Lake Proserpine Camping; beautiful, waterfront views

Not much beats camping right on the edge of a beautiful lake, and after a magic stay at Lake Tinaroo previously, we were keen to find some more great Queensland Lakeside camping options. Lake Prosperine was nearby on our travels through, and with a great reputation we decided to visit for a few days and see how good it really was.

Camped at Lake Proserpine
Our camp site at Lake Proserpine for a couple of days

Where is Lake Proserpine?

This place is about 20 minutes out of Proserpine itself, along a good condition bitumen road, making it suitable for all kinds of setups.

Lake Proserpine Jetty
The lake is easy to get to, for all types of vehicles

Lake Proserpine or Peter Faust?

You might have heard of a secondary name, which this is often referred to; Peter Faust Dam. He was a previous mayor who pushed to have the dam built, and today its commonly referred to as both Lake Proserpine, or Peter Faust Dam.

Can you swim in Lake Proserpine?

When we drove in, we were wondering if you could swim in the Lake, and given it flows into the Proserpine River which is home to a huge number of salt water crocodiles, its a question worthy of being asked. Your mind is put at ease when you see the giant dam wall, and swimming and water activities are very popular and common inside the lake itself.

What’s the Lake Proserpine camping like?

The camping at Lake Proserpine is split into two areas; above the store, and down by the lake itself. If you are camping near the lake, you need to contain your grey water (its very informal) in a bucket or tank, and empty it above the road level, which they consider to be the flood level.

Upper Lake Proserpine Camping
The upper camping area at Lake Proserpine, close to the amenities

There’s quite a bit of choice in both regions, with the toilets right next to the store, making it a relatively decent walk if you are right down by the water.

We chose to camp as close to the lake as we could get, and just collected our grey water in a bucket, which we tipped out twice during our stay.

The views here are great, the amenities are good, and it’s a nice place to stay. There’s not much to do except for enjoying the lake, so don’t go too disillusioned.

Camping next to Lake Proserpine
This is as close as you can camp to the Lake Prosperine
Waterfront views at Lake Proserpine
We still had great views from camp over the lake

Fires at Lake Proserpine

You can have fires here, as long as they are in a fire pit, and looked after properly. We never bothered with the wind, but it would be nice.

What does it cost to camp?

Camping here is $10 per night per adult, and $5 for children between 4 and 14 (or a family is $25 per night with two kids). We thought it was pretty reasonable for what you get, and enjoyed a couple of hot showers.

Beware of the wind ‘bullets’

We copped the worst possible weather at Lake Proserpine. We arrived in the middle of a giant downpour and got drenched setting the awning up (which we need to use the kitchen in bad weather), and then had incredible winds.

Our awning is strong as, and we’ve had it up in 60km/h winds fairly comfortably, but it has to be constant. Lake Proserpine is at the bottom of a hill in about 180 degrees of coverage, and we were getting these huge wind gusts coming down and pumping everything. We had the same thing on our hired yacht in the Whitsundays, and its quite amazing to see. You hear the wind coming, and then it smacks you in the face.

Rain at Lake Proserpine
We had terrible weather at Lake Proserpine, but at least our awning didn’t snap

Initially, we kept the awning up due to needing it to cook dinner, but early into the evening I said to Sarah we have to pull it down, or its going to break. We had a couple of poles come out as the gusts would just lift it up, and we watched a caravan awning snap behind us (and helped the owner flip it back over and remove it), and another awning off a car break into a pile.

We also saw a decent branch snap off and land near other campers, and it highlights the fact that you should avoid camping under trees, particularly gums!

Rain and wind at Lake Proserpine
We had very stormy weather for two days
Camping at Lake Prosperine
Even those tucked into the trees got hammered

Watch us on YouTube

Keen to follow us on YouTube? Here’s our vlog staying at this stunning property, and a few before too:

YouTube video

Is it worth a stay?

We quite enjoyed Lake Proserpine, despite having terrible weather. If it was nice weather and you could kayak, swim and really enjoy it, I can see it would be hugely popular.

Glamping tents at Lake Proserpine
There’s even glamping tents, if that’s your thing

I’m going to say that camping at Lake Tinaroo, and in particular Kauri Creek is a whole different level again, but its harder and rougher to get to, so in many ways that’s expected. A few weeks later we also stayed at Eungella Dam, which is similar again, but better value, and quieter than Lake Proserpine. It is once again more remote and harder to get to, which seems to be a common theme!

Kauri Creek Camping is stunning
The camping at Lake Tinaroo is nicer, but its harder to get to, and doesn’t have showers

We liked Lake Proserpine Camping, and if you want an easy to get to, decent value camping option then its well worth considering.

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2 Comments

  1. Hey Allan,

    Unreal mate. We’ve had a similar experience, and sometimes there’s a downside to unmarked camping areas, in combination by people who simply don’t think.

    Lucky you didn’t ask them to move earlier!

    All the best
    Aaron

  2. Allan Bromwich says:

    Lake Proserpine is a great camp spot, and it was windy while we were up there also Last time we were there we had been out for a drive and came back to a group of young people camping right on top of us with their cars parked around our campers draw bar. There was plenty of room, we had set up up the back away from the crowds, so …..??? They also got really shitty when I asked them to move their cars so that I could hook up ready to depart the next morning. Still puzzled by the whole episode.