Pardoo Station; the ultimate camping, fishing and 4WDing
There’s a lot of places you can stay at between Port Hedland and Broome (here’s 5 of the best). One of the more popular destinations is Pardoo Station, and we spent 3 nights there not too long ago to see if it was worth it or not.
We were a day behind our travelling mates, having chosen to spend a night at Cossack, and had some information passed onto us from them (and others) that had us a bit dubious about whether it would be worth a stay or not.
Regardless, the following day we made the 300 odd kilometre drive from Cossack and into Pardoo Station, and checked in.
Where is Pardoo Station Stay?
You’ll find Pardoo Station stay roughly 130 kilometres East of Port Hedland, and 506 kilometres South West of Broome. Its at the end of Pardoo Station Road.
What is the road into Pardoo Station like?
The road in is a fairly good condition gravel road, signed at 80 kilometres an hour maximum speed limit. There are a couple of small bumps, the usual corrugations and wildlife that you need to be very careful of, but it’s a pretty cruisy drive in.
We didn’t let our tyres down coming in, but a number of those we spoke to had, and if you are going to stay and explore the property for a few days you’ll probably end up with deflated tyres anyway.
About Pardoo Station
Pardoo Station is massive. From the moment you pull in, you realise this is no small backyard farm. It’s a fully fledged business, and is set up in a way that seriously impressed us. At 200,000 hectares, Pardoo station has been operating for a number of years.
Its split very cleanly between the station itself, and the holiday and camping side. Your interaction with the actual station side of things is very limited, and I suppose they do this to mitigate risk. The station runs off a big generator and has a lot of people on site who make it operate smoothly!
The access to the property is pretty spectacular too, with a heap of coastline and creeks available, and we were very pleased to see this.
Camping at Pardoo Station
Theres around 120 camp sites at Pardoo station, and they are all powered. The camp sites are spread over a fairly large area, and although the sites are quite well sized, you are next to a lot of others.
It costs $40 per night for two adults. If you have extra adults, its another $10 per night, and $5 per night for kids 5-12 years old.
Rules at Pardoo Station
One of the reasons I was concerned about Pardoo was the number of rules that we heard of, and Sarah kept reading out as we got closer.
Some of them are pretty common sense, and exactly what any decent person would do anyway, but they have some pretty obscure ones that had us wondering what sort of place we’d booked into!
I don’t know whether the huge list is born because some people are just daft, or have no respect, or the fact that this is a full on business and they need to cover every possible base that you can. Either way, they compete with 80 mile beach with the number of rules, and it is unusual (at least based on what we’ve seen).
Beach and creek access
One of the best things about Pardoo Station is the access that you have to such a big area. When you check in, you are given a mud map that shows the 4WD tracks, and how to get to each place. There’s a number of signs in the field, and its pretty well wet up.
There are a huge number of creeks, beaches and tidal flats that you can get to, and this attracts people from all over the country. We had an absolute ball exploring the cliffs, creeks, beaches and mangroves all over the property.
You do have to be careful of the tidal flats, and they recommend that after a 6 metre tide you need to wait at least 4 days to drive on them, or 6 days if possible. We were well and truly within that window and still drove through a number of spots that were soft, and made your buttocks clench right up!
We headed right out to Mt Blaze and enjoyed the cliffs, and drove around to Red Point and a heap of other locations too. The difference between low tide and high tide is nothing short of spectacular, and even at Pardoo creek its something to see it fill and empty every day.
Pardoo Station Fishing
The threadfin salmon at Pardoo are one of the most prized catches here, and they can be caught in the creeks, and the ocean. We managed to get a couple, along with a nice queen fish and a giant trevally, and had a heap of fun doing so.
Birds at Pardoo
There are a lot of birds at Pardoo station, with the big brolgas a huge attraction. We must have seen at least 30 of them, and watching them take off into flight is something else. They are magnificent. We saw plenty of budgies, and lots of other birds that I have no idea of names!
Pardoo Station review
I must say I was awfully sceptical rolling into Pardoo Station. I wondered if we’d made a big mistake booking here, and whether we would have been better off going to Cape Keraudren, which we loved and was just up the road.
I’m pleased to say I couldn’t have been more wrong, and we seriously rated Pardoo Station. In fact, it was one of our most enjoyable places to stay at in the whole 6 week trip, and we normally don’t like caravan park style setups.
Pardoo is just extremely well set up. There’s lots of grass, shade, a nice pool, plenty of room to explore and some of the most amazing coastline and creeks to soak in possible. The staff were great, the feel was awesome, and we will be back for certain at another stage.
The level of adventure and fun you can have here is second to none, and its a real credit to the station itself. If you are doubting whether you should visit, don’t. It’s 100% worth the drive in, and the cost to stay.
If you aren’t chasing the adventure though, somewhere like 80 mile beach might be more suited. We enjoyed our stay there too, but felt it was quite bland compared to Pardoo, Cape Keraudren and even Barn Hill Station.
Have you been to Pardoo Station? What did you think of it?
Here’s everything we got up to, on video: