South West Rocks, NSW
We had seen to South West Rocks once, a very long time ago – memories were certainly fading and it was time to return. We gave ourselves 6 days there so as to allow plenty of time to look around and also relax at the NRMA van park. We loved it again.
Getting There
We were firstly overnight at Coffs Harbour on 6th Feb, then at South West Rocks (SWR) from 7th February 2023, checking out on 11 Feb.
The drive from Kingscliff to SWR is 378km. To Coffs Harbour is 281km.
We live in Kingscliff and had booked in a service on the van at Murwillumbah, followed by a rego check, on 6th Feb. However, we had a very long wait for things to be completed, and by the time we got going again we decided to stay the night at Coffs Harbour, but remain hitched up for a morning departure.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
History
First Nations
The Djangadi people, also spelt Dhungatti, Dainggati, Tunggutti or Dunghutti are the First Nations people resident in the Macleay River Valley. It is estimated that the Djangadi traditional lands to have encompassed some 3,500 km2.
To read more about the history of the First Nations people of this area click here.
Colonial History
On 13 May 1770, Captain James Cook observed smoke from a fire on a mountain, which he named Smoky Cape.
The first British to explore the Valley was John Oxley in 1818. The earliest British settlement was recorded in 1827, with the establishment of a cedar party north of Euroka Creek. The first land grants were surveyed on the east bank of the Macleay in 1835.
To read more about the British Colonial history of this area click here.
Day 1 – Monday 06 February – Coffs Harbour
We had booked in a service on the caravan at Murwillumbah, followed by a rego check at a mechanics across the road from the van repair yard, on 6th Feb. “That should all be finished by 11-11:30”, we thought as we dropped of the van at 7:30, and we could then make the trip to SWR. But no. The service was not finished until about 11:00 (no issues), but the rego check people could not do their work until 12:40.
A long wait, and by the time we got going again we decided to stay the night at Coffs Harbour, but remain hitched up for a morning departure. We stayed at the Park Beach van park (Big 4), which proved a really good place even if a tad expensive at $48.
We walked to the beach – lovely sunset.
Day 2 – Tuesday 07 February – To South West Rocks
Next morning I got a great walk along Park Beach, and then to and over Macaulies Headland – beautiful area.
We only have 106km to go to get to South West Rocks. It seemed like a breeze – especially as we have a 35km or so drive in from the M1. It’s lovely countryside. Beautiful trees on the drive in – everything is so green after all the rain.
Before we knew it we were at the NRMA van park, This proved to be about half way between the town and the Trial Bay Gaol.
At the check-in we had been told that a major triathlon was to be held the next weekend and many roads would be closed off for a few hours. There were also signs everywhere announcing this. Not sure how that could affect us as we had booked the weekend.
The park is a child’s delight with more things to do than most children could dream about. It was quite crowded and we did wonder why so many kids were not at school. The facilities are very good – toilets/showers, camp kitchens etc. But we did not appreciate our van site at all.
Firstly, it had so little room in which to back the van in – Just the width of the internal road with a fence on the other side. We went back and forth so many times to try to get the van onto the concrete slab. We ended up having to unhitch the van and bring the car in from a different angle. We finally got the van in and unhitched. Then we realised the concrete slab is not level. So we hitched again to get the van onto the levellers.
Secondly, we were positioned right at the kids play area including the bouncing pillow. There was almost never peace and quiet during daylight hours. There was a pool area designed for kids with slides and many other features. But the pool area was always crowded.
We’ve had many difficult spaces to get the van into, but nothing like this… it was a site for a camper trailer or something much smaller – and so many larger sites that were empty… very frustratingly, it took about 10 goes to get the van in.
That afternoon we had some welcome visitors.
Day 3 – Wednesday 08 Feb – Smokey Cape
Instead of taking a walk this morning I went to the swimming pool to get some laps in. I had recently returned to swimming for exercise. The pool is next to, but not part of, the Country Club. It is a 25m pool and I had a lane to myself. Perfect.
It’s a nice drive back up Arakoon Rd to Smokey Cape. A lush landscape.
We arrived at Captain Cook’s Lookout, which is the parking area for the Lighthouse. Smoky Cape headland was so named by Captain Cook after he saw Aboriginal fires burning there in 1770. There are fantastic views from the Lookout. This is such an imposing structure sitting on top of the hill.
We walked up the steep path past the old keepers’ houses – which are now up for short term rentals. They are striking old buildings – would love to have a stay-over.
Close up the lighthouse is a magnificent heritage building. Built in 1891 on a granite headland 111 metres above the sea, its light is the highest in NSW. Unfortunately the lighthouse was closed when we were there.
The Lighthouse also provides stunning coastal scenery of Hat Head National Park.
Back at the Lookout we took the path to the Jack Perking Walking Track. This is a 2.2km track down to the beach below the Lookout. It leads downhill through beautiful forests where we caught a glimpse of some magnificent glossy black cockatoo, with their red tail tips.
Lower down we walk through some lush rainforest, climbing vines and cabbage palms.Lower down still, the track opens up to heathland, where a boardwalk and steps leads down to the picturesque palm-fringed North Smoky Beach.
We walked along the beautiful beach. Then we started to pick up the plastic and other rubbish along the high tide mark. We collected a hat full of rubbish – once again forgetting to bring a plastic bag.
After the beach walk we were faced with the climb back up to the Lookout – definitely not Kerry’s favourite part of the trek.
From there we went back to Arakoon Rd and then to Gap Beach Rd, which is designated as 4WD only. We headed down that road to see how far we could get, very conscious of the fact that we had pretty ordinary tyres on the Pajero. It was a very stony surface with corrugations and ruts – but all fine for the car. We were aiming for Gap Beach South.
We got to a point where there was a large open area with a track leading off at one point but with a gate closing it to vehicles. We reckon it was the trail from Smokey Cape to Little Bay.
But at the point the road deteriorated markedly – steep and badly rutted – the photos don’t do it justice, they make it look perfectly OK. If we had good AT tyres on we would have kept going. We made our retreat.
Back at the van park we were entertained by more kangaroos. Along one edge of the park there were some very interesting 2-story units cladded with lovely forest pictures. They looked great. The kangaroos are very human-friendly and there were several joeys – either in the pouch or close to their mum.
We then walked the track to Front Beach – is was about 1km to get to the beach. Lovely beach to walk along.
That evening we went to the Country club for dinner. It is quite an impressive place – but the thing that takes the cake is that on the ground floor they have a 10-pin bowling alley – 4 or 5 lanes. It was quite busy so we thought we would come back another day. The dinner was very good.
Day 4 – Thursday 09 Feb – Town Headland, Trial Bay Gaol and walk
I went for my morning walk, taking the track back to the beach and walking towards the town and headland. It was a lovely morning. At the end of Front Beach are the group of rocks from which the town gets its name.
At the base of the headland is the surf club with great views over the beach. We will return there later.
I continued around the headland.
I then came to Horseshoe Bay, which was always known as the Ladies Bathing Bay. Very pretty place.
Further around there are works underway to dredge the entrance of Back Creek from the ocean.
I followed the Creek around and got to a large bridge over the estuary, which also gave access to the sand-flats on the other side of the backwater. I walked the bridge but did to have time to continue on to the beach on the northern side.
After that we drove the short distance to the Gaol. This a unique building, an essential part of our heritage, and we are lucky to still have so much of the building intact.
Some pics of the exterior and entrance.
Some pics of the interior.
Some pics of the cells.
Views from the sentry lookout post – see the remnants of the failed breakwater.
Pics of the isolation building – scary.
After a quick look through the museum, we left the Gaol and took the Monument Walking Track around to Little Bay, some 1.4km away. It starts as an up-hill walk on a good bitumen track but flattens out further up before the descent to Little Bay.
It does not take long to get to the Monument. During WWI, in 1915-18, German ‘Enemy Aliens’ were interned at Trial Bay Gaol, involving over 500 men. Coming from Australia and German colonies in the Asia Pacific region, the internees were an elite group of academics, professionals and craftsmen who had been classified as ‘enemy aliens’.
The internees were moved to Holsworthy in 2018 as rumours began that the German raider ship ‘Wolf’ was reportedly on patrol just north of Trial Bay. Fearing a rescue mission, military authorities swiftly moved the internees and the camp was closed.
The original Monument was built by the internees in memory of five compatriot Germans in 1918. A year later, it was blown up by persons unknown. In 1960 the Rotary Club of Kempsey, along with the local Council, restored the Monument with funding from the German consul. It is now recognised as a German War Grave site.
The views of the Gaol from the monument are excellent.
From the Monument, the track is stony but wide leading to Little Bay. There are good views on the way.
Little Bay is a lovely small beach. Very pretty.
We walked it, but were surprised to see so much rubbish. So we spent a half hour or so picking up.
Kerry was suffering a bit with her hip, so I walked back to the Gaol to get the car and drove around to collect her. and in the meantime, I picked up even more rubbish, stuffing my hat and pockets full.
In the afternoon we drove up to town so that I could show Kerry that part of town that I had walked in the morning. We walked from the surf club around Horseshoe Bay and then around to Back Creek. Check out those photos above. This time there were 3 young fellows jumping from the beach to the water. It looked quite shallow here – hopefully they were locals who knew the deeper spots.
We then went back to the surf club and sat on the veranda enjoying the views and a cool drink.
Day 4 – Friday 10 Feb – Hat Head and Gladstone
We spent the day at Hat Head, then to Gladstone. We drove south to Kinchela (17 km) and on to Hat Head village (12km). We were quite taken with Hat Head. Although In 1817 John Oxley, as the first European to traverse the area, described it as swampy and inaccessible, he would not say the same today. Despite its popularity, it remains a small, unspoilt town which lies on a narrow bar of sand between the Pacific Ocean and the Korogoro Creek. It is nestled in behind the Hat Head National Park.
We drove in and found ourselves in the caravan park. The park seems to be established along the main road in. We went as far as we could and parked at the estuary – lovely place. What a magic place for kids to safely play and paddle around.
We took the timber walkway over the creek and came to the The Gap, from where the main walks start.
Kerry was being bothered by her hip again and the Korogoro trail looks steep, so she went back to sit by the Creek while I did the walk. We had both decided not to do Connors Walk (a difficult 6.7km).
The Korogoro Walking Track is a 3.2 km circuit walk that circumnavigates the coastal rainforest and grassy slopes of Hat Head. The signs tell me I can go via the ocean to the right, or via the Creek to the left. I choose the ocean route and went around anticlockwise.
The track went immediately upwards for quite a while, before levelling out. It also got a lot rougher with many rocks on the track. But some great views.
I then came to an area with an open grassy headland and some very dramatic cliffs. I was on the very edge looking a long way down onto some rugged rocks and swirling ocean – see the video here. This is a stunning area – but be careful.
As I move on I came to the cliffs from a different angle.
I left the magnificent cliffs behind, and the track now provided views of the long beach to Smokey Cape. The colour of the water is a delight.
I met up with Kerry and we walked over to the beach. It’s really beautiful – if only we had brought our swimmers. A delightful place with the beach and the estuary.
We drove out to find another access point to the beach, This is where the 4WD access the beach – they must turn left and cannot head back to the town.
We next drove back to the town of Gladstone – my son had told us not to miss the Gladstone pub. It’s a 18km drive. Coming into town we kept our eyes peeled for the pub and we saw a sign to the right. At the end of that street we stopped at the Gladstone Hub – a mix of shops selling all manner of goods. Very interesting. While there we saw a place selling toasties which looked yummy. So we ate there.
Then we walked across to see the grand old pub – a really lovely building. But it was mobbed, and the menu seemed to be for full on meals rather than the lighter meals we had needed. Great place but I think it would have taken quite some time to get a drink.
There are other lovely buildings in the area – a real heritage haven. There was a lovely old Austin parked at the old bank – looked to be in perfect condition. We love those old UK cars. The old bank had been turned into a B&B and looked really interesting.
Back at SWR, we then drove out to the Macleay River to look around that area – its very different to other parts of the town with a lot of new developments underway. There was a stone wall alongside the river, a Tavern and a block of Salt apartments (Salt is a development company – we have a whole Salt Village very near to us). There are also some lovely new homes wth a great view to the north. Some massive houses up in this area… really huge.
Day 5 – Saturday 11 Feb – Drive home
We had checked out the road closures for the triathlon and it seemed that moving around SWR might be difficult. So we decided to pack up and head for home. But we had a really great time at SWR and would throughly recommend it to one and all.
To see photos from this post, click here.
To see a video for this trip, click here