Welcome to Murchison House Station, where the outback meets the ocean. The property is a whopping 350 000 acres and you can camp along the banks of the Murchison River.

Location

Murchison House Station is located only a short drive (12 kilometres) from Kalbarri, a popular holiday destination. Kalbarri is 590 kilometres north of Perth, Western Australia and it is known for its rugged beauty.

To explore the station you will require a 4wd and the property is only open to the public from the 1st of April to the 31st of October. It is closed during the other parts of the year so they can muster goats which roam on the property.

Camping at Murchison House Station

If you don’t have a 4wd or like some creature comforts such as a hot shower and toilets then you can stay at the homestead. The homestead is located near the Murchison River. A designated area of 200 meters has been allocated to campers along the river.

You must be self-sufficient if want to bush camp. Carry your own water, food and have 4wd recovery gear.

When we arrived we were given a rundown on areas to camp and places worth visiting. Prior to our arrival, we were emailed a map however it was very hard to read. You can get a map from the Homestead, it is a $20 refundable deposit. I definitely recommend getting map, the one we had was not sufficient.

We dropped our tyre pressure and headed downstream to find a campground. There were numerous people camped along the river and we kept going until we found our own patch of prime real estate.

We set up our camp at the top of the hill, looking out over the Murchison River. Camping downstream you must be 200 metres away from the river but if you camp upstream you can camp as close as you like.

Around Camp

Our mornings were spent watching the sunrise over the river and then we would take the kayaks out for a paddle. Eagles often soared above us and we would watch them catch fish from the river.

There were Pelicans and other water birds nesting near our camp. We threw in a line to try and catch some fish but didn’t have much luck. The kids soon gave up and had more fun playing in the mud. I was in my happy place reading my book in the sun while everyone amused themselves.

In the early evening, we would light the fire and hang out. To be honest it was pretty windy a majority of the time late in the afternoon and not that pleasant. We all huddled into our camper to get out of the wind, read books and chilled out.

4wding at Murchison House Station

There are so many 4wd tracks to explore on the property and they throw everything at you. A track can go from being rocky to extremely soft sand in moments.

Our first day we headed to town beach. You can’t actually get into town following the 4wd tracks as you are on the other side of the river. It was around 18kms of 4wding from our camp to our destination.

We stopped at the top of Castle Rock lookout to soak up the spectacular view over the Murchison River and the property. Then we carried on into town beach where we all had a splash in the river.

The next day we explored upstream however there was little water around. I can imagine that some of these spots would be spectacular in the winter.

There might not have been much water around but there was plenty of wildlife. We spotted bulls, wild boar, emus, kangaroos, goats and even some wildflowers!

At Betty’s Crossing, an old river crossing that is no longer in use. We came across a Grader that was caught in the flooded river in 2000. The kids had a fabulous time climbing over it. How they even managed to get the grader to such a remote location is beyond me!

Next, it was time to explore the coast. The coastline is rugged and the swell was huge. There is lots of reefs just off the beach and there was even pink sand at one beach. I didn’t even know there was a thing as pink sand. After doing some research I believe it is caused by red hue from dead shells, when exposed to the sun, mixed with the sand giving the beach a pink shade.

My Thoughts

While it was nice to have a home base by the river I think next time I would take swags and camp at different areas of the property. That way you don’t need to 4wd all the way back to base and you can cover more ground.

Our camp was full of double gees. There is no way you could walk around barefoot, they even got you through your thongs some times!

Also, beware of ticks! Dixie had several ticks on him but nothing some Vaseline and tweezers couldn’t fix!

I would definitely come and stay at the station again as there are many other places to explore. Being able to stay on a working station certainly was a real outback experience!

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