Hammonds Road North; Great Ocean Road Free Camping

Want to see the Great Ocean Road, without paying a fortune every night to camp somewhere? Hammonds Road North might just be the place you’ve been dreaming of.

The Great Otways National Park has stolen a chunk of our heart, and we’ll always look back with amazing memories. The thing is though, its incredibly busy, and we learnt to be a bit innovative with our camping, to avoid huge crowds of people, and paying $50 + dollars for an unpowered campsite.

After 3 amazing nights at Jamieson Creek Campground, we headed north, and ended up at Hammonds Road North Campground.

Hammonds Road North Campground
Our camp site at Hammonds Road North

Originally we pulled into Tanners Bend Campground, and after a bit of looking around, we all decided to move on elsewhere. It was a nice enough campground, but none of us really felt at home there, and with a heap of horses, and cars with horse floats parked everywhere it reduced our options considerably.

We’d specifically looked at Tanners due to its proximity to the 4WD tracks that we wanted to do, and nothing else nearby was suitable, or you were paying mega money for the privilege of a patch of grass.

Tanners Road Campground
We originally planned to stay at Tanners Road Campground, but it didn’t feel right

Pulling into Hammonds Road North though, we got a totally different vibe, and were more than happy to set up for another 3 nights.

Hammonds Road North is great
Hammonds Road North is a much nicer campground

Where is Hammonds Road North?

You’ll find this camp ground about 20 minutes North West of Aireys Inlet, and roughly half way between Lorne and Anglesea, in the North West Direction. The gravel road in is good condition, with a few small corrugations and pot holes to avoid, but totally suitable for 2WD vehicles.

Road to Hammonds Road North
The road condition is fantastic, and easy for 2WD vehicles

What does it cost to camp?

Camping here is completely free, which is awesome. Tanners Bend is also free, but this one is much nicer.

Hammonds Road North Campground information sign
The information sign at the campground

Amenities at Hammonds Road North

There’s two drop toilets at Hammonds Road North, which seemed to be in pretty good condition. Each site has its own big, concrete firepit and there are a couple of picnic tables spread around. It’s got just the amenities that you need, and nothing more.

Toilets at Hammonds Road North Campground
There’s two toilets, fire pits and some picnic tables; all you really need

4WD tracks in the area

We were keen to do two 4WD tracks in this area, and that was the primary motivation for staying nearby. One goes from Anglesea to Lorne via the Denham Track, and a number of other tracks, and the other goes from Winchelsea to Anglesea. You can read about them at Anglesea 4WD Tracks.

Dmax on Denhams Track
We did a heap of 4WD tracks around Lorne and Anglesea

How does it compare to Hammonds Campground?

Not far south of Hammonds Road North lies another campground, called Hammonds. We actually looked at this a few weeks earlier, and were considering staying there, but it had no sites available. This is a Parks Victoria site that you have to book online, and pay for.

We drove through Hammonds Campground to check it out, and didn’t feel like we were missing out on much.

Hammond Road Campground is small, and mainly suited for tents
The paid Hammond Road campground is mainly suited for tents, and we thought Hammonds Road North was much nicer

See the vlog:

Want to see more? Here it is:

YouTube video

Is Hammonds Road North worth camping at?

We really liked this place. The sites are big, the scenery is nice, you can grab firewood from the ground and its close to the 4WD tracks that we wanted to do. I’d have no issues recommending this as a good campground in the Great Otways National Park.

In fact, we bumped into a couple who were surfing the coastline along the Great Ocean road during the day, and driving back to Hammonds Road North to sleep the night, which was awesome to see.

We really liked Hammonds Road North, and would happily be back. Yes, its not quite as nice as Beauchamp Falls, or Aire Crossing, but its still a ripper spot.

Chicken stew at Hammonds Road North
We liked staying at Hammonds Road North, and did some good camp cooking!

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