Bilyuin Pool was our first nights stop on our 3 month trip to the Northern Territory. 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.
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. 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
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!
We stayed there on a trip through the middle to get to Broome. Absolutely lovely place, couldn’t fault it, except for the flies. SO. MANY. FLIES.
Extremely picturesque and lovely though 🙂
Hey Jason,
Unreal; its amazing how things change. I don’t recall any flies when we were there! It is a great half way point for many trips though
All the best
Aaron
In my first year of teaching I taught at Yulga Jinna Remote Community further along the Ashburton Downs Road.
I spent many weekends swimming at Bilyuin Pool, camping or just having a picnic.
The following year we brought 100 kids from Meekatharra to visit for a reward day and we canoed which was wonderful.
The pool had had a massive top up from Cyclone Yasi (2011) so there was plenty of year for most of the year.
Hey Dylan,
Unreal mate. Sounds awesome. We are very keen to check it out after some more rain. We loved the bird life.
I can imagine 100 kids would have made some noise, and that they all had a ball!
All the best
Aaron
We stayed here recently on our way to Karijini. Really nice spot, possible to get to in a 2wd if you go slow and careful. If coming from Meekathara direction don’t take the first turn off that Google tells you to, take the next one with a sign after the rest stop – this will be a straight shot to Bilyuin pool. If the water is down it’s hard to spot the turn off into Bilyuin Pool. We saw some trees which tipped us off. Great spot!
Hey Monique,
Yep, its a great spot. We too took the wrong turn off, and ended up doing circles trying to find it!
All the best
Aaron
Hi Aaron, do you run Hema or Ozi Explorer? I’m trying to decide on the best option for Pilbara / Kimberley.
Hey Jason,
I have a couple of versions of Hema, and have just started using the Exploroz Traveller, which has been amazing so far, and has excellent reviews.
Its about $100 including the maps, but so far absolutely worth it
All the best
Aaron