Carmila Beach Campsite - June 2023

 

Carmila Beach is located about 6km east of Carmila and the Bruce Highway, at the foot of the Connors Ranges south of Mackay. A cane growing area now, but was once a rainforest. Today only remnants of the rainforest exist. Camila Beach is 240km from Rockhampton in the south and 105km from Mackay.

We were surprised at how beautiful the camping area was. We drove from St Lawrence to Camilla Beach, about 62 km, - and we don't rush - we left after 10am, did some sightseeing and arrived about 1pm. Many of the campsites were already taken, but we did get a good site with sun (for the solar panels) in the first section of the campground. Ideally the second campsite is in full sun and would have been perfect for us. The road in and along the camp sites is a dirt road and is fairly easy to navigate. There are a lot of camping areas and the further down the track you go the track turns to sand, soft in places. Camp site one has drop toilets and a rubbish dump point. Further north from the campsite is a small boat ramp.

Bookings are via the council at $14 a night per sight for up to 14 nights. We stayed 3 nights (next time we will stay more) and as usual made sure we had a full tank of water plus extras. Happy campers in the next site had to purchase water from the service station on the highway. Good to be prepared. Some of the sites were really large, others normal. We had more than enough space in our site, and sites can fit the smallest tent/camper, to a much larger van than ours. We had no problem with Telstra mobile and internet, and the satellite TV worked fine.

The actual township is on both sides of the Bruce Highway. There is a 24hr service station, church, post office, police station, library, and a caravan park. The other side of the highway is mostly residential with a school and a mechanics. 

The beach at the campsite was spectacular. At low tide it is a great time to walk out looking at the many unique shells and tiny crabs - keeping an eye on the changing tide.

 We loved our time at Camila Beach and will definitely go back again next year.