Basket Swamp Rest Area - Northern NSW
- Free Camping -

One of the wonderful advantages of belonging to a CMCA Chapter is the safaris one gets to go on. In this case the Brisbane Sunshine Wanderers did a 10 day safari from Brisbane to the Millmerran Camp Oven Festival. Most of the stops along the way were all in bush camps and Basket Swamp turned out to be one of our favourites as it is so far off any road and utterly peaceful.

Looking at any map you could be excused for thinking that Basket Swamp is in fact in the National Park. It isn't and is actually State Forest which means being in NSW you can take your doggie! The road does in fact skirt National Park but you are OK.

Facilities are basic consisting of a couple of drop toilets, BBQ's, a few tables but no water at all. You must take out your own rubbish. Camp sites can be very shady and some are very private. We had 20 vehicles and we certainly had plenty of privacy. With care you could take a big rig in here - just take it easy on the road in as it isn't super wide - see the photo at the end of this story.

Walking wise there are lots of opportunities. The longest walk is into the falls. The sign says 2.5 kms but we both use pedometers and this seems a very optimistic "guess". Some of this walk is down a mountain so it is best attempted early in the day. The track in is well defined but the final 1/2 km we would class as 4WD country. One of our chaps had a 4WD motorhome and inched his way back up! Idyllic campsite though if you have the correct vehicle.

Similarly it is a great area if you have your mountain bike with you. We would class the road as all weather but nevertheless would give it a miss in the wet as it is so far in if you happened to get stranded. Of course no phones work and TV is pure snow! We all had a great time at Basket Swamp as it was the right size group for this type of campsite. We couldn't have a fire due to a total ban. The fires had in fact snapping at our heals in some places previously on this trip.

Some of our members got lost for a bit trying to find this spot! One ended up at Wallangarra! Get yourself into Tenterfield and we strongly suggest you call at the Information Centre and get a local map as the car club and Hema just haven't got enough detail for this spot. Anyway head west out of Tenterfield on the Bruxner Highway and look for a turnoff to Boonoo, Boonoo, Kilarney. This is uphill on good bitumen for 10 kms and the Basket Swamp turnoff is on your right and clearly marked. The road in has lots of turnoffs as per most forestry tracks but this one has excellent signage. We absolutely recommend Basket Swamp Rest Area.

Bob & Chrissy Eustace

Hema 25 C10