Bilyuin Pool; a quiet, free camp on the way to Newman

Bilyuin Pool was our first nights stop on our 3 month trip to the Northern Territory, and we’ve stayed there a couple of times since.

There’s truly something amazing about simple, free camps in the Australian Bush next to a beautiful pool of water, and we’ll keep staying here in the future too.

Where is Bilyuin Pool?

You’ll find it about 860km north of Perth, or 84km north of Meekatharra.

Its about 15km off the bitumen road, and a great place to stop for the night. From there, we went to Kalgan’s Pool in Newman and then Cape Keraudren.

Bilyuin Pool when the water was getting low

Much higher water levels after a good rain

Free, bush camping

Bilyuin Pool is popular because you can stop without having to pay a cent. Look after places like this, and they will still be open next time you travel past. There’s no facilities, just good old Australian bush camping. If you are looking for camping near Meekatharra, you can’t go past this. 

If you want to know more about what’s needed to camp off grid, check this out – Free Camping guide.

Being set back a decent distance from the road means you are less likely to get visitors, and you can’t hear the huge road trains rumbling their way back and forth, delivering freight and mining equipment at a rapid rate.

Pick a spot

The pool itself

The water level varies considerably, and we were a little disappointed to see that it was fairly low when visiting in May, but then coming back in August another year it was quite full still.

By the looks of the equipment spread around the place the pool is used for taking water, perhaps to spray the haul roads. However, we visited again this year at the end of July, and the pool was huge and very full, with a massive array of bird life around.

Beyond that though, its a nice water hole with plenty of bird life and a fair bit of room to spread out.

Enjoying the sunset

There’s heaps of room to spread out

Fires and rubbish

There are no facilities here, and you need to take your rubbish out, and leave no trace. Fires are permitted in season, and we had a great evening around a nice warm fire on our way back from the Kimberley, as we adjusted back into the weather from further down south!

Getting there

We travelled a big loop on the way in and ended up almost going back to where we started; the best way to get into Bilyuin Pool is off the main highway and onto the Ashburton Downs-Meekatharra road. Don’t trust Google to know where you need to turn; stick with something better known like Hema or Ozi Explorer.

Drive up the big gravel road for 15km until you see the pool on the left hand side, and make a turn. There’s more room on the northern side, but it did look like people camped on the southern end too.

Our old soft floor camper

An amazing sunrise at a great free camp

Have you stayed at Bilyuin Pool? What did you think of it? We’ll continue to use it for a stop over on the way through to the Pilbara!

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