Brisbane Ranges National Park

Our first trip out in the new camper. The Tambo Cooper XT. We haven’t been this excited for a while.

After a bit of preparation and packing up of the kitchen and the trailer, we were ready to head out on our first trip. We chose a spot that wasn’t too far away, mainly because we have two small kids and the weather was looking ominous. If it all went pear shaped then it wouldn’t be much to head back home. Having said that, we were only out for the one night anyway.

Brisbane Ranges National Park – Boar Gully Campsite

Boar Gully Campsite

Brisbane Ranges – Boar Gully Campsite

Boar Gully campsite is found in the northern part of the Brisbane Ranges National Park, which itself is about a hour’s drive west of Melbourne. The campsite is a basic one, with just a toilet and no showers.There is running water available, but you have to know where to look to find the tap (which evaded us for most of the weekend and we only found it the morning we left). There is only one trailer/caravan spot and several tent sites. All of the site have picnic tables and a fire pit. As I understand it, you need to bring your firewood with you as you are not allowed to pick up wood from the bush.

Setting up the camper for the first time was actually pretty straight forward. We had been shown how to do the set up and pack up by Keith, from Tambo Campers, so it was just a case of remembering in what order we had to do things. We had bought a length of shade-cloth that goes on the ground under the tent – a little protection goes a long way.

Getting the main tent up took us about 10-15 minutes, the extra bedroom about 20 minutes – the zips were a bit of a faff. The awning took another 15 – 20 minutes, but it now attached is staying that way, so all we have to do is pull it down, insert the poles (4 of them) and tie the lot down with guy ropes. We should be able to do it all a lot quicker next time; now that we know what we are doing. Our kitchen is one of those awesome Drifta’s, so it was out and ready to go in about 1 minute flat. Lunch was prepared and kids were fed in record time!

“The Hilton”

One thing that I got a little wrong the first time, was the positioning of the shade-cloth (or I should say ground mat). I managed to have excess out the back of the bedroom and not enough out the front under the awning. It also needs to be positioned further underneath the trailer to start with; right up against the tyre. As we will not have the bedroom on that much over the next few trips, I will likely double the ground mat over for the bit that sits under the main tent. When the bedroom is up however, I need to ensure that the ground mat is not more that 6ft from the back of the trailer, otherwise there won’t be enough for under the awning.

Even though we were just camping for the one night, we had set up EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. We needed to see how everything fitted together and worked. The tent is huge, which is a good thing for us. With two kids under 4 and the high probability that it’ll rain when we go out for a weekend (out of the 4 trips we have done since being in Australia it’s rained on 3 of them). The large tent will mean that we have some living space that is dry and comfortable and will allow us to entertain the kids. The extra bedroom will be a great addition when we have the kids’ friends come out with us, or have a relative or two to cater for.

“The Hilton”

After much fresh air, a good run around the campsite and preventing a forest fire, the kids had a bit of a nap and then we all went for a hike through the woods to look for koalas, ‘kangaroos and kookaburras. We managed 2 out of 3! On the way back to camp we saw a number of kangaroos, although they weren’t in the national park area but in the farmers paddocks next door. Loads of them. Then we spotted a couple of the iconic kookaburras just as we got back to the campsite.

The weather played along very nicely over the course of the day/evening. It rained lightly on and off every few hours giving the canvas its required bit of ‘seasoning’. Apparently this wetting-drying, wetting-drying cycle helps to shrink the canvas and the stitching and effectively seals the tent and prevents any future leaks (we had a couple during the night, which was expected as the canvas was brand new). So hopefully the next wet trip it will be dry inside!

We were fortunate enough to have the whole campsite to ourselves once the day-trippers had had their fun and had gone home. It was so peaceful and cold. It was fantastic. The only thing missing was a large body of water with some good fighting fish in it. But that’ll be next time when I head up to the Murray River with a few mates.