Crowsnest - First A'van Club Queensland Rally

Crows Nest Caravan Park Queensland

Is this a top spot or what? Crows Nest is 40 kms north of Toowoomba on the New England Highway in truly delightful semi hilly country. To get here you pass through lovely little villages such as Pechey, Hampton, Cabarlah and Highfield. It's people that make places not the other way round and the people who run this park are simply the best, being ex-caravanners themselves who accidentally bought a caravan park! Managers from Five Star parks could learn a thing or two about basics and people skills from Evan and Gayle!

The park's front entrance

The lovely front gardens near the entrance

For non-Queenslanders, the Crows Nest Caravan Park was the venue for the first two Queensland A'vanners club get togethers and will be used for their Xmas Party. Quite honestly these people are so nice that one could easily turn a blind eye to just about anything wrong with the park - but the idea of these reviews (apart from info for caravanners) is to help managers find out what the public want and minor matters needing attention. Not only did the club get a cut price rate Gayle put on a terrific dinner for just $10 a head. It's the little touches that really endear you to this young couple. How about a huge freshly baked muffin delivered to your van for smoko, because you arrived late and missed the welcoming afternoon tea provided! Wow! The park caters for clubs and has a large old hall with a kitchen, so you can meet and eat in comfort. Evan plans to install a fire before next winter. The hall by the way was trucked in partly assembled!

The famous Crows Nest Worm Races!

The old hall - fantastic for club functions

Reception is excellent and very warm and friendly. The office has lots of touristy info and Evan and Gayle also have a wealth of local knowledge. It's a shame they don't write a lot of it down though, as it would encourage tourists to stay longer. They rely on the "The Local Book" however it is really a business guide and not that tourist orientated. It does have a heap of ads and lots of maps. It is put out by the very active Progress Association who also publish the really excellent Tourist Drive maps. The park is most appealing from the highway with lots of well maintained gardens and plenty of shrubbery. Roads are all bitumen and most sites have good shade and are well grassed. There is open space camping if you prefer down by the dam where one of our friends caught 17 yabbies for Sunday breakfast. Most perimeter sites don't have annex pads. There are two dedicated drive through sites, but you can drive through with many others if they have vacant neighbours. You can stay hitched on just about all non-powered site. You can pick your own site or Evan will guide you - ever watched an ex-truckie park your van? Wonderful stuff. If you hate backing, being a semi driver, he can pop your van anywhere you wish. Night time highway noise is quite acceptable as few trucks use this route it it is in an 80mph zone.

Reception is super warm and friendly

Yes, these were caught in the parks lovely dam - 17!

The permanents are all together and don't intrude on the touristy feel of the park and most sites are very tidy. It is hard to tell whether the permanents are noisy or not as 100 plus A'vanners make a hell of a racket when all talking at once! There is absolutely zero mess in this park as all machinery etc. is well out of sight behind the owner's house and well screened. The only negative with this park is really a neighbour. Next door has a backyard full of very old trucks and this backs onto a small section of the park. Easily fixed with a row of fast growing bamboo or similar. This seems to have a zero priority though, as Evan being an ex semi driver, just loves to potter around "next door". The grounds are an absolute credit to Evan and even the little used bits of the park are kept neatly mowed and the caravanners worst hazard of low branches kept in check.
For tenters things aren't quite as good, as there is no hot water or sink in the main covered BBQ area. There is a cold water sink near the hall with the nearest hot water in the laundry. There is a fridge under a second covered BBQ area - oddly there is no community BBQ? There are no wood BBQs and obviously no wood fires on the ground. Pets are made most welcome.

The small but immaculate pool area

Our only criticism of Crows Nest Caravan Park!

The amenities, although very old, are excellent and well maintained. The lighting and ventilation is very good and everything works! No keys needed either as we are well and truly in the country here. Some very nice touches including soap dispensers, hooks for towels near each mirror and paper towels - these are great for wiping down sinks after use. As a matter of fact there is no way you would leave them messy as everything is so nice. How about four bowls of fresh cut flowers in both blocks! We saw Gail replacing these at 11:30PM one night! What a fantastic hostess! The showers and toilets even have a nice rubber mat in each cubicle. Hot water is spot on. All showers have ample hooks and a good bench/seat. Most importantly they supply gloriously soft toilet paper! Yes these people really are ex-caravanners! The laundry has ample machines at a reasonable $2 a load. Oooops - we forgot to check out the ironing situation and the dryers! Must have been having too good of a time with our fellow A'vanners! Ample drying lines, BUT watch out at night as these are very low and easy to walk into if you are half asleep or have enjoyed happy hour/s too much!
The local water is good. Taps are very light on in the grassed non-powered area and again be very careful not to walk into them at night as there is little lighting in this area! Ouch!!! Optus has no signal, Telstra GMS has a tower in Crows Nest and Telstra CDMA is two bars and works fine.

Crows Nest itself is a lovely little hamlet with its own village green even - very, very English! It is an easy level 15 minute walk from the park and has a good supermarket with an excellent range of fruit and vegies, newsagent, butcher, hardware, takeaways, pub with some meals, antique shop, bank and Post Office.

Evan does a fantastic job on the grounds

Looking across the dam towards the tent area

For those without a good antenna, TV is a bit marginal. It is much worse if you park under the overhead wires at the front of the park. Try aiming north west. We received all four channels perfectly with an Explorer C10 up as high as it would go, but most fellow A'vanners had problems getting all channels. One chap used two aerials for different channels, but got zilch on the ABC. Rabbit ears produced some interesting snow effects, but zero picture!
The park also has ensuite cabins and on-site vans. There is a neat salt water pool. This is a bit on the small side with very little shade, BUT it was spotlessly clean and in a very nice garden setting. Size isn't everything!

Bike riding is good in this area with an excellent track going into the village and there is plenty to explore behind the town. Walking is wonderful. Take some fruit for breakfast and head towards town. Who could resist going down a track called "Apple Gum Walk"? Turn right into Bullocky's Rest and walk to the end and over the footbridge. Bear left at the next fork, (do NOT head towards the school) cross the creek and keep going until you reach the Pump Hole. Have a peek and continue following the creek until you reach Bartmann's Reserve. There are toilets, tables and water here. A great spot for brekkie! About a 5 kms walk if you don't go off the track too much. If you are feeling energetic you can continue on over the creek and do a circuit of the hill. The map on a pole is VERY vague, so keep your wits about you particularly if it is late afternoon but your Telstra phone works OK if you get lost! You can take your dog on this walk. On our first visit in November 2000, all of this area was neatly maintained by the council, but sadly this was not the case on this second visit. A shame, as it is a truly beautiful area. If you don't mind driving there are good walks in Crows Nest Falls National Park and Ravensbourne National Park and at Cressbrook Dam.

The walk starts 1/2 km from the park

The walk follows this delightful creek

There is a very good picnic area at Bullocky's Rest area with covered tables, and a disabled toilet. Another excellent spot back towards Toowoomba is the rest area at Hampden. Both of these have very good shade, but are right on the highway. We noticed a very large rest area back at Helidon right on the Lockyer River - this had toilets, water, BBQ and tons of shade and was quite large and very popular.
Crows Nest Caravan Park is without doubt the pick of the parks in the area and certainly warrants its RACQ three and a half star rating. We did like the naturalness of the Crows Nest Falls National Park camping area about 6 kms east of the highway. This has new toilets and a rather unique shower system. You stick wood in a "donkey", add a bucket of water and bingo you get near boiling water. You then hoist this up in the shower using the tackle supplied. Fires are allowed in the BBQs provided. This whole area is a credit to National Parks. There is a small fee paid at the Registration Hut. This area has lots of walks and is on a lovely running creek. It is also close to the Valley of Diamonds and the Waterfall Circuit. This is granite country so it is not super green in the heat of summer.

Qld A'vanners enjoying Gail and Evan's hospitality

Lots of excitement at the "Worm Races"!

There are lots of short day trips. You might like to get a yellow Crows Nest Shire Tourist Drive map 2 from the office, and do the dams tour perhaps stopping for lunch at Lake Cressbrook. This has another nice camping area, but sadly it is not that fantastic for A'vans or Chalets as it has been set up for car based tent camping. There is a good story in the Great South East archives. The views from the toilets though are spectacular! Are we kinky or what?
If returning via Brisbane, a very nice alternative with just a wee bit of good dirt is to turn left at Pechey and follow the road to Esk - a very naughty smoko spot is the Fernvale Bakery! Another alternative is to travel to Hampton before turning left and go to Esk via the very scenic Ravensbourne National Park. You can take the van into the park with no problems turning round, but oddly enough no camping is allowed anywhere and it is a very picturesque area. Yet another alternative to Brisbane is to turn left into Murphys Creek Road just past Highfield. This route is all bitumen and passes by the historic Springbluff Station. There is a one kilometre very step section - we were doing 4200 revs in second and still gaining speed! There is a good natural camping area in there called naturally Murphy's Creek and dogs are allowed. Telstra digital works well in this area, so file this one away for a future visit. The camp is 4kms off the road and has hot showers, a few powered sites, creek frontage unpowered sites and loads of room - well worth a visit. The road is NOT suitable for larger vans as it is narrow in places. More info in "Camping in Queensland" by Martin Bowerman available from large camping shops in Queensland. You can get more info by phoning the park on (07) 4698 1269.

You can take your dog on the Apple Gum Walk

The park presents very nicely from the street!

We absolutely wholeheartedly recommend the Crows Nest Caravan Park and it is very high on our list of parks we will return tooooooo! The Queensland A'van club did get a special rate, but normally expect to pay around $14.50 as Gayle and Evan are trying to keep the cost down in this area. Our last visit was February 2001. You will hear more about this park as Evan is giving away two free nights to new A'van owners in a raffle each month.
Bob & Chrissy Eustace

Click on the compass for a map of the local area