Lake Jindabyne · Snowy Mountains
The lake tells you how far up the road you’ve come.
We're a Sydney family who camp the New South Wales coast and the Snowy Mountains, mostly in holiday parks — in the tent when the weather allows and a cabin when it doesn’t — mostly with the same few families. This is the record — where we've been, what we carry, and what we're still working out.
On a map
Everywhere we have stayed
Eighteen places over eleven years, and once you see them together the shape of it is obvious: one stretch of coast, one range of mountains, and two trips that broke the pattern. The hollow ring is Bathurst, booked for October and not yet stayed. The cities are there to orient by, not because we camped in them.
Drawn here from the coastline data and each park’s own coordinates. No map service is called and nothing is loaded from anyone else when you open this page — see the privacy page for why that matters to us.
The record
Where we’ve actually stayed
Taken from our own booking records, so the dates are real. Holiday parks and campgrounds, whether we were in the tent or a cabin — close to half and half — plus one group lodge in 2019 that started the habit.
| Park or campground | Where | When we stayed most recent first |
Stayed in | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NRMA Bathurst PanoramaCentral West | Kelso, Bathurst, New South Wales (NSW) | Oct 2026 | Cabins ×2 | |
| The Leaning OakLake Conjola | Shoalhaven, NSW | Apr 2026 | Cabin | Part written |
| NRMA Merimbula BeachSapphire Coast | Merimbula, NSW | Dec 2025 | Tent | Part written |
| NRMA JindabyneSnowy Mountains | Jindabyne, NSW | Dec 2023 · Jul 2024 · Jul 2025 | Tent ×2, cabin | |
| NRMA Darlington BeachNorth Coast | Arrawarra, NSW | Apr 2025 | Cabin | Part written |
| Discovery Burrill LakeShoalhaven | Ulladulla, NSW | Jan 2025 | Cabin | |
| BIG4 Merimbula LakeSapphire Coast | Merimbula, NSW | Dec 2024 | In the car | Part written |
| NRMA Myall ShoresBombah Point, Myall Lakes NP | Myall Lakes, NSW | Mar – Apr 2024 | Tent, rooftop tent | Part written |
| Discovery Parks MelbourneNew Year road trip | Melbourne, VIC | Dec 2023 – Jan 2024 | Tent | Part written |
| NRMA BrightOvens Valley, Victorian Alps | Bright, VIC | Dec 2023 | Tent | |
| Bonnie ValeNational Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) campground | Royal National Park, NSW | Oct 2023 | Tent | |
| Cockatoo IslandHarbour Trust campground | Sydney Harbour, NSW | Oct 2023 | Tent | |
| Rainbow Pines Tourist Caravan ParkSnowy Mountains | Old Adaminaby, NSW | Jul 2022 | Bungalow | |
| BIG4 Sydney Lakeside Holiday ParkNorthern Beaches | North Narrabeen, NSW | Mar 2021 | Cabin | |
| Woodbine Park Eco CabinsSapphire Coast | Bournda, NSW | Dec 2020 | Cabins ×2 | |
| Chiltern LodgeOld Bar — a group lodge; now closed | Old Bar, NSW | Jan 2019 | Cabins ×2 | |
| Palm Beach Caravan ParkJervis Bay | Sanctuary Point, NSW | Sep 2018 | Bungalow | |
| NRMA Ocean BeachCentral Coast | Umina Beach, NSW | Aug 2015 · Oct 2024 · Oct 2025 | Tent ×2 |
Part written is on almost every row, and it is meant literally.
Those pages are a real record — dates straight out of our own booking confirmations, our own photographs, and what is actually around each park — but the account of the stay itself is not written yet.
That part is slow, because it only comes from sitting down and talking a trip through properly, and we are working across them one at a time.
A row with nothing in that column has the lot.
Planned would mean no page at all.
If you find anything here out of date, tell us.
Booked is a stay we have not made yet — its page is written ahead from the booking, and the photographs and our account follow after the trip.
Also booked for later this year: The Leaning Oak at Lake Conjola again, and Alice Springs over Christmas.
The kit
What we actually carry
53 things we own and take away with us. No verdicts yet — reviews come once we’ve written them properly.
A few of them
- Oztent RX5Canvas touring tent with the front room. The tent everything else is built around.Shelter
- Oz Canopies rooftop tentSoft-shell fold-out tent, rated to 200 kg inside. Bought in 2024 and mounted on a rack over the trailer.Shelter
- Workhorse 7×5 high-side box trailerCharcoal, side-opening, with a lid on struts, two jerry can holders, a gas bottle holder, a swivel jockey wheel and a spare. Bought September 2023. It carries everything that will not fit in the cars, and the rooftop tent sits on top of it.Towing and load
- Starlink MiniActivated November 2024 on a Roam plan. Two dashboard mounts so it can travel between the two cars.Power and connectivity
- Anker 767 PowerHouse2048 Wh battery, 2400 W output. Sold in Australia now as the SOLIX F2000.Power and connectivity
In progress · not finished yet
The Snowy Mountains Planner
Three stays at Jindabyne — December 2023, July 2024 and July 2025, two under canvas and one in a cabin — written up as a plan you can follow instead of a blog post you have to skim. The planner isn't written yet — the trip accounts are, on the Snowy Mountains page. When the planner is ready, it'll cost about $19 and we'll email the list first.
- Itineraries built around the NSW school holiday dates
- The packing list, split by who carries what
- What the trip actually costs, from our own booking records
- The wet-weather plan, because you will need it
Before the next school holidays
One email when a new guide goes up
No weekly newsletter, no affiliate blasts. Roughly one email a month, usually when we've just got back from somewhere.
Roughly one email a month. Unsubscribe from any of them. What we do with your address.
Been somewhere we have written about, and found it changed? We would rather be told than be wrong — tell us about this page. And if there is something you wish this site covered and it does not, tell us that too.