Looking for Campsite Recommendations

My partner and I have done a bit of camping in the area and it kind of depends how “off grid” you’d like to go, your camping experience, and what set up you have. If you have a caravan with power and a bathroom, there’s a lot you can do overnight as you likely won’t need a power hookup just for one day. If you have a simple tent camping set up without a toilet and no power, I’d probably recommend the non-powered section of a caravan park just for now until you get your feet under you. This gives you time to build your set up to include a house battery to charge stuff, plus enough water storage for cooking, a portable toilet, and possibly a small shower kit which would open your camping options up.

I’d say with a 17 month old you’ll probably want to stay at a caravan park for the first couple of times anyway as this will be a “soft attempt” at camping to see what goes well and what you’d like to improve for next time. Any issues like running out of water, needing to use a bathroom/shower asap, running out of cooking fuel, etc is all mitigated by the caravan park facilities but you can also choose the unpowered section to get that camping vibe.

Some caravan parks we’ve been to recently with pretty good facilities: 1. Esk Caravan Park: can get very busy but excellent facilities/events (eg kid and adult pools, feed the parrots, pizza oven, etc) and very close to Brisbane. They’re redoing their unpowered camping section post-flooding, it is open but a bit rough but still was a nice place to stay for outdoorsy feel without needing too much camping gear. 5-10 minute walk from the camp to the Esk IGA, shops, pub etc 2. Boreen Point Campground: up in the Sunshine Coast. Runs alongside a shallow lake that is warm and only waist height, so is very popular for families with kids for swimming and water hobbies. Short 10-15 walk to the local pub for dinner and 3 min drive for brekkie. Very good maintained facilities and kept manicured/clean. Can get busy over weekends and suuuper busy over school holidays.
3. Lake Coolmunda camping: if you want a longer drive, this is inland next to a dam lake. Lovely place, well maintained. More camping style and attached to a caravan park management up the road. You have to stop at the caravan park at the start of the road to pay and get the boom gate code then you can continue down to the camping lake spot.

Hope this is helpful and if you want some 4wd/no facilities camping spots I do have some good tips (other Fraser & Bribie). Best of luck :)

/r/brisbane Thread