Lakefield National Park, QLD
Earlier this week, my girlfriend and I made the trek into Lakefield National Park for a quick camping and fishing trip.
Lakefield is one of Queensland’s most remote and magnificent national parks. Lakefield’s outstanding feature is a vast river system creating the wetlands area of permanent waterholes, lakes and lagoons for which the park is particularly renowned. In the wet season, the Normanby, Morehead and North Kennedy rivers and their tributaries break their banks and combine to cover vast areas and sheets of water. In the dry season, they shrink back to a trickle, leaving behind the permanent lakes and lagoons that characterise the park.
On advice from friends, we chose the Orange Plain campsite located at the top of the park. We towed the boat and the drive up took just over seven hours with stops. The highlight of the trip was my girlfriend catching her first ever barramundi. Unfortunately, I lost a good sized barra when it cut the mono trace right at the side of the boat (see video)! This time of year, the water cools down which, in turn, makes the fish go off the bite. Therefore, if you are heading all that way just for the fishing, I would recommend to go earlier in the year once the park opens after the wet season (April/May) or later on once it warms up (September).
The campsite has no facilities so you need to be totally self-sufficient. We took all our own food, fuel, water (over 100lt) and mechanical/recovery equipment for the vehicle. It is a fantastic site and very secluded in comparison to the popular Kalpower & Hann Crossing sites. Highly recommended!
Highlights video here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP2_M4OPWyQ
Map here -
Earlier this week, my girlfriend and I made the trek into Lakefield National Park for a quick camping and fishing trip.
Lakefield is one of Queensland’s most remote and magnificent national parks. Lakefield’s outstanding feature is a vast river system creating the wetlands area of permanent waterholes, lakes and lagoons for which the park is particularly renowned. In the wet season, the Normanby, Morehead and North Kennedy rivers and their tributaries break their banks and combine to cover vast areas and sheets of water. In the dry season, they shrink back to a trickle, leaving behind the permanent lakes and lagoons that characterise the park.
On advice from friends, we chose the Orange Plain campsite located at the top of the park. We towed the boat and the drive up took just over seven hours with stops. The highlight of the trip was my girlfriend catching her first ever barramundi. Unfortunately, I lost a good sized barra when it cut the mono trace right at the side of the boat (see video)! This time of year, the water cools down which, in turn, makes the fish go off the bite. Therefore, if you are heading all that way just for the fishing, I would recommend to go earlier in the year once the park opens after the wet season (April/May) or later on once it warms up (September).
The campsite has no facilities so you need to be totally self-sufficient. We took all our own food, fuel, water (over 100lt) and mechanical/recovery equipment for the vehicle. It is a fantastic site and very secluded in comparison to the popular Kalpower & Hann Crossing sites. Highly recommended!
Highlights video here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP2_M4OPWyQ
Map here -
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