Brown’s Rocks - Right on the Clarence
Wayne Kampe
THE ONGOING search for small, neat, but tucked out of the way camping grounds took me to the Brown's Rocks Caravan Park. It is right on the mighty Clarence River and offers terrific fishing.
GETTING THERE
As you drive in on the road to Iluka from the Pacific Highway (in northern New South Wales), a quite conspicuous turn-off on the right near the village of Woombah will indicate both Goodwood Island (which is where the caravan park is situated) and Brown’s Rocks. This locality takes its name from the rock outcrops in the Clarence River nearby.
The drive in is through a series of cane fields until, suddenly, there is the Clarence River gleaming ahead. A left turn will see the car running parallel to the river and coming shortly to the sign for the Brown's Rocks Caravan Park. I liked the sign, especially the bit that says ‘Good Fishing Mate’.
THE CARAVAN PARK
Robin and Dick Cahill are the friendly proprietors (ph. (02) 6646 4324), and will go out of their way to make visitors welcome. The whole atmosphere of this caravan park is sort of laid-back and friendly, and all manner of sites are available. I really liked the clean and open tent sites. Concreted caravan sites are well set out, and there is plenty of room to park a boat or two. On-site vans and a cabin are available for hire.
For those that missed the shops on the way through, basic amenities are available at the camp office. Bait is also available. This is very handy, but you should take your yabby pump and pump up some local yabbies from the Clarence for bait. Naturally.
Infrastructure and Amenities
This is a very quiet sort of place and tucked away a little from the main stream of traffic and infrastructure. That said, the caravan park is still situated within a half hour's drive or so of towns such as Iluka and McLean. McLean is very large town and even boasts a hospital. Everything is available in McLean from car dealers to outboard mechanics, and there are good sports stores and tackle outlets for people like us to browse around in.
The caravan park offers a laundry with coin operated washing machines and dryers, a large car and boat washing is set up around the back, there are gas BBQs as well and fish cleaning facilities (with pelicans waiting) are right on the river bank. Dick, the proprietor, will be glad to assist visitors with hints on fishing and boat launching areas as well.
As an aside - bear with me - I just love to look at wildlife, especially the edible stuff. At this locality I noticed a number of plump-looking brown quail that poked in from the nearby cane fields to forage around the edge of the park. There were quite a few of these succulent little fellows at Brown's Rocks. Man, they are nice in egg and breadcrumbs.
Evil thoughts aside, the main attraction at Brown's Rocks is the fishing, so we should look at it at length.
FISHING AT BROWN’S ROCKS
Whiting, bream, flathead, the odd jew and mud crabs can be taken off the bank of the Clarence right at the caravan park. Night fishing would be so easy, with few snags to hang up on and plenty of quite good water right at the feet. I would have a few crab pots out as well; the mud crabs from the Clarence River taste just as good as those from anywhere else.
For boaties, the opportunities are even better. A small-boat launching ramp is situated right next to the caravan park, while larger craft can be launched at another ramp near the wharf further east on the access road. A four-wheel-drive to use this ramp is pretty much par for the course as it's a bit of a hard one, but those who use it can fish the river for very extensive distances in either direction.
The nearby Brown's Rocks in the Clarence River is a prime autumn and winter bream spot. Big jew are taken there as well. The current can get up a fair bit of pace at this locality, and it's wise to have a few extra rigs on hand and some heavy sinkers available to keep the gear down. Snags are encountered, but this never seems to deter the number of anglers fishing from their boats because catches are usually so good! This year, following the massive floods of late summer, the word is that there will be some bumper bream catches if the river fishes true to form of previous late summer and autumn floods.
Remember that during winter any of the rock walls in the Clarence River are worth trying for those tasty, hard-fighting blackfish. Weed is always available locally, and some mighty catches of these fish are taken by their devotees around Browns Rocks.
