Camping and Caravan Parks in the Margaret River Region

The people who camp here see a different version of this place. They're up before anyone else, they're on the beach before the day-tripper from Perth has even left home. Here's where to base yourself.

I've lived in Yallingup since 1982 and I've watched the caravan parks fill and empty with the seasons every year since. I've also watched the families who do it well, and the ones who don't. There's a knack to it. The knack is mostly about location.

Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A few good reasons. First, the morning. The beaches here, at first light in summer, are as quiet as they ever are. If you're camped within five minutes of the sand, you're walking onto an empty beach by 6am. The day-trippers from Perth aren't there until eleven.

Second, the price. A powered site for a couple costs less per night than a hotel room costs per hour. Even a cabin at a caravan park is roughly half a mid-range hotel.

Third, the kids. There's something about a caravan park that does for children what almost no hotel manages. They make friends with the kids in the next site. They ride bikes around the loop. They come back filthy and content.

The trade-off is the work. Setting up a tent, breaking down a tent, cooking on a two-burner, queueing for amenities. If you want to be looked after, book a cabin. If you want the morning beach to yourself, camp.

Tasman Holiday Parks Yallingup Beach (formerly Yallingup Beach Holiday Park) is the closest park to the surf. It sits behind the dunes a short walk from Yallingup Beach. Powered and unpowered sites, cabins, a small pool. The site is older than the brochure suggests but the location is the whole point. You walk to the beach in two minutes. You're a ten-minute drive from the workshop on Blythe Rd. The Caves House pub is up the hill. The wider Yallingup accommodation guide compares the parks against the resorts.

The cabins book out months ahead for summer and school holidays. The powered sites are easier to get inside a month. If you've got a 4WD and don't mind the rougher bush sites, those are usually the last to go.

Caves Caravan Park is the other Yallingup option, set back on Caves Rd. Quieter than Tasman, no beach walk, but a five-minute drive to Yallingup Beach and twenty minutes to most of the cellar doors. Good for couples and grey nomads. Less of a kid scene.

RAC Busselton Holiday Park at West Busselton is the biggest, most family-friendly option in the area. Cabins, powered sites, the pool, the jumping pillow, all of it. If you've got young kids and you want them entertained without you having to do all of it yourself, this is the pick.

Mandalay Holiday Resort in Busselton has chalets and powered sites side by side. It's a five-minute walk to the foreshore and the jetty.

BIG4 Beachlands Holiday Park is on the calm bay side of Busselton, similar deal. Reliable, family-focused, beach access across the road.

Dunsborough Beachouse YHA isn't a caravan park but worth mentioning for solo travellers and backpackers. Cheap beds, kitchen, ten minutes to Meelup Beach.

Dunsborough Lakes has caravan options closer to Dunsborough town. Less beach-front but good central location for the Cape Naturaliste end of the region.

Cowaramup Pines Caravan Park is set in karri and marri country just off Bussell Hwy. Quieter than the coastal parks. Mid-priced. Good for the wine-region people who want to be central to the cellar doors rather than the surf. It's about fifteen minutes from Margaret River town and twenty from Yallingup. The trees give it a different feel from the windswept coastal sites.

Taunton Farm Holiday Park sits a bit further south, with farm animals and a country setting. Kids love it. The drive to the beach is ten minutes.

Margaret River Tourist Park is the central option in Margaret River town. Set in the bush, with a creek running through. Powered sites, cabins, a camp kitchen. Good if you want to be walking distance to the cafes and the brewery.

Riverview Tourist Park is along the river just outside town. Older, cheaper, a quieter loop.

The trade-off with Margaret River town is that you're a half-hour drive from the coast. If your trip is mostly winery-and-bush, that's fine. If you came for the surf, base yourself further north.

Photo: Sam Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

For the self-sufficient.

Conto Campground in Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, between Margaret River and Augusta, has bush sites for tents and small campers. Long-drop toilets, no power, no water. You book through DBCA. It's a beautiful site in karri and peppermint and you're a short walk from the coast.

Boranup Campground is further south in the karri forest near Boranup. Same DBCA booking system. The forest there is some of the tallest in the region and the silence at night is extraordinary.

Point Road Campground is more basic again, closer to Augusta.

These aren't free in the strict sense (DBCA charge a small site fee, usually around $11–$15 per person per night) but they're a lot cheaper than the holiday parks and a different experience. You need to bring everything: water, a stove, somewhere to put your rubbish out.

Free roadside camping is officially not allowed in the South West. Local rangers do enforce it. If you're in a van, book a site.

You won't save much by self-catering if you do the supermarket once and treat yourself the rest of the time. The places worth going to are the bakeries (Yallingup Woodfired Bread, the Margaret River Bakery), the farmers market at Margaret River on a Saturday morning, the cheese factory at Cowaramup, and the brewery counter meals at Yallingup Brewing and Cheeky Monkey.

A camping breakfast of bakery sourdough, eggs from the Saturday market, and tomatoes from the farmgate stall on Caves Rd is one of the better breakfasts in the region. Better than most cafe breakfasts at three times the price.

This is the thing I'd tell every camper. If you're up early, you've already won. The sequence I'd run from any of the Yallingup or Dunsborough parks:

1. 6.15am

   Yallingup Beach or Smiths Beach

   Walk it before anyone else. The light is the best of the day.
2. 7.30am

   Caves House or back at camp

   Coffee. Eggs.
3. 9am

   Cellar door morning

   Vasse Felix opens 10. You'll be first in.
4. 11am

   Long lunch or another beach

   Pick one.
5. 3pm

   Nap or surf

   Up to you.
6. Sunset

   Canal Rocks or Wyadup

   Wherever the light is best that night.
7. Dinner

   Camp

   Two-burner, simple, in bed by ten.

That's the camping rhythm. It doesn't sound revolutionary on paper. The difference is that everyone else is doing two hours of it. You're doing fourteen.

I've never lived in a caravan park but I've spent enough time at Tasman Yallingup and at Conto over the years to know the appeal. The thing that strikes me, every time, is how much more the campers see of this place than the hotel guests. The hotel guests get one good morning, one good evening, and a hundred other moments that happen behind plate glass. The campers get all of it. Sand in the tent, mozzies at dusk, the unbelievable quiet at two in the morning when the wind drops.

If you've got the kit and the time, do it once.

If you're camped in Yallingup or Dunsborough, the gallery on Blythe Rd is a five-to-ten minute drive. Free entry, viewing window into the workshop, no booking. Worth twenty minutes when you need a break from the sand.

Photo: Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

For the Margaret River winter low-down if you're camping off-season, and free things to do in the region for budget days that pair with a camping trip.

If you're camped in Yallingup, the gallery is a five-minute drive on Blythe Rd. Pamela usually has the kettle on.