Iluka and surrounds

[Novice Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Novice]

Hi All

Wondering if anyone has any info or suggestions on 4wding around Iluka on the Clarence River in Northern NSW. From what I can gather the beach is accessible (and no permit required?), but I'm struggling to find any info on other available/accessible tracks or areas.

I'm heading down there for a week of camping just after Chrissie and looking for ideas to fill up the time between boating 8) , fishing :evil: , eating , drinking :lol: and running around after a tribe of my kids, nieces and nephews :shock: .

Pete

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

Are you staying at Woody Head with the rest of all the brisvegasites? They say there is a NYE for us southerners and one for the banana benders because they still can't work out daylight saving :lol:

OK I'll stop poking fun at the neighbours :lol:

National sparks and wildfire and Council close down most of the beach access points around the southern end (from the breakwall) over christmas as there are too many families on the beach. I think this is to reduce the number of day tripers. But access is still possible from the campgrounds at Woody Head.

It gets really busy at that time so you need to pre-book in your site early?

You can drive 10kms north up the beach to black rock, then out and back on the pacfic hwy but make sure you check the tides as xmas brings the king tides that cover the entire beach. There is no where to excape. The exit at black rock may get a bit difficult due to useage i.e. chopped up

The best bait is sand worms, pippies, green prawns, nippers, you can get most of them locally on the sand bar. I've had a human burly machine the last couple of trips but a suspect there was more rum in it that anything else?

There are some tracks in yuraygir further south and you would need to travel probably at least an hour west to get into the range but there are some great tracks around Gibralter Range, Nymboida for a day trip.

Iluka pub is great on the river and Yamba is a 5 minute boat ride or a 45 minute drive. Angourie beach is also a nice spot.

Be careful the speed limit on the black top into Iluka is now 80km/hr apparently to save some type of bird ?? It seems to go on forever and the cops have been enforcing it quite frequently.

There are bazillions of midgies, mozies and every other biting insect sampling your DNA so take a good sleeping net and some tropo strength RID.

here is some other info

http://www.clarencetourism.com/
http://www.clarencecommunity.com.au/

[Novice Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Novice]

Thanks Spurio

Being ex-Sydney myself you don't need to convince me that we need daylight saving! Why not just move the timezone north and west 500k leaving about a tenth of people actually directly affected?

Actually we're staying at the caravan park at Iluka. Been to Yamba a few times before but its getting very busy and expensive there now.

When you say south of the breakwall do you mean the south wall at Yamba?

Can you go beyond Black Rocks towards Evans Head?

I'm afraid my fishing skills means that my best contribution is likely to be as a burly machine myself - oh well all part of the fun.

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

When you say south of the breakwall do you mean the south wall at Yamba?

Sorry I'm talkin yokal again, I meant from the North Wall (Iluka side) of the bar.

4wd access to Iluka Beach is from Beach road and you need a permit from council, available from riverside caravan park, i think the fish coop may sell them now?

Iluka beach, Iluka bluff, Bluff beach, woody head and Shark bay all have heaps of people there over christmas. I think council makes the access decision depends on number of people on the beach and conditions as to how many vehicles they allow on the beach.

For something different, the kids love it, there is a nice rainforest walk from town to the whale bluff lookout.

Can you go beyond Black Rocks towards Evans Head?

You can go pass black rock access point probably as far as Jerusalm Crk at low tide, but depends on how confident you are with your sand driving and rock hopping ability in the tidal area. A few vehicles have been caught and wrecked up there. If you do go past watch out for the soft aerated sand around the rocks, it literally sucks you in as you drive on it.

I haven't gone past Jerusalm Crk for s couple of years because it has always been to deep or the edges to steep or soft to get a vehicle safely across or out.

I guess just check what the conditions are like and what others are doing first?

You wont get to Evans Hd as there is the military exclusion bombing zone
up there and the fences and signs says there maybe unexploded bombs on the ground.

There are a few dirt tracks and a nice lagoon at the black rock site. Good for a picnic with the kids. I think you are only allowed electric motors and/or paddles in it but it is great for canoes. 4wding wise at black rock there is nothing really extreme but good for a look.

If you don't have a NPWS sticker I think you may need to get a day permit to drive on 10mile beach and black rock, not sure ?

I'm afraid my fishing skills means that my best contribution is likely to be as a burly machine myself - oh well all part of the fun.

I think I wilby mixing up a few chrismas dinner mixes myself :lol:

[sangmkiv Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close sangmkiv]

Re: Iluka and surrounds

Hi All



I'm heading down there for a week of camping just after Chrissie and looking for ideas to fill up the time between boating 8) , fishing :evil: , eating , drinking :lol: and running around after a tribe of my kids, nieces and nephews :shock: .

Pete

Hey Novice,

I will be at woody head camping area at the same time. If you see a really handsome fella with five kids and a prado.....ask him to point me out and I will shout you a can of new... :wink:

[esie Member Find all posts View Profile Close esie]

Re: Iluka and surrounds

We were camping at Woody Head last week, and it was absolutely beautiful. It seemed to start pouring with rain when we drove in the gates on Sunday, and continued until Thursday morning, along with the cold, and galeforce winds on Tuesday night. However, we still had a fantastic time! Others have covered the 4WD access, so I won't go into that. A national park permit is required, our weekly national park permit for Bundjalung National Park was $36. Last week access to Ten Mile Beach up to Black Rocks was open, however the tides were extremely high and the sand was really quite soft. The only fish I caught all week was a baby toadfish out the front of the camping ground into the Bay, and lots and lots of seaweed! No-one else was catching anything worth mentioning either.

Have a great time when you are there, and I hope the weather is better for you than it was for us!