Cooloola Recreation Area, Great Sandy National Park

Reading the numbers

The Cooloola Recreation Area, Great Sandy National Park has 24 campgrounds in the app from QPWS, which places it third in Queensland by campground count. The entries split into three groups: the numbered Teewah Beach camping area zones, the Upper Noosa River camp sites, and a handful of named areas such as Freshwater, Poverty Point (Cooloola), Harrys, Fig Tree Point, Neebs Waterhole and Wandi Waterhole. Toilets are listed at 96% of campgrounds, drinking water at 79% and showers at 58%.

The Teewah Beach zones run from 1 to 7, and each lists toilets, drinking water, showers, camper trailer and tent-beside-car sites, with campfires and generators listed as allowed. Zones 2, 4, 5 and 7 are the ones with caravan sites listed; together with Freshwater (trailer site), they account for all 5 caravan listings in the park. If you are towing a caravan, start with those entries and confirm on the official page.

The Upper Noosa River camp sites are identified by number, from camp site 1 up to camp site 15 among those shown. They mostly list toilets, drinking water and a boat ramp, and none of them list camper trailer or tent-beside-car sites. A boat ramp is listed at 11 campgrounds (46%), all of them river camp sites apart from Harrys (river access) and Fig Tree Point. Harrys appears twice, once for river access and once for vehicle access, with different facilities listed for each.

Only one campground has a camping fee listed (4%), the Freshwater (tent site) camping area, and blank fees elsewhere are no sign of free camping. Wandi Waterhole has no facilities listed at all, which means the source recorded none, not that nothing is there. Before you go, check fees, bookings, closures and access for your chosen site on its QPWS page.