Crooked Creek Rest Area - Northern NSW - Free Camping - This is what all rest areas should be like. What an excellent free camping area this is! Loads of walking opportunities and wonderful for rigs of all sizes and loads of room to spread out and you get to camp near a creek.. 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 in 2002 from Brisbane to the Millmerran Camp Oven Festival. Most of the stops along the way were all in bush camps and Crooked Creek turned out to be one of our favourites as it is a fair way off the highway and utterly peaceful.

It was in the middle of a drought yet as you can see from the photos it was still reasonably green and the creek still had plenty of very clean water running. Of course parking near the billabong was a popular spot as during our visit it was super hot.

Facilities consist of one covered table, lots of BBQ's and drop toilets. We needed solar so we parked in the open but in summer there are plenty of shady sites. The walking opportunities are endless. Try walking into the forest over the small causeway at the end of the lagoon. After a couple of kilometers you come on a marvelous camping area buried deep in the forest. What amazed us was power connected and showers! Apparently it is an Outward Bound Centre on;ly used occasional. Well if State Forests put in an honour box at $5.00 a night we would certainly gladly contribute. We did take some piccies if anyone is interested as it would make an ideal chapter venue.

This area is maintained by NSW State Forests. We have nothing but praise for these people as they make life on the road so much more pleasant for motorhomers and yes we certainly appreciate their efforts. Visitors to NSW should note that you can camp anywhere in any state forest completely free of charge and your doggie is always welcome. Obviously they don't want you camping in the areas they are currently logging at these are clearly sign posted. Our group had a ball here but sadly the bushfires chased us out in double quick time. Another reason why you need UHF radio as this is how we found out the fires were approaching. No GSM or CDMA phones working. Limited tank water but the river is clean enough to fill up for showers if you have a second tank.

Crooked Creek Rest Area is on the Bruxner Highway on the way from Tenterfield to Ballina - excellent motorhome road with only a few hills. Entry is on a narrow slightly downhill track. No problem as long as you take your time but best to avoid if you are on your own and it's raining. It is on the Bruxner Highway 32 kms west of Tabulum and 40 kms east of Tenterfield. Watch out for the town of Drake. Nearest supplies at Tabulum - very tiny township and yes we failed to check if water was available there. We absolutely recommend Crooked River S/F. Chrissy Eustace HEMA 25 C11