Neville Hewitt Weir, Baralaba QLD
An hour or two South-West of Rockhampton is the small town of Baralaba. The town is boosted by the mining industry, which is evident by the number of four-wheel-drives hanging around with the yellow stripes down the sides.
Baralaba has a pub, with lovely, cold beer on tap which is walking distance from the camp grounds. I know this, because Jazz and I walked there. And had several beers on the balcony with our dogs sitting on the grass out the front.
The campgrounds in Baralaba are located on the Dawson River. It is a free camp that is maintained by the local council. A truck came in and emptied the bins around the campsite what seemed to be like 4 times a day. We found the campsite by looking up the Neville Hewitt Weir, although no weir could be seen from the campsite.
There are toilets at the campground, which is always a bonus when free-camping. We setup camp under one of the many big, shady trees. Most of the area is flat and there was heaps of space for camping. I think that during the peak of the Grey Nomad travelling season (Winter) that this place would fill right up. It’s pleasant, picturesque and FREE. There is an honesty box you can donate in (which we always do) but I think the money raised actually goes into something to do with fish or fishing in the Dawson River. There were signs up around the place advertising their big, annual fishing comp. the young girl working behind the bar at the pub said that Baralaba gets very busy during fishing competition time.
While camped there we met a couple of other campers, who were also dog owners. This dog-friendly campground was very friendly and our dogs had fun meeting some of the other little poochies that were there at the time.
The Dawson River/Neville Hewitt Weir doesn’t look all that appealing for swimming. I had a chat with an old German bloke that was camped there and he said the water colour used to be a lot nicer in years gone by before the big mines in the area opened up. He said he had been fishing too, but only caught catfish. He said in years gone by the fishing has been a lot better.
There is a boat ramp there and a young guy on a JetSki launched while we were there.
We had fun at Baralaba, camping on the banks of the Neville Hewitt Weir (although we didn’t get to see the weir). It ticks almost all the boxes you could ask for in a free-camp.
