely renovated old pub on the way to Quilpie with free camp and awesome service.
• Quilpie. A pretty town with a few quiet pubs. Stayed at the van park for amenities. Good food, grog, bakery and news agent here.
• Adavale. Drove out to the store/pub for the day to visit. Interesting, quirky place and a good drive. We saw lots of feral pigs out that way.
• The Cooladdi Foxtrap roadhouse. We stayed at Cooladdi at the Quilberry Creek Banks free camp. We caught more yabbies than you can poke a stick at.
• Charleville. A large town with lots of shops. It was a bit of a shock after being in the Outback. We stayed at the Wyandra Store.
• Wallumbilla Federal Hotel. The last night of the trip. Free camp out the back and a dirty, big parmi in the pub. Beautiful.

For camping spots in Outback Queensland and all over Australia, we use the Wikicamps App on our Phones. There are a lot of camps but the App is currently having some problems but probably still worth it.

That’s the list so now let’s get more specific.

Nindigully Hotel

Established in 1864, this old beauty is an absolute must-see on the Outback tour. There is ample free camping for tents, vans, big rigs, etc out the back and the place can get quite busy, especially in winter, which is touring season. There isn’t much of a town here so it’s mainly the pub you come for. Big meals and a great selection of drinks.

We checked out the Dirran Pub the next day for a beer and camped up at the free camp on the river just out of town. Dirranbandi is a small town but has an amazing bakery and a few other shops.

Diarranbandi has some beautiful painted grain silos which is becoming popular in regional towns now.

We had a quiet spot by the Balonne River and there was a lot of wood around so we had a fire. Rain and cold weather was forecast for the next day so we packed up early and drove to Hebel.

The Hebel Hotel

Our day in Hebel was freezing and wet. We got there early, checked out the stunner of a pub and went for a little (big) drive to Lightning Ridge and Goodooga in New South Wales. The drive was 182kms but we went for a warm dip in the artesian bath at Goodooga and visited Lightning Ridge, which is a famous opal mining town. Mo got a new bed out of the trip too, to keep him out of the dirt and mud.

We had a cracking night at Hebel Pub despite the weather. You can walk over the road and pick up your meals on trays with stainless steel covers. There were beers with locals and tourists and got a good night sleep in the rainy, cold weather.

Charlotte Plains Station

After Hebel we zipped up to Charlotte Plains Station where we stayed for a night. There are various different camps there but the bore camp is the popular one. The hot artesian water flows out of the bore into bore drains and you can have a bath or swim in the bore drains. Artesian water has a lot of sulphur dioxide in it and is quite warm so it’s a special experience.

Eulo

After Hebel, we spent a short while checking out Cunnamulla, stocking up on groceries and fuel etc and then made our way to Eulo for lunch. We stayed around Eulo for two nights as we had a Mud bath booked the next day. We consumed a huge, delicious meal at the Eulo Queen Hotel, chatted to some other travellers and then went to the Mud Bath.

The Mud Baths were a blast and the lady who owns the place was a pleasure to deal with. We bathed in various types of mud or clay with warm artesian waters. The whole experience relaxed us so much we didn’t want to leave and we drove to our next billabong completely rejuvenated.

We got a little bogged leaving our Billabong. There were a few different tracks and we were chatting and before we knew it we were stuck in some very thick mud. After a lot of swearing and winching, we got out. You need to concentrate when driving about on wet muddy roads

Yabbies in the Outback

Yabbies (Cherax destructor) are crayfish like lobsters but in fresh water. They live in outback dirty water ponds, billabongs, rivers and dams. Sometimes you can find a good spot and catch yourself a pretty tasty meal. Our final night in Eulo was at the 5 mile waterhole on the Paroo River. The camp site was beautiful, we were by ourselves and there were a lot of yabbies!

You catch yabbies by putting a bit of meat or vegetable (or soap) in a yabby trap. The laws around these traps are different in each state but in Queensland, these traps are allowed. You chuck the traps in overnight and hope a turtle doesn’t chew through your trap and steal your bait. I was using chicken in these and it worked well. We cleaned the yabbies in the morning and then put them in our chest freezer to put them to sleep. Then we boiled for about 8 minutes in salty (like sea water) water. You then eat them like a prawn or shrimp. I love them and we ate these for lunch that day in Hungerford.

Hungerford is Definitely the Outback

From Eulo, we drove down to Hungerford on the New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland border. The drive takes you through Currawinya National Park but we had our Black Labrador, Mo, with us so unfortunately, we couldn’t camp or stop to check it out.

Hungerford is very small but has a great pub, The Royal Mail Hotel. The pub was built in 1873 and was originally a Cobb and Co staging point for the mail and transport service. We stayed across the road from the pub in the little council camp which had a washing machine, toilets and showers for $10 a night. There are about 7 locals in town and most of them will be at the pub at some point in the night.

We had a great night hanging out with some motorcycle travellers as well as a few others, discussing our various trips around the far west of Queensland and the Outback. We all ate dinner together at a dinner table which was very quaint and had some good Aussie country food, mostly steak and veg.

We did a quick lap of town, checked out the Dingo Fence on the border of QLD and NSW and got some pics of the sites. The Dingo Fence is one of the world’s longest man made structures and starts in Jimbour, Qld (we’ve seen it) and ends in South Australia near Nundroo. Its about 5600kms long and was designed to keep dingoes and wild dogs out of the prime sheep grazing areas of Southern Australia. The fence is still maintained today but I’m pretty sure there are dogs on both sides.

So we had a cracker of a night in Hungerford and took off the next morning up a really great dirt road to Thargomindah. We didn’t realise it at the time, but the road we were about to take had some of the best wildlife on it that we would see for the whole trip.

The road took us from Hungerford, north-west through some of Currawinya NP and over to Thargo. The road was quiet and mostly dirt, so there was a lot of wildlife, like emus, kangaroos, Wedge Tailed Eagles, parrots, finches, doves and falcons..

Thargomindah

Thargomindah is 800kms from Dalby where we started but we didn’t take the direct route. Thargo is right on the edge of civilisation as there is not much west of it. We stayed in a free camp on the Bulloo River. We had a beer in town at the Bulloo River Hotel and bought a lot of diesel and some food at the Roadhouse. The Roadhouse is a fuel station, food shop, automotive shop, takeaway place etc. It’s the place to be in town and we also picked up some water for the car tanks.

We didn’t catch any yabbies in Thargo but we had a great night. At the info centre in town, a friendly lady advised us that our chosen route to Cameron Corner was closed so we had to rethink our route.

We drove up the road to Noccundra Hotel and then south-west to Cameron Corner. We really enjoyed this drive as you get off the bitumen and onto the dirt and then into rolling red sand dunes. There are so many land forms around and you also eventually get into spinifex country which really means you are in the desert.

Cameron Corner is the Outback of the Outback

The Corner, (as they call it) exists mostly because it is a junction of three state lines, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. The dingo fence also runs through it. There is a shop, mechanic and pub which are all run out of the same place. There is also accommodation and camping with basic facilities. This place, smack bang in the middle of the desert also boasts a golf course, just not with too much grass!

We really enjoyed Cameron Corner. The place is properly remote and you feel it! There are sand dunes about, spinifex, very few trees and no phone signal. We had a great camp spot in the sand and a good pub feed that night at the Cameron Corner Store. Lots of people complain about Outback pubs in these places and say they are expensive or have poor quality food. If you think about the 1475kms, or 17 hour drive from Brisbane, then you might start to realise why everything is just a little bit harder in the Outback.

We had some amazing light at Cameron Corner. The sunset, sunrise and the moon all gave us a stunning show. We checked out the Dingo Fence again and read about some endangered desert marsupials. We had a big, basic meal at the store and chatted to the friendly Irish backpackers. Next day, we made our way north through Queensland and South Australia to Innamincka.

Innamincka in Outback South Australia

We have been trying to get to Innamincka since 2018. Every time we drive towards it, the Outback floods and all the roads close. There were some roads closed this time too but we managed to make it. When the Outback floods, roads can get completely washed away and sometimes don’t get rebuilt for a year or two. We visited a town called Urandangie in 2021 coming back from the Northern Territory via the Sandover highway. In March 2023, the town was flooded when the Georgina River broken its banks. The flood was 7 metres above the normal level and the town has basically disappeared. It may not ever be rebuilt.

Burke and Wills Explored the Outback

Innamincka is really in the middle of nowhere and doesn’t have that much in it. It has a long history and is mostly known for its role in the Burke and Wills expedition.

These two colonials decided to walk from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria through the middle of the Australian continent. I think it was mostly just wanting to big note themselves from the sounds of the information boards and eventually the whole expedition died except for one man, John King. They did manage to walk to the Gulf, which is about 3200kms, but they didn’t get past Innamincka and the Cooper Creek on the way back south and died in the region around there. An interesting historical story with some great insights into the British/Colonial stupidity and arrogance.

The Cooper Creek

The Cooper Creek is an astounding green, wet oasis in the middle of a very dry continent. We camped on the Cooper Creek a few times and were always amazed by the amount of water, the green vegetation and the wildlife that existed in such a barren, dry area. We stayed in Innamincka for 3 nights and explored the area, checked out some historical sites, fished, swam and relaxed at the pub.

I would definitely make your way here if you can. There are a tonne of campsites all around Innamincka but we like the town common the most and it was an easy walk to the pub.

There is a fair bit of historical stuff you can explore around Innamincka, mostly relating to the ill fated Burke and Wills expedition. We visited Burke’s grave and Will’s grave and also a few significant water holes like Cullyamurra. There are various trees that have blazes or carvings in them but the original ones are gone or have been replaced with replicas.

There is a cruise you can do on the Cooper just down from the pub. It’s just a small boat and we saw people doing it but we didn’t try it ourselves. The Cooper creek is certainly beautiful in and around Innamincka and provides so much life to the area.

After 3 nights on the beautiful Cooper Creek and afternoon drinks the the Innamincka Hotel, it was time to move on. We took our rubbish to the town dump which is very handy but couldn’t fill up with water as the water machine was broken. So we had to purchase an emergency 10 litre bottle of water. We also bought a little bit of very expensive diesel to get us to Windorah, about 600kms away.

Innamincka to Cadelga Ruins

We wanted to drive across the Cooper and up the Cordillo Downs road but it was closed due to road destruction from flooding. You sometimes think the council is being a bit over cautious but we have seen some washouts on the roads and they are the size of Semi Trailers (tractor trailers). So we drove back out to Queensland and stopped in at the Burke and Wills Dig Tree on Nappa Merrie Station on the way to Betoota.

We drove up to the Nappa Merrie Road to the Arrabury Road turnoff. We turned west and went back into South Australia to check out the Cordillo Downs Sheep shed and the Cadelga ruins. This would take us reasonably close to Betoota and its fantastic pub as well.

The End of Part 1

So I reckon that’s the end of Part 1 of the trip as we did a lot of cool stuff and I’ve got a lot of awesome photos. In Part 2, we’ll start at the amazing Cordillo Downs Road and Cadelga out station for dingoes, birdlife and historical ruins. Cheers and see you next time.

Our Life in the Van

We are Ben and Corinne and we sold it all to live on the road in our car and van. We want to share insights into our life and provide valuable information for other travellers. We also want to show real life, not just insta-perfect life.

See Full Bio