Looking out over the Five Rocks Headland & Beach
Recently my family and I did a drive up to the Byfield National Park area, which is located around Five Rocks, Stockyard Point, and Nine Mile Beach. Access is 4WD only, so we took along our new Nissan Patrol. This was the first time we’d ever done sand driving, or proper four wheel driving for that matter, so it was exciting to be testing out the 4WD.
Byfield National Park covers an area of around 15,000 hectares or 37,000 acres, so it’s a huge, fairly unspoilt area. Notable features include the huge sand dunes in the Nine Mile Beach area. For more information about camping spots and facilities in the area, please visit this page on the EPA’s website.
Most people visit the Five Rocks area to four wheel drive, fish, camp or explore. Some do a combination of all these things. One good piece of advice for anyone wishing to go and visit this area is to bring someone in separate vehicle along, as there are plenty of potential for getting bogged in soft sand and the like. Anyway, below are some photos of our day trip up there:
Our convoy on the road to Five Rocks, as you can see the whole track there is sand.
Driving down the hill to the Stockyard Point Lookout. From here you can look north to the Five Rocks Headland or south over Nine Miles Beach.
Our parked cars at the Stockyard Point lookout.
The view to the Five Rocks Headland from Stockyard Point.
Looking down to the start of Nine Mile Beach, jutting up to Stockyard Point.
I took this picture from the top of a small hill, overlooking the end of Nine Mile Beach. It was a beautiful place for swimming.
The Orange Bowl. This gigantic pile of orange sand is a great place to rev it up and spin some wheels, but rangers are handing out spot fines for anyone driving in the bowl itself.
Hi does anyone know what times the store is open where you have to get a permit from
Please re open the bowl!!!!
DDpamn fun police
Would still be open if wasn’t for all the drunk dikheads that had no respect for the environment or the other people wanting to go there
Going up to Byfield shortly, our first time. Where is the best fishing spots? How hard is Big Sandy, we have an old patrol with a 2in lift, 33in mud tyres and towing a 4wd camper. Cheers
It is now July 2011 and we are wanting to do a few days camping at Byfield (on the beach or very close to it) if we can. Can anyone tell me if this is still possible? We have a holden Jackaroo & a camper trailer. The trailer has good clearance, but the Jackaroo doesn’t?? Any ifo would be much appreciated. Cheers Kim.
Hi Kym,
You can camp at four different camping grounds along Nine mile Beach were there are no facilities but you can have a fire…. if you bring an enclosed fire container that sits up off the ground (i.e a 44 gallon drum cut in 1/2 with legs)and some firewood.
The other option for close to the beach but not on the beach is the Five Rocks campground which has cold (brrr) showers – but better than nothing – and toilets but no fires of any kind allowed so you’ll have to bring a gas stove or something else to cook on.
You will need to book online or on the phone on 13QGOV thou as Rangers patrol regularly checking permits….. even on the weekends.If you book online you can have a look at maps of the campgrounds and if you go to either the Byfield store or the Yeppoon Tourist Info(you can book a camping permit at either of these places)they have a folder which has pictures of the campsites at each campground so you can have a look what would be best for you.
As for getting there shouldn’t have too many probs with car and trailer…..would be better if you had another 4wd to go with just in case….I would carry an extra six pack at least to convince a passer by to help you out if you need it….. the biggest obstacle is what the locals call the Big Sandy which is the first big sand dune you come to on the way into Stockyard Point ( 5 Rocks & 9 Mile).After you get over the Big Sandy thats the hardest part…some of the entry/exits off the beach are a little harder tan others but the rest of the roads in between are easy.
Take the right hand road up as it is generally harder and not as ripped up…. be aware there may be traffic coming down the hill and you will have to back down the hill(this is sand driving etiquette as it is harder to back up than back down in the sand)You may not have to back down all the way as there is a few crossover spots between the two tracks that go up the hill.
There is a tyre pressure bay on the way in so make sure you let your tyres down…..most go down to 20psi but because your pulling a heavy load you may want to go down a bit further…..rule of thumb is 1 minute will take you down to 20psi if you are running on 45 normally…..if you dont have a compressor to pump them back up to get home you can stop in at the Byfield store and they are more than happy to let you use thiers….just make sure you take it easy on the hard roads on the way out or you risk rolling the tyre off the rim or a flat tyre….either way a crap end to a camping trip.
hope this helps but if your after more info you can go to the DERM website….at the home page on the left and side theres a box which as Find A Park or Forest (I think) and if you click this it will take you to a page were you can search by area or by alphabet for NP and SF…. the 2 you are looking for are Byfield State Forest ( Upper Stoney, Red Rock and Waterpark) and Byfield National Park (5 Rocks, Nine Mile). Check out the State forest parks if you dont think you want to take on The Big Sandy.
Thanks so much for all the info.. I’m starting to get excited about the trip now, can’t wait.
Thanks for posting that info Princess.
Kim – a couple of tips for driving Big Sandy:
* Keep the Jackaroos’ momentum up! Carrying a camper trailer I’d probably go 2nd or 3rd gear low range, keeping it above 2/3 of your rev range.
* There’s a few larger dips/undulations/potholes in the sand – when you hit these don’t let off the accelerator, or you’ll most likely get bogged down and have to start from the bottom.
Jylan
went to five rocks first time on the weekend butifull spot the orange bowl is walk in now wich i think is good as i did not have a semi or the time to collect the rubish left by those that dont give a ####
They have finally closed off the orange bowl permanently to all vehicles…
love the five rocks boiiii.
I have been up to 5rocks since i was a little child, and i think that the best part is the bowl, i personally think that it shouldn’t get shut down, once that place gets shut down, there will be know where else to go, except people running a muck in town, or places police don’t want them to go, 5 rocks is a great place for camping, and having a great time
i agree its the best part, its just unfortunate that some people decide to break the rules, or do stupid things and ruin it for the people having sensible fun
I recently went up to five rocks, and would just like to make a comment on the orange bowl…
i somehow ended up with a flat tyre up on top of the orange bowl, and stopped to change it. while i was there a ranger came and told me vehicles werent allowed at the top, only at the bottom, and any of the senior rangers would have fined me on the spot (lucky there i guess). he also said that the orange bowl will most likely be closed off to all vehicles within the next year or two, meaning people will then need to walk up there…
Hmmm, thanks for that information Shaune, much appreciated
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Lucky you were caught by a nice ranger, they must really be cracking down on Orange Bowl activities now.
We really need to get up there again before they close everything off, I really want to go down to Five Rocks beach which we didn’t get to last time (the big Five Rocks Beach that is on the north side of the five rocks).
the beach that your talking about is actually called three rivers.. five rocks beach is the small beach on the other side of the headland. [if your facing out to sea its on your right] You cant access it by car you have to walk down to it. The big long one on the left of the headland is three rives. When you get to the end your not suppose to go past the dunes because it is military land that they use for training in connection to shoalwater bay.
Hi Han,
Sorry for such a late reply – I didn’t notice your comment until a few weeks ago!
But yes Three Rivers is the beach I was talking about – thankyou for that correction
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hi Jylan,
Just want to clear something up to avoid confusion for any others reading this – the official ( i.e. on maps) name of the beach you are talking bout is Five Rocks beach – the locals know/call it Three Rivers and the one in between the Five Rocks headland and the Stockyard headland is called Little Five Rocks.
Thanks
orange bowl is now officially closed
THE ORANGE BOWL IS NOT CLOSED AS OF YET AS THE RANGERS SAID WHEN WE ASKED THEY DONT KNOW HOW THEYL KEEP PEOPLE OUT
Great quality photos guys..Thanks for sharing them and your info with us. Has been too long since I have been there. Will make a trip real soon. Sadly,it sounds like that little camp spot with shady trees and stream of crystal clear water which runs out of the sand hills is fenced off. Sad! Had a magic weekend there with kids.
Hi Brian, so glad you liked my photos and found the post useful. Yes I think it would be a good idea to get up there before they close everything off. The last I heard they were going to close the Orange Bowl off which is understandable I guess
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Your campsite sounds like a beautiful place to camp, what a pity they closed it.
Jylan
hi Brian,
You can camp at four different camping grounds along Nine mile Beach or up at the Five Rocks campground which has cold (brrr) showers – but better than nothing – and toilets…..you will need to book online thou as Rangers patrol regularly checking permits even on the weekends.From what i understand the reason the area you used to camp at Freshwater Creek? was closed off is because the dikheads with big 4WD’s were trashing the dunes and destroying the creek banks.