Boarding House Campsite

March, 2000

The Boarding House Campsite is part of the Bibbulmun Track that is in the middle of nowhere. Its about 300 kilometers from Perth. I accessed the Bibbulmun Track here from Palings Road after coming off Coronation Road, off the Vasse Highway about 45 kilometers from Pemberton.

There was a sign on Palings Road saying something like 'Do not enter, reserved for special purposes, this is for your safety'. So I pulled up to turn around. Then suddenly 3 sedans sped down Palings Road past me, as if this was a very busy road. So I figured, 'well its Sunday'. So, on my way back I was almost wiped off the road by an empty logging truck hogging the centre of the road, travelling at a zillion miles an hour. Into the side of the road I went, dust flying everywhere, couldn't see a thing, then thinking as the prospect of death raised its ugly reality, what were my famous last words - 'Well its Sunday'.

I don't know whether or not I was lucky or unlucky because I missed the Boarding House Campsite due to a CALM burn-off.

The Boarding House Campsite was back in action again in at least 5 days as Hikers further down the track told me that they visited the site on the Friday following the Sunday that I was there and found everything OK.

There were confusing road-signs though and roads did not seem to be in the same spot as the maps indicated.It seemed as though new roads had been carved out over the top of old ones and joined a few together to make a new road complex.

The bridge on Palings Road near where the track crosses is worth a look, if you are game to test your luck with the kamikaze logging truck drivers.

CALM were doing a burn-off down the track and had closed this section of the track. They had marked an alternate route to Boarding House Campsite using white waugals and had also left a copy of a map with the new route in a plastic envelope attached to this sign. This is at the entry point on Graphite Road near One Tree Bridge. I didn't go this way, I came in from the other end.

Here is some nicely burnt scrub. Not a very pretty walk this day.

So what did CALM do, they erected a temporary campsite and erected this sign especially for the purpose. From the log books in the campsites at either end of Boarding House campsite, I could see that all of this trouble benefitted about 3 people. Not many people traverse the track, a couple a week I'd say.

Here is one of those white waugal markers, denoting a temporary Bibbulmun Track route.

Here is the temporary campsite erected for us. A water tank, table and benches and a few kitchen chairs. Plenty of flat ground space for tents.

Why would they have levelled so much ground?

Oh, also they were good enough to leave a toilet roll, you can just see it sitting on the base of the water tank.