Myall Lakes National Park

Picturesque coastal lakes

18.11.2012 - 21.11.2012 26 °C

Myall Lakes National Park, on the north coast not far from Newcastle, features one of New South Wales' largest coastal lake systems, and was for us reminiscent of the Swedish lakes and for Lorraine of the Lake District in the UK.

We first camped at one of the coastal camps called Yagon, just south of the picturesque Seal Rocks, where we met a nice couple from Brisbane also camping with a Quantum. We then moved to a very pretty site on the shores of the Myall Lake, called Mungo Brush. We had to cross Myall Lake with the Bombah ferry to get to the southern, coastal part of the park. At Mungo Brush there is easy access to some of the park’s walking tracks, including the Mungo Brush Rainforest walk and a 8km return walk to Tamboy, an old fishing village on the lake. Being right on the lake means there are great opportunities for bird watching and we saw numerous black swans and pelicans on the lake. We also saw Lace Monitors and Water Dragons. If you get bored at the lake it is a short walk from the campground to the ocean beach, where you go swimming or fishing.

There were a couple of dingoes constantly patrolling the campgrounds and our neighbours told us not to leave our shoes out at night because the dingoes steal them, although the dingoes we saw didn't wear any of the stolen shoes. The local Kookaburras were also very skilled in stealing food, especially sausages from barbeques.

Some of the local pensioner regulars went out on the first evening evening at dusk to catch prawns, dragging a huge net through the shallow waters. They didn't catch much and so did a big group of coal miners from the Hunter Valley that arrived on the second day.

Myall Lake is a peaceful place and Mungo Brush Campsite rated very high by us, especially if you can get one of the lakefront sites.

We plan to travel down to Newcastle today.

Seal Rocks Bay