Murchison House Station, Kalbarri

Right between the Kalbarri National Park and the Kalbarri township is the Murchison House Station at the end of a dusty red dirt road.

Murchison House Station is a great location to set up camp that’s just near the national park. It’s only a short drive to the np park entrance from here, or head the other way as it’s also not far from the beach and town that has a couple of grocery stores, venues and petrol stations.

You’ll have a good chance to ‘semi rough-it’ in nature with minimal city comforts where there’s a row of campsites just a short distance back from the river. It’s the kind of place that you’ll either love or hate, mainly due to your set-up and the weather.

If you’re equiped to camp off-grid and the weather’s nice, then it can be a great spot and a good country experience. On the other hand, if there’s any rain, it can make for an uncomfortable stay as the entire place turns to sandy-mud and it’s not a short walk to the facilities from the campsites, among the fact that the sites are unpowered and don’t have mains water connection.

The campground and facilities aren’t of the highest standards, although this can be somewhat overlooked due to the location and station camping experience & a big plus is that each site has a fire pit, unlike many campground in Western Australia.

As you enter the station (after driving down the dirt track), there’s a large roundabout where you’ll find the office, camp kitchen and amenities. There’s a chicken-coop and goat yard that you’ll see before reaching the camping ground, which can be fun for the kids.

Once you make it to the camping area, a bit of luck will come into play. Most of the camp sites have shade and a pretty flat surface, then some of the sites have deceivingly big slopes and thick sand where not levellers will be of little help to get your caravan sitting even.

At the end of row of sites is a gate by the river that goes through to a nice walking trail, ideal for taking the dog for a stroll or going to find somewhere relaxing and quiet to have a bit alone time.

The facilities are not great. Depending where your site is, you’ll be between 100 and several hundred metres from them. There are two showers and two toilets for males, same goes for females.

Although the toilets are kept clean, they’re very old. The showers work fine, but are still quite old and usually quite sandy due to the surface of the entire area all being fine sand.

There’s an indoor camp kitchen, which is handy, but just like the showers and toilets, it’s really not enough for the amount of people staying (plus the station workers) there and you’ll almost always need to line up, even if trying to wash your dishes at 6:00am.

Nonetheless, this is a good place to stay and the location makes it all the better.