After crossing into Victoria from South Australia, we were looking for places to camp over the Australia day long weekend, and wanted to lock something in so we had somewhere to stay. McLennans Punt Campground popped up as an option for one night, and looked absolutely fantastic, so we booked it in.
After spending a great night at Fort O’hare in Dartmoor, we were keen to do some more great camping in Victoria, and this spot ended up being nothing short of spectacular.
The camping at McLennans Punt is nothing short of spectacular
Where is McLennans Punt?
You’ll find this spot on the northern banks of the Glenelg River, not far from the South Australia and Victoria Border. It’s roughly 30 minutes to Dartmoor, and 26 minutes to Nelson.
A map showing the different camp sites along the Glenelg River
Amenities at McLennans Punt
There’s a male and female drop toilet at McLennans Punt, along with a water tank that has ‘untreated rainwater’, and a fire pit in each site. I’ll be honest and say the drop toilets smelt reasonably bad, but we haven’t been in Victoria long enough to know if that’s normal or not!
The toilets are usable, but not great
What does it cost to camp?
Camping here is $15.70 per night, which we thought was pretty reasonable. We’d pay more than that in WA for sure, and this is a fantastic, quiet spot.
With views like this, the price is really good
What’s the camp site like?
We quickly fell in love with this spot. It’s quiet, metres away from the river, has great bird life and is in a stunning part of the world. We saw a heap of blue wrens, some wallabies, Gang Gang Cockatoos and other water birds that we aren’t familiar with.
Camp site number 1 was awesome, but all 3 are decent
Our first Gang Gang Cockatoo that we’ve seen in the wild!
There’s a heap of beautiful blue wrens around
We saw a couple of these wallabies around too
There are only three sites, and they are very close together, and relatively narrow. This is great in terms of making the camp site quiet and private from outside guests, but you are very close to whoever you camp with. If you got all 3 sites with friends and family it would be epic.
Views of the camp site from further up
We got our Isuzu Dmax and Reconn R2 into site number 1 without any issues, but a full size van would be pushing the friendship. Site number 3 is the biggest, with the most amount of solar potential, but they are all really good.
We fitted in OK, but you wouldn’t want to be much bigger
You can walk about 20 metres onto a small jetty and platform to fish, swim and kayak off. There’s a number of boats that come past, along with those kayaking and canoeing, but its extremely quiet, and very peaceful.
The jetty is right next to camp
The views down the river when its calm are stunning
We all swam (actually Cooper fell in off the Jetty!) towards the end of January and there was plenty of water, but the mud at the bottom of the ladder was pretty feral. We just opted to climb down and jump across, and to avoid touching it!
Overall, it’s a ripper spot that we’d highly recommend.
We had an amazing time here, and our first fire cooked meal in a long time
Do you need a 4WD?
The road in is good condition gravel, with a couple of pot holes to avoid. Other than that, its easy, quick and simple to get in and you absolutely don’t need a 4WD. We saw a couple of 2WD vehicles there who clearly had no issues driving around.
You don’t need a 4WD to get here
Would we visit again?
We’d go back to McLennans Punt again for sure. It’s a magic, cheap spot with great views and our kids loved playing around the camp for the day. This spot would give a lot of camp sites in WA a run for its money; its absolutely fantastic.
Victoria is setting the camping bar really high!
