If you’re looking for Free Camping around Port Macquarie you’ll be sorely disappointed, but the nearby Wauchope Showgrounds offer a great camping area.
We knew that we wanted to check out the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie, plus Timbertown, which is in Wauchope, so it provided the perfect base for us.
There are live-in Caretakers that run the Wauchope Showgrounds camping area. We found them to be very accomodating and easy to deal with – they’re doing a great job!
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Wauchope Showground Camping
Wauchope Showground Camping FEATURES
💲 $10 – $20+ (see below)
📅 Booking required
⛺️ Tents, Camper Trailers, Caravans, RVs, Big Rigs
🐶 Dogs allowed (not to be walked inside the grounds)
🚻 Flushing toilets
🚿 Hot showers
♿️ Wheelchair accessible
💧 Drinking water ($5 to fill up unless staying at the showgrounds)
⚡️ 240 volt power available
⬇️ Dump point
🗑 Rubbish bins
📶 Telstra reception
📺 TV reception
Wauchope Showground Camping FEES
| Vans & RVs | $20 per night (up to 2 people) |
| Tent or Car | $10 per night |
| Extra people | $5 per night |
| Horse Stable | $10 per night |
| Water Top Up (if not staying at the Showgrounds) | $5 |
Things to Note
- There are only 16 powered sites available for use, so it pays to ring ahead and check for vacancies before you arrive. You can source out the current phone number with the campground information on the WikiCamps App.
- It’s a ‘Dogs Permitted’ campground, rather than ‘Dog Friendly.’ This means that dogs are welcome, but must remain at your site. They can’t be walked around the Showgrounds, but you’re encouraged to walk them out along the street.
- The Wauchope Showgrounds aren’t available for general camping during major events throughout the year, such as their annual show in April.
Wauchope Showground Camping LOCATION
| WAUCHOPE SHOWGROUNDS | |
|---|---|
| Address | 93A High Street, Wauchope NSW 2446 |
Things to Do Around Wauchope
The Old Bottlebutt Tree
About 12km out of Wauchope (and 30km from Port Macquarie) is the beautiful Old Bottlebutt Tree. She’s a 200+ year old Red Bloodwood who sits in the Burrawan State Forest. The large flared ‘butt’ has a girth of 16m!
The walking track in from the car park is a 600m loop through the forest. The driving track in from the main road was an unsealed road, but 2WDs can easily access it during the dry.
Port Macquarie Koala Hospital
The Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie is a fantastic ‘Must See’ while visiting Wauchope. It was such an eye-opening educational experience for the kids and adults alike.
As you’d expect , there were plenty of bush fire casualties. Not just burns victims, but Koalas that have been left stranded with only a small patch of food to survive off and surrounded by burnt forest.
Other major threats to our iconic Aussie Koalas are dog attacks, road accidents and of course chlamydia.
What’s at the Koala Hospital:
- Guided tours at 3.00 pm (FREE)
- Self-guided tours anytime from 8.00 am – 4.30 pm daily
- Watch Koalas being fed
- Interactive Koala Museum
- Reusable Activity Sheet (great for kids)
- Koala Shop
- Window view into Vet Surgery
- Observe lots of Koalas in their enclosures
- Board with all patient information (including why they were admitted)
- Look up and see how many you can spot in the trees above
Visiting the Koala Hospital is FREE, but they love it when people donate. There are plenty of boxes around to drop money into – which the kids always love to do!
Here are 9 more thing to do in Port Macquarie while visiting the area. If you’re travelling with a dog, check out this guide to dog-friendly Port Macquarie.
Timbertown
One of the main reasons we stayed in Wauchope was to visit Timbertown. But aside from the weather bucketing down the whole four days we were there, Timbertown was closed for the week (they were on holidays). Ah well, next time!
Timbertown is a whole complete olde world village complete with old buildings, Blacksmith, Winery, Stables, Farmyard, Steam Sawmill, Woodworkers Guild, Goldfields, General Store and more. It’s even got a Steamtrain you can ride on.
It’s located right at the edge of town, so if you’re staying in the area, be sure to check it out. There is an onsite campground as well if you’d prefer to stay there.
| TIMBERTOWN PRICES | |
|---|---|
| Admission | • Adult – $23 • Child (3 – 15 yrs) – $16 • Senior – $21 • Family (2A + 2K) – $74 |
| Camping | • Tent (2 people) – $10 • Van/ Trailer (2 people) – $15 • Powered Site (2 people) – $20 • Extra people/ night – $5 |
More NSW Coast Camps
- North Star Holiday Resort – HASTINGS POINT
- Mount Warning Rainforest Park – MOUNT WARNING
- Gumma Reserve – MACKSVILLE
- Big 4 Holiday Park – SOUTH WEST ROCKS
Showground Camping Essentials
Travel Planning Tools
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I love camping in natural scenic spots but I have never camped in a van. This whole place looks really gorgeus.
It sounds like a fab place to stay when you visit the area. It sounds like the campground has really good amenities (it sounds like luxury with hot showers- way better than the camping spots I’m used to!!
p.s The Old Bottlebutt Red Bloodwood is amaaazing! I have never seen a tree like that! Wowza!
Yeah having hot showers and toilets on hand is pretty luxury! The Bottlebutt Tree was just gorgeous.
Too bad you didn’t get to see Timbertown. But the Bottlebutt tree looks gorgeous and the Koala hospital so interesting. It made me miss our RVing days. We did it in the US for 8 years and we wanted to do it in Australia, too. The campground is just like what we often used.
We’re really keen to do some RVing in the States one day, so it’s interesting to hear that those type of campgrounds are similar.
I’ve never really been camping, but I’m moving to Australia this year and who knows, I might take up your suggestions! The Bottlebutt Tree looks so impressive, as does the Koala Hospital.
Oh wow, that’s a big move! I’m sure you’ll find loads of things to discover in whatever area you settle in.
I would love to visit the Koala Hospital it looks great! It’s a shame Timbertown was closed when you were visiting. However, always a reason to return I guess?
All of the information on the campsite was also so clear to understand and really easy to digest!
We had to learn early on that we just can’t do everything. Sometimes there are budget constraints, sometimes things are closed or the weather is awful. It definitely leaves a stone unturned for next time.
This is such a detailed and useful post for anyone planning a trip to Port Macquarie by camper van, thanks for sharing these tips 🙂
Not a worry, glad it was useful for you.
Thank you for writing useful reviews that give an accurate idea of what to expect when camping, both in terms of things to do and costs to expect 🙂
Thanks for your feedback 🙂
So, so sad about all the koala bush fire casualties. I would love to visit the Koala hospital in Port Macquarie. Such a great thing to do with the kids.
It was a real educational experience for all of us. We got to see the reality behind the scenes of bushfires and sick Koalas.
Such a fun adventure! I would absolutely love to visit the Koala hospital one day.
Put it on the list!