Meringtons Campground; great camping with 4WD tracks galore

There’s more amazing free camps in the Victorian High Country than you can poke a stick at, and on a number of occasions I felt dizzy trying to find our next destination. We’d decided to leave from Jack Scotts Campground near Woods Point, and head down to Walhalla, and Merringtons Campground had a good reputation.

We weren’t entirely sure how hard it would be to get our Reconn R2 in, and you never are in the high country, but tentatively locked it in anyway.

Meringtons Campground near Lake Thomson — Meringtons Campground was a great place to stay

Where is Merington Campground?

You’ll find this place just East of Thomson Lake, and around 60km north of Walhalla and Moe? It’s at the bottom of a valley, with a fairly steep descent into the campground.

Lake Thomson with clouds over the top — It’s directly opposite the beautiful Lake Thomson

What’s at the campground?

Meringtons Campground is fairly formal, and really well set up. It’s a big campground split into lots of different sized sites that suit all kinds of camping setups. Each site has a fire pit, and there are two decent toilets, along with a pretty nice camp kitchen, and rainwater tanks for ‘non potable’ water.

Camp kitchen at Meringtons Campground — The camp kitchen at Meringtons is really well set up

Meringtons Toilet — One of the toilets at Meringtons Campground

A lot of the camp sites are actually grass, and its really well maintained, clean and beautiful. Overall, we were seriously impressed with the campground, and it seems that the High Country camping options are just getting better and better, as we travel further.

Grass camp sites at Meringtons Campground — Clean, mowed and grassy sites are pretty fancy

Do you need a 4WD to get to Meringtons Campground?

I’m going to say yes, purely because I think it’s a smart move. That said, we did see a Captiva down there, and if you were sensible with the lines you took, and used engine braking well you’d probably be OK. There were a couple of reasonable sized steps towards the bottom of the campground, and certainly anything with limited clearance would have no hope of getting in and out without damage (or a recovery).

Merington Track near the campground — I wouldn’t go to this campground without a 4WD

Does it suit caravans?

I wouldn’t take a full size caravan into Merringtons Campground. The Merrington Track heading down is steep, narrow and there are very, very few places you can pull off to pass anyone. We towed our Reconn R2 down, which is the same width and virtually the same length as our Dmax and had no issues, but anything much bigger and you’d be really pushing your luck.

Meringtons Campground — You’d be really pushing the friendship to get a full size van in here

See our vlog

Want to see more, and the rest of our Lap of Australia? Check out our vlog below:

Can you camp elsewhere nearby?

From Meringtons Campground, you can head down to the Aberfeldy River, and there’s a couple of places where people clearly camp at the crossing. One is known as Woods Campground, and they are spectacular, but you would struggle to tow anything but a fairly off road camper in, and there’s not much room. If you are camping out of a 4WD though, you wouldn’t get much of a nicer spot.

Junction Hut is beautiful — Junction Hut is nearby too, and pretty neat

Wild dogs

There’s a number of signs up at Meringtons about wild dogs being present, and not to leave food around, or leave your kids unsupervised. We didn’t see any evidence of them, but its worth noting and paying attention too.

4WD tracks around Meringtons Campground

The sheer number of 4WD tracks in the Victorian High Country staggers me. There are literally tracks everywhere, and Meringtons Campground is no exception to this. At the final turn off into camp, there are no less than about 4 other 4WD tracks to take, asides from the Merington Track.

Merington Track 4WD Tracks — There are 4WD tracks everywhere near here

You can head up the Williamsons Spur Track, to Junction Track, Sullivans Track and another spur track. We only did part of the Junction Track as it was getting late in the afternoon, but there’s a lot of choice here.

Williamson Spur Track looks unreal — The Williamson Spur Track looks epic

For this reason alone, Meringtons Campground makes perfect sense as a base to camp for a few nights, whilst you explore the area.

Junction Hut water crossing — The water crossing just beyond Junction Hut

4WD part of Merington Track — The Merrington Track takes you down to the Aberfeldy River

Would we recommend Meringtons Campground?

We really enjoyed Meringtons Campground, and thought it was absolutely fantastic, especially as its completely free. We had the entire campground to ourselves from Sunday afternoon, and loved exploring the Aberfeldy river and surrounding areas.

Relaxing near Meringtons Campground — We really loved the campground, and spent a fair bit of time down at the river

Aberfeldy River in a beautiful pool — There’s some magic spots around

We contemplated towing our Reconn R2 down to Woods Campground, which we probably could have, but it does get tight and rocky, and for one night it didn’t seem worth the effort.

Meringtons Campground is a brilliant base to explore a magic part of the world, and we could have comfortably spent more time here, but there was some bad weather coming and we wanted to be closer to a main town, so continued onto Walhalla the next day.