Words and Images: Andrea Ferris
I
t was the week before Christmas and all through the night the only creatures stirring at the Balranald Caravan Park were those cranking up their airconditioners or the more humbly equipped travellers, like us, reaching for another damp facecloth to cool down our overheated bodies in an attempt to get some sleep. If I’d had an egg it would have been frying on the road, or the bonnet of the Nissan, or whatever other unusual surface the urban legend of damned hot Aussie summer way-out-west days relates. As it turns out, it was so hot the fridge in the camper gave up the struggle to keep cold and I was forced to move refrigerated items to the Engel in the ute (if there was room amongst the Carlton Mid Strength cans which, according to the other half (TOH) are the most important things to keep cold). Forty-six degrees officially that day and, even for a Queensland heat seeker such as myself, it was a tad unpleasant and energy sapping. Luckily for us we’d arrived at Balranald in the far south-west of New South Wales and made a beeline for the caravan park, which is a welcome green oasis in the middle of this vast dry saltbush country. Nestled on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, this park is one of the nicest I’ve found in my travelling experience and that’s high praise as I’ve been around (so to speak). It was actually 42 |
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our second date with Balranald, the first being two years previously – also forty degrees plus at the time – and probably won’t be the last as TOH has close family in the district (clearly without a spare room!). The reason I’m so generous with Ferris gold stars for this park is that, apart from having that elusive ‘vibe’ that’s hard to portray in words but equates to the welcome friendly factor, it ticks all the boxes: thick, soft green grass; large sites with drive through for those that need it; shady trees; clean amenities with ‘proper’ shower heads (hate those miserly water-saving ones); a swimming pool; camper’s kitchen with TV, fridge, oven and BBQ, Although it is close to the Sturt Highway, the truck noise is low key, which can’t be the same for the corellas who, in their thousands, roost in the river gums squawking their heads of at dawn and dusk. Annoying as these feathery fiends might be we did actually rescue one caught in fishing line stranded on a branch in the river! Did I mention dog friendly? It’s so dogfriendly, in fact, that for an extra small fee your dog is welcome to be with you at the cabins, which are dotted amongst the trees on the river bank. Around ninety percent of visitors to the park arrive with a dog, says Dee Jess who, along with husband Matt and their three children (13, 10 and 8) were celebrating the first anniversary
of their lease of the park from the Balranald Shire Council. The Jesses are a young local couple that, after travelling extensively and suffering three years of a disrupted family life as Matt pursued a crayfishing career in Western Australia, pounced on the opportunity to apply their experience and multiple useful skills to welcome visitors to their town. ‘At the start we were a bit surprised at how fullon the work was,’ says Dee. ‘But, we’ve settled into a routine now and ninety-five percent of the people that come are great – only a few are more demanding than others.’ The couple’s capacity for hard work and attention to detail is evident throughout the park by the neatly mowed grass, well-tended gardens, pretty rotunda with communal fire pit and stack of firewood, and the regime of cleaning and maintenance we observed, despite the intense heat, during our four-day stay. The park has forty caravan sites and unlimited tent sites, including some ‘bush’ sites with fire rings and wood supplied. There are also a number of fire pits and benches dotted along the banks of the river to provide a bit of camping ambience for caravanners and, when it’s not stinking hot, which it normally isn’t, Dee and Matt host a regular riverside communal campfire to encourage a chat over sundowners. ‘Most of our visitors are grey nomads travelling between Adelaide and Sydney that