Illaroo is a campground in the Yuraygir National Park near Minnie Water, north of Wooli. Yuraygir is a large national park and requires accessing from several different locations.
Illaroo sits between Sandon River Village and Wooli and is the northern most campground south of the Sandon River. The camping area is split into two parts, Illaroo North and Illaroo South.
Illaroo South does not have bookings and is first in first served. The camp sites are a little more basic bit not really in a way that is detrimental, in some ways it is more private. Toilets are available and each camp site has a fire place for a wood BBQ.
Angophora Circuit Walk starts at the southern end of Illaroo South, taking you to Rocky Point and through the scrub. Part of the circuit also forms part of the walk to Minnie Water.
Rocky Point gives an interesting viewing point from the top looking over the ocean. Approaching from the beach offers a different perspective with interesting and beautiful coloured rocks coming out of the sand and transitioning to the rocky point.
The walk is fairly easy with a few stairs to climb up to the point. The circuit is about 1.2km, so not too long a walk. Rocky Point walk also leads to a walk-in only campsite, about 200m from Illaroo South.
Illaroo North is available only with a booking. The sites are more defined and appear tidier than Illaroo South but they are also closer together and more open.
There are toilets, just the same as Illaroo South, and a stock pile of fire wood for use in the fire places at each camp site. It is illegal to use wood collected from a national park so having wood supplied by the national park is a great benefit that isn’t seen everywhere.
Illaroo sits along the Angourie Coastal Walk and is a good mid-point between Sandon River Village and Wooli. Both Sandon River Village and Wooli are mouths of rivers which require a boat to cross or vehicle transport around to the other side if you want to venture further on the walk.
To get there
From the Pacific Hwy, turn into Eight Mile Ln at the brown sign for Yuraygir National Park, about 10km south of Grafton. Follow Eight Mile Ln for about 10.5km and turn right into Wooli Rd. Follow Wooli Rd for 17km and turn left into Minnie Water Rd at the brown sign for Illaroo Camping Area. Follow Minnie Water Rd for around 6.5km and turn left into Illaroo Rd. Illaroo Rd is a dirt track leading to Illaroo South, about 1.5km on the right, or continue ahead another 250m for Illaroo North on the right.
