What is it about homestead hospitality? Where you can feel like you’re living on the edge of the world in reach of fine gourmet delights. Indulge all your senses in Australia’s spectacular outback.
Photos Alison Huth and the Parable Productions team.
Melangata Station
Enjoy camp oven cooking at its best at this historic stay.
Campfire cooking, a living museum and a tag-a-long tour, Melangata Station east of Geraldton paints a vibrant picture of station life. In fact, owner-manager Jo Clews is quite the camp oven whizz with a second edition cookbook under her belt. Jo isn’t exactly shy sharing her culinary prowess with guests, either, and you’re lucky, delicacies like the Red Roo Tail stew could be on the cards.
COOK ON AN AGA!
Feeling inspired? Head for the ‘Cook House’ camp kitchen and create your own masterpiece. It’s a leaf out of history with an original Aga oven available to use that’s perfect for camp oven cooking.
If you like your history, enjoy a guided tour of the Melangata Homestead which was designed by architect-priest Monsignor John Hawes; Or raise the pulse as you learn all about station life on a tag-along tour.
- Alison Huth shares her adventures at Melangata Station
Bullara Station
Epic damper nights at this rustic classic camp.
Outback Aussie ingenuity is wholly unique and Bullara Station has it in spades. Nothing is wasted adding to its incredible charm. Indeed, there are few places where you can sit back and relax in a 100-year-old woolshed or wander by 44 gallon drums converted into doors for the amenities. There are donkey showers, here too, for a completely different perspective an hour away from Exmouth and Coral Bay.
DAMPER FOR EVERYONE
It’s the people that make Bullara Station such a special experience. From the moment you arrive the welcome mat’s extended. Travellers checking in literally abandon their rigs for jam and cream scones at the garden cafe, considered by many as the essential ‘first stop’.
But the real treat emerges as the sun draws low just as Damper John starts firing up the huge camp ovens. With the waft of damper filling the air as it’s shared around, John holds court spinning tales of station life, the personalities and how he came to call it home.
- See what Alison Huth has to say about Bullara Station
Barn Hill Beachside Station Stay
A lost city and glorious sunsets, life doesn’t get sweeter
How far would you travel for a vanilla slice? When it’s accompanied with roaring campfires and pristine beaches framed by a lost city, a fair distance for many it seems.
Barn Hill Beachside Station Stay, situated on a working cattle station, is earning real kudos on the grapevine among our grey nomad friends as a fine place to while away the days.
SIMPLY STUNNING
No two ways about it. The sunsets here are epic. The beach is the main drawcard, exploring it at low tide gives you the best access to the lost city rock formations and rock pools. The amenities are basic but the station hosts regularly put on events, there are goats to greet and there is even a bowling green.
Mount Hart Wilderness Lodge
Water crossings & gouldian finches. A gorgeous stay
The Wet can play havoc with the road into Mount Hart Homestead but the coffee, pizza and fish & chips are worth the yards through Wunaamin Conservation Park.
In fact, it’s lush and damp and if you’re travelling early you’ll encounter plenty of crossings. The campsites are private and spacious. And there’s a great lookout here, a few tracks and gorges to explore as well as a fantastic tag-a-long tour of the former cattle station.
Ellenbrae Station
A classic GRR oasis with a bit of roadhouse know-how and quirk thrown in.
Short Horn Cattle graze wildly on Ellenbrae Station, 230 kays from Kununurra, with the homestead a a quick drive from the Gibb River Road. There are tyre repair facilities but it’s also known for its donkey showers with epic starlit views and its famous scones.
The lovely bush campground is a little way from the homestead but the campsites are large and ideal for just kicking back by the campfire at the end of the day.
If you’re looking to cooldown, the rockpools here are worth checking out, too.
El Questro
There’s something for everyone at El Questro, the grand-daddy of station stays.
To say El Questro is big is an understatement. There are so many campsites. And if you’re fully self-contained you can just about pick wherever you want to go.
It is home to some of the most iconic springs and water holes, including El Questro and Emily Gorge. Just be aware they’re not always open and to check in advance to make sure.
Zebedee Springs is perhaps the most accessible seasonally-speaking, offering a pleasing soak among the rockpools beneath pandanus palms.
DIY OR JOIN A TOUR
Buddy’s Spot is a great spot to catch the sunset; the incline is a single lane dirt track so take care. If you’re looking to lock in your hubs on something more challenging at your own leisure, try chasing a ridge or catching your own lunch following the exquisite Chamberlain Gorge system.
Or, if you prefer a bit of a spoiling with your adventures, many of El Questro’s popular drives are available tag-along tours. Not to forget heli-tours.
Mount Gipp Station
Epic climbs and starlit skies a stone’s throw to the Silvercity
Looking for an outback vista fit for your next 4WD adventure? You’ll find classic camping at Mount Gipps Station, a working sheep station just 40km from Heritage-Listed Broken Hill.
Camp up on your choice of powered or unpowered sites set against the Barrier Ranges.
At day’s end, the panoramic sunsets slowly unveil a brilliant star-lit night sky by the crackling sounds of a classic campfire and traveller yarns.
THE DESERT BREATHES
Be sure to pack the binoculars. There are tonnes of tracks and bushwalking trails to explore with gorges, mine relics, seasonal creeks and curious rock formations great for scrambling. Got keen eyes? Scour the craggy earth with shingleback lizards–the largest in the blue tongue family–geckos and curious arthropods sunning themselves ahead of the cool desert nights. There’s a great communal camp kitchen here plus toilets and showers as well.