Tag: Free camping in Goldfields

Karalee Rock

Karalee Rock

Karalee Rock is a natural attraction in the Goldfields region. It is part of the Golden Pipe Heritage Trail. This is the route of the historic water pipeline from Perth to Kalgoorlie. The place is known for the historic Karalee Reservoir, which was an important water supply for steam trains. The dam and the well were constructed in the 19th century at the base of the rock to catch the water during storms and heavy rain.

Karalee Rock catchment area

Free camping at Karalee Rock

Nowadays, Karalee Rock is a popular picnic spot and a free camping area. There are plenty of shaded spaces, with picnic tables and fire rings. The toilet is there, but unfortunately, no longer working.

You can walk around the dam and over the rock. The places are very picturesque, especially during sunset and sunrise when the nature really shines.

It is also a place to view beautiful wildflowers. We camped at Karalee Rock on our way to Central Australia in July 2025. There were not many wildflowers but I was happy to find these cute Pterostylis setulosa Hairy-stemmed Snail orchids.

Other wildflowers I spotted were numerous drosera plants and Wurmbea tenella Eight Nancy.

(Wurmbea tenella Eight Nancy)

A team effort of drosera flowers to catch a meal :).

How to get there

Karalee Rock is located between Southern Cross and Coolgardie. It is 4km off the Great Eastern Hwy via dirt road.

And that’s us on a cold morning in July 2025.

Ghost town Kookynie

Kookynie ghost town entrance sign

Kookynie is a “living ghost town” in Western Australia. It is part of the 965km Golden Quest Discovery Trail in Goldfields. Back in 1907 during golden mining rush, Kookynie was a vibrant community. At that time the town counted more than 3500 people. Now it is a deserted town with no more than 20 people. Although, the town boasts Grand Hotel that is still in operation. It offers meals, drinks and overnight accommodation to visitors and locals.

In the old days, Kookynie had 11 (!) hotels, a Town Hall which held regular Saturday night entertainment activities, the first public swimming pool in the Goldfields, a number of businesses and public facilities and even its own brewery and soft drink manufacturers! Many of its buildings are now gone completely or ruined. But the memories and stories still live displayed through remnants of buildings and interpretive signs.

Here used to be the social centre of the town…. Not any longer.

In the past Kookynie was one of the many towns in this area that attracted a lot of gold mining prospectors. As people still go out to these places and do actually manage to find gold, our kids were seriously hoping to become modern day prospectors and find gold too!

While the kids were busy looking for gold, the adults wandered about the deserted place, each deep in their own reflections….

Kids were fascinated with a number of old antique rusty cars that seemed become part of the landscape quite long time ago. How much fun it is to climb on top of one such car!

…. or to sit inside and steer the wheel!

Photo by Iulia Galushina

Niagara Dam

A few kilometres further away from Kookynie is Niagara Dam, which was built in 1897 to provide water for the nearby town and the steam engines during the early goldrush days. It became redundant a few years later when plentiful underground water was discovered at Kookynie.

Now Niagara Dam is a popular picnic spot, offering wonderful opportunities for photography.

Niagara Dam near Kookynie

It is also a free camp spot with toilets, gas barbeque, picnic tables, and cement fire rings. Sounds like a perfect place for our next camping trip!

The sun was setting down, which meant it was time to go back to Morapoi Station and prepare for the night.