Western Qld - The Quamby Pub to Karumba

Day 6 to 8 - Thursday 11th to Saturday 13th September, 2025

Yeah yeah I know what you're going to say in a minute, we were on the road this morning around 8.30am bound for Karumba (it's early for us we're just cruisin' along) 😉 

Grabbed fuel at Normanton arriving about 1pm at the Sunset Caravan Park in Karumba Point.  Booked in, found our site next to our mates who were out and about.  First time unhooking so far on this trip, that's okay I've sure the Hilux will appreciate it 😆  Our mates Razzle and Doreen arrived before we had unhooked and after the hello's and hugs what do you reckon the first thing the boys did......🤔  bingo,  grabbed  beer out of the fridge in the back of my car 😆

Once everything was set up, which took a little while with those beers flowing out of the fridge, we settled down in the shade for drinks.

Doreen announced earlier, that she hoped we were going to the pub for dinner tonight - so we thought it best to go to the pub for the obligatory sunset and photos, drinks and of course dinner.  Since we have Barney with us, we'll have to sit in the dog friendly fenced area, last time we were up here with Boris, you could sit anywhere out the back on the grass, the dog friendly area is quite small sadly.  I get that some people don't want to have dinner with people's dogs around, that's cool, I just wish the dog area was  little bigger, just my thoughts.

Craig and I both got the Seafood Basket, I mean come on we are in Karumba and of course the sunset was beautiful.

So I don't bore you with our couple of days in Karumba, here's a round up which was basically just relaxing, catching up on washing, the men 🤭checking over the vans and cars, Barney meeting 3 other staffies and running around playing chasey on the road with another staffy about 6am one morning while going for his walk with Craig.  Lunching at both fish and chip shops at Karumba Point - Ash's and Pa's, both were very nice.  Boys drinking beer from 10am in the morning, fishing and not catching and then starting to pack up and preparing for department Sunday morning for our trip back together.

Craig expressed his interest in coming back again maybe in 2 years, he likes Karumba Point.  For those who haven't been before, Karumba the township has another caravan park, pub, bakery and grocery stores.

Sunset Caravan Park at Karumba Point is a great park, you've got two camp kitchens, two amenities blocks and laundries, cafe, powered and unpowered sites, dog wash facility, when we were there the pizza van was there on the Friday night.  You get text messages from reception about things happening, which is good. $67.00/night - 2 people power/water.

Western Qld - Winton to The Quamby Pub

 Day 5 - Wednesday 10th September, 2025

Packed up early again, topped up with fuel (while we were filling up we ran into a couple that were camping at Blackall next to us and are travelling to Karumba also, lovely older couple) unfortunately our quick hello was interrupted by a fellow behind him barping his horn in his big 4wd and huge caravan - it was only a 10 second hello for goodness sakes.  It was pies again this morning for breakfast, followed by an apple turnover for Craig.  We found a rest stop just out of town and pulled over to eat our pies. 

Drove through Kynuna and stopped at the next town McKinlay at the Walkabout Hotel for a break and quick drink.  Haven't been through these towns for so long and the Walkabout Hotel still looks the same as we remember. 

Onwards to Cloncurry to get some grog before ending up at our stay for tonight, which is The Quamby Pub which is about 40klm north of Cloncurry.

Pulling up at The Quamby Pub, it looks like all the photos I've seen on Facebook in the pub camping group. 

I popped into the pub to book into a powered site hopefully, I was asked if we had a 10 or 15amp plug and there was some back and forth with the Chef something to do with power draw, I didn't quite follow but end result was everything was okay.  One of the staff from the kitchen was leaving and said he'd show us to the powered section and to meet him at the pool (yep pub has a pool), he just had to drop off a meal to someone in the rooms.

The fellow gave us the run down on where the plug in was in the pool area and left us to decide where to park.  Looks like you'd get maybe 3 or 4 vans in the powered area and it would be cosy but you would need quite a long lead for a couple of the spots.  We only had a 20m lead so parked behind the pool so we could reach the power.  There are also heaps of unpowered sites, which are tiered levels, decent camp kitchen and big under cover area with tables and chairs, pool, toilets, showers and dog friendly camping and they are also allowed on the front veranda of the pub.  Where we were camped there's a nice grassy area which is shaded in the afternoon.

We had a couple of drinks on the veranda then had to re-locate over to the camp kitchen closer to our Starlink so I could work, it's wages day so kinda important.  Barney was very hot, so Craig took him over to the shadey grassy area near our van and he rolled around on the grass having a fat time.

We headed back to the pub around 5.30pm for a couple drinks and dinner on the front veranda.  Craig had Steak and veg and I had Snitty, Chip, Salad and gravey.  Barney met our neighbours Beagle today and they had a lovely time playing with each other.  The neighbours are also travelling to Karuma and their site isn't too far from ours - go figure.

Early night for us, we are planning to leave early (well early for us anyway) so we get to Karumba before lunch.  It's been a pleasant stay at The Quamby Pub.

Western Qld - Blackall to Winton

 Day 4 - Tuesday 9th September, 2025

We were up early this morning, dog walked, packed up, topped up the fuel, picked up pies and sweet treats from the Bakery for breakfast then headed out of Blackall for a little bit, until we found a roadside rest stop to pull over and eat said haul from the bakery 🥧🍰

Back on the road travelling north to tonight's destination of Winton.  We have fond memories from an early trip maybe 20 years ago, when we ate at the Tattersalls Hotel in Winton when Craig ordered the mixed grill and it came out on 2 plates!  so thought since the Tatts Hotel now has a Van Park attached to it, we'd stay here again.  Now just to get through another long drive today, driving through Barcaldine and Ilfrcombe where we stopped at the Memorial Park to stretch everyones legs and have a comfort stop.  Really lovely little park with toilets/showers, playground, pool, rotunda (you don't see enough really good rotunda's in parks these days, do you), covered arbours and beautiful lush grass. 

Also a great machinery museum across the other side of the highway which we didn't stop at, but have it on our list next time we are up this way.  Onwards to Longreach to top up with fuel.  We are tending to do the splash and dash at towns with reasonably priced fuel this trip, so we don't forget I have a smaller fuel tank then Craig's car and get close to running again 🙄

There's still a lot of nothing out here isn't there, but we've scored the best weather so far for this trip.  Rolled into Winton around 2pm, booked into camping at the Tatts Hotel then went and set up.  Not a bad campground, amenities, free washing machines, dump point over the road at the end of the street and of course the pub across the street.  Decent sized powered site and a patch of grass.  I had to do some work after we finished setting up, so we sat in the shade of the trees we had at the end of our site which was lovely and Barney enjoyed rolling around on the grass.

Afterwards, Barney took us for a walk and then we headed to the pub for an early dinner but also so we could secure a table outside that was dog friendly.  Just as well we did, wow it got busy and filled up quickly, the line to order food was across the bar and out the door after Craig had ordered ours.  It's quite hot today, reached mid 30's and it's not cooling down really quickly either, at least we got a table in the shade.  We ended up sharing our table with 2 ladies (a mother and daughter of older age we'll say, who were doing a bit of a holiday in Longreach and Winton and flew up and are going home on a train, how cool).  Dinner was good - Parmy for me of course and Craig got the Lamb Shoulder which was cut into steaks.

Check our the specials boards at the Tatts:

We retired after dinner inside the van in the air conditioning and watched TV for something different for us.

Western Qld - Muckadilla to Blackall

 Day Three - Monday 8th September, 2025

Pies from Mitchell bakery for breakfast is the call this morning.  Coffee, pack up and hit the road Jack because today is a bigger driving day.  The pies were enjoyable, we stopped at the little park to eat them.  We called into Augathella for a break and comfort stop at the showground, clean toilets and dump point and nobody there.  We pushed onto Tambo, where we stopped at the Tambo Dam Rest Area for lunch.  Wow what a lovely spot, beautiful green grassy area right on the dam, shelters, picnic tables, bins, toilets.  A really pleasant spot to stop for lunch.  Barney had a fat time rolling around on his back in the grass, making his normal happy barking noises while sliding down the slope 😆😆

Well done Tambo.

Our target today is Blackall, staying overnight in the caravan park but there is a free camp in Blackall, however it's pretty hot so we thought air con would be nice.  As I mentioned today was about 5 hours driving plus stops and yeah I know some people will say 5 hours is nothing BUT, old mate isn't young anymore and can't do stupidily big hours driving, he likes doing no more than about 4hours stopping about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours for a break now he's towing the caravan.  He's not 30 years old anymore, he's nearly double that now 🤣  Pushed on from Tambo and I must say it was quite taxing on Craig today, the roads were throwing the car and van all over the place, he was exhausted.

There is a lot of nothing out here, isn't there.

We rolled into Blackall around 2.30pm, the Caravan Park owner Jordan (Husband and Wife team Jordan and Samantha own the park) was super friendly and joking that our van wasn't a Swag, a Swag doesn't look like that 😆(there's always one comedian), I booked and paid for a powered site $41.00/night 2 people, he came out said hello to Barney and chatted to Craig then showed us to our site and directed Craig in on a certain angle so we could hooked up for the night.  There will be live entertainment at 5pm in the camp kitchen straight across from us.

Awesome camp kitchen at the Blackall Caravan Park

Took Barney for a walk around the block after setting up, thought he needed it and perhaps Craig needed a walk too.  As we were approaching the caravan park again some campers didn't have their large dogs on leads and they came tearing up to us and I just thought the worst for Barney.  The owner came racing over very apologetic and thankfully neither of them attacked Barney. We didn't even make it back to our site and Samantha (Park Owner) came running over to ask if Barney was okay and if the people's dogs weren't on a lead.  We said Barney was fine and it was okay, but never have we had a park owner care so much, it was really lovely.

We were chatting to Jordan and he was saying they've owned the park for about a year I think it was and they're working on updating everything slowly but surely, trying to grow the grass so the sites weren't just dirt.  It's a lovely little park.

We had an early dinner of Hamburgers and after cleaning up Craig had a meltdown due to a headache (a result of the day's big drive), he was that grumpy he and Barney went inside and fell asleep instantly.

Sometimes it's better to remain silent in this situation and let the bear rest peacefully 😉

Blackall Caravan Park is a really pleasant little park to stay in.  Owner's are lovely, super friendly and care.  Amenities are old but they are clean, awesome camp kitchen, dump point, cabins, powered and unpowered sites and did I mention really lovely owners Jordan and Samantha.