Crowdy Bay Camping

Crowd Free

by Susie Baber | 14 November 2021

Crowdy Bay National Park is just over 3 hours north of Sydney, between Taree and Port Macquarie. The National Park covers over 10,000 hectares of coastal plains. It was hit hard in the 2019 bushfires with most of the park impacted including precious pockets of coastal rainforest. The fires however could not destroy the natural beauty of the beaches and coastal heath.

Camping is available at Diamond Head, Indian Head, Kylies beach and Crowdy Gap.

At the northern end of the National Park is Diamond Head Campground, the largest and probably with the best facilities. Also the most popular. Situated right on South Beach there are numbered sites for caravans, camper trailers and tents. Facilities include toilets, showers and bbqs, you can have a campfire (byo firewood) in an off-the-ground braziers (if you don’t have one you can rent from the NP office on site). From Diamond Head there are a couple of walks up and around the headland, and beach access for a spot of sand driving is also available. Permits for beach driving are available from Port Macquarie-Hastings Council via the PayStay App.

A five minute drive south from Diamond Head is Indian Head Campground. This area also has toilets and showers, but while you still have to book to camp here the sites are not marked so it is first come first served to pick your spot. You can have a camp fire as long as you use one of the supplied fire circles and bring your own fire wood. There is a walking track to the beach and also one to the site of Kylies Hut, a rustic hut used by the novelist Kylie Tennant in the late 1960s. Sadly her restored hut was a victim of the bushfires, but NSWNP are hoping to rebuilt this little slice of Australian history.

Next on the list is Kylies Beach camping area, named after the fore-mentioned author Kylie Tennant. There are drop toilets but no showers. Bookings, sites and camp fires are the same as Indian Head. There was once beach access for cars from this camp area but the track is currently closed due to erosion. If you would like to drive on Kylies Beach you can access it from Crowdy Bay Beach. Beach driving permits for this section of sand are available from Midcoast Council or Harrington Bait and Tackle shop.

Lastly there is Crowdy Gap Campground, this is where we stayed. Camping sites are allocated. It is the smallest of the camping choices and the weekend we were there the least populated. Facilities only run to drop toilets, no showers or bbqs, but you can have a fire (byo firewood) in a supplied fire circle. The weekend we visited was the first hot weekend of the season and the insects were fierce, as was the wind. I imagine there was a bit more shelter from the wind before the fires came through but the regrowth is already well under way. There is a short walk from the camp site to Crowdy Bay Beach which is a beautiful stretch of sand and, despite the name, is remarkably crowd free.