"From Beach to Bush: The NSW State Park Camp That Blew Us Away, And Its FREE"

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00][music] >> Well, I'm going to tell you, when you're traveling around Australia like we are, and it's coming close to 3 years, you come across a lot of camps.

[00:00:12]And for those who do know us, we love to free camp. There's nothing better than free. And for those who don't know us, we're the Chappies from Chappies Travels. That's right, the cheese and kisses and misses is Allison, and I'm Chappie, and we've got the old sidekick here, our convertible service dog. Again, this is Chappie.

[00:00:30]>> [music] >> You might ask me, why do I call him Chappie? It's so I don't forget what his name is.

[00:00:36]But in today's video, I'm going to take you to an absolutely spectacular state park on the mid-north of New mid-north coast of New South Wales. You're going to love this place. But I'll tell you what, if you got kiddies, they're going to love it as well.

[00:00:50]So, come along and let's hit this place up and have a great time.

[00:00:59]>> [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] >> Now, I'm going to tell you, you got to love a state park, in particular in New South Wales. So, if you're over on the west side of Australia, if you're far up north of Australia, or you're way down south of Australia, once you hit New South Wales, you're going to find there's plenty of these state parks around.

[00:01:42]All over All over the place. They're on the coastline.

[00:01:45]Okay, they're on the hinterlands, they're on the tablelands, and even out bush.

[00:01:50]And if you love free camping, whether you're a backpacker, whether you're on your own, single, whether you're a couple cruising or if you're a family of 1 2 3 4 5 or whatever, get yourself to these state parks. They are so underrated to those who don't realize them. They go, "Oh, no, no, no, we've got to near the coast. We'll be in a caravan park where we can pay anywhere from 45 50 dollars a day, and sometimes even more in high season." "Oh, no, no, no, we'll go bush. We'll stay in a caravan park again." But, what you forget is you've got these natural beauties around you where you can take the kitties with you, and they won't be bored.

[00:02:30]You're not going to have any jumping castles. You're not going to have any water parks. But, what you're going to have here for the kitties is some of the most natural beauty in the world.

[00:02:41]There's these trails like I've got behind me where the kitties can go off walking and exploring, looking at the different critters that are around.

[00:02:48]Haven't come across a snake yet, so don't be too panicky.

[00:02:52]You can wake up early in the morning, and you can be listening to the bird life, a bit like you're hearing behind me again.

[00:02:59]Or you can just chill out at a picnic table, which they have plenty of these around, whilst you're just taking it easy.

[00:03:07]I'm going to tell you, what do these have, these state parks, that makes it any difference? If I was going to do a sell, if I was a part of the New South Wales Parks and Gardens, whatever they call it, so how would I sell this to you?

[00:03:18]Well, like I said in the intro, we've been on the road just under 3 years, and Chappie loves a free camp wherever I go.

[00:03:27]I never complain about any type of camp because some are better than the others.

[00:03:31]It doesn't matter because the great thing about it it is it's f r e e.

[00:03:36]And apart from being free, this place here is magic.

[00:03:41]Where am I, you asking? Well, I'm at the Cooper Nook or Lansdowne State Park.

[00:03:47]And it's on the mid north coast of New South Wales, probably about all three and a bit hours north of Newcastle and probably just an hour south of Port Macquarie.

[00:03:57]Just out of Taree or just north of Taree. And you'll find there's two or three of these parks running up the the coast road here and I'm forever hearing people say on social media that there's no free camps along the mid north coast.

[00:04:14]What can I say about this joint then?

[00:04:16]It's absolutely stunning.

[00:04:18]And we're going to have a great time as I I'll show you around and show you what can be happening here and what can be done here.

[00:04:26]Let's keep rolling around. Okay.

[00:04:28]Number one thing is they're on the WikiCamps, they're on the apps, they're on your national or state park apps and they're also if you go to your local tourist information center, they're going to tell you all about them.

[00:04:39]They're spread out like I said all over New South Wales and I know they also have them in the other states as well.

[00:04:45]State parks differ from national parks.

[00:04:48]Why is that?

[00:04:49]Well, you can take your dog along as long as it's on a lead and you pick up after it.

[00:04:54]How good is that? National parks we can't be doing that. Unless it's a certified assistant dog like Chappie.

[00:05:01]Number two we've got here, it's quiet.

[00:05:04]You're away from all the hustle and bustle.

[00:05:07]You're just chilling out.

[00:05:08]Even where we are here today, there's probably another 15 Yeah, 15 campers spread all over the place, probably spread over 20 acres.

[00:05:17]So, you're not in each other's pockets.

[00:05:20]There's fire pits. How good is that?

[00:05:22]There's picnic tables.

[00:05:24]And the great thing about it, it's got some of the best cleanest drop toilets I ever did come across.

[00:05:29]But make sure you take your own toilet paper when you go there because you know what it's like.

[00:05:33]Loo paper is like gold in these sort of places.

[00:05:37]Greatest thing I found in this spot is that it's got a children's playground area.

[00:05:43]Now, remember probably a year or so ago we were here and they were just starting to put this thing together. It's like a pioneer playground. You don't have swings. You don't have the slippery dips or you don't have the big roundabouts, but what you have is little bridge climbs. Okay, you have walkways, you have balance posts and you have a lot of rope.

[00:06:04]So, the children get back to imagination and have a bit of fun.

[00:06:08]I'll tell you what, if you're an adult and no one's looking, you can have a bit of fun, too.

[00:06:13]>> [laughter] >> Also here, we have here at the Landsdale or Coober Pedy State Park is some beaut barbecue areas. Yes, you got picnic areas all around the camping ground and you as I said, you got open fire pits all around the camping ground which they request that you use and it's just to protect the place.

[00:06:32]But down this way here, you'll also find some little electric bloody barbecues. Nice and clean.

[00:06:38]And there's plenty of undercover parking here as well.

[00:06:41]I don't know what else to say about that area there, but it's absolutely stunning.

[00:06:46]You'll have traffic coming through every now and then, but it's not like it's doing anything else. It's just other people driving through to have a look at this specula- spectacular bloody park we've got here.

[00:06:57]I absolutely love it.

[00:06:58]Absolutely love it.

[00:07:00]Why have we come here, you're probably asking?

[00:07:03]Well, we use this as our chill out area.

[00:07:05]Cuz when we're traveling around and we're chatting every day and old chappie loves a bit of a yarn as you can see here, we can pull into a place like a state park, get away from the whole world and just chill out, sleep in, do what we need to do and spend time with each other without having to go into the shops, without having to go into any urban area or hang out in traffic.

[00:07:28]We've been here about 3 days here and totally enjoy it.

[00:07:32]Do you have to be self-contained?

[00:07:34]Absolutely.

[00:07:35]Do you need to bring your own water in?

[00:07:37]Absolutely.

[00:07:39]And I'll tell you a suggestion, if you're going to stay here for any length of time, get yourself a couple of 20 L jerrycans, water ones, load them up as well. Give you an extra 40 L of water, which can give you an extra day or two whilst you're out here.

[00:07:51]That's right.

[00:07:53]Like I said, there's dogs allowed out here and Chappie's having a yarn to another one.

[00:07:57]Some other great things out here is that there's just so much great things out here. As I said, you're away from society, having the time of your life, and they're an absolute hidden gem. You bring the kiddies out here wherever you're camping, you're about to watch them running around, having the time of their life.

[00:08:15]If you're half cool person, you're going to be talking other people around the traps.

[00:08:19]But that doesn't mean you have to.

[00:08:21]Isn't that right, Chappie?

[00:08:25]Doesn't matter how much camping you do, sometimes, as I said previously, it's just great to get away from the world.

[00:08:32]Spending time on your own or with your partner, with your kiddies.

[00:08:36]With great little bush walks like this well, not really bush walks, the state forest walks.

[00:08:41]You can walk around these pathways looking at what's out there on offer.

[00:08:46]Seeing how nature actually begins.

[00:08:49]And I'll tell you what, there's certainly some tall timbers here.

[00:08:52]Just have a look at this baby here.

[00:08:54]And just imagine what it was like in the old days, how good this place would have been.

[00:08:58]Absolutely spectacular.

[00:09:00]And this is just one of the walks we go on.

[00:09:03]Just one of the walks. This will take you probably 15 15 minutes. So, if you bring a bottle of water with you you can chill out here and have the time of your life.

[00:09:16]So, there we go.

[00:09:18]That's Chappie's little tour of the Coopernook Lands Down State Forest in the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.

[00:09:26]Like I said she's probably [clears throat] half an hour up the road from Taree an hour south of Port Macquarie, and probably about 3 hours north of Newcastle.

[00:09:36]I was just talking to a young couple who got a boat and a rooftop tent on it.

[00:09:40]They're from Western Australia.

[00:09:42]And they used to have a lot of free camps cuz Western Australia is renowned for the free camping.

[00:09:47]And didn't realize that there was that many free camps here in New South Wales.

[00:09:53]It's a lot of things you don't know out there till you ask the question, isn't it?

[00:09:57]That's why we have those tourism information centers, WikiCamps, and just the internet.

[00:10:03]You can can't go anywhere without having them.

[00:10:06]So now I've shown you um what our state parks are like.

[00:10:10]Maybe you on your own, or you and the cheese and kisses and misses, or the lover wife, or even the grandchildren, or your own children, can find these places out there where you can also go out and have a good time.

[00:10:25]Enjoy yourselves, and you don't have to travel that far. And the way the price of fuel is these days, that's a benefit to anyone.

[00:10:33]And the money you save on caravan parks, and whatever else these site fees, you can put into other stuff.

[00:10:42]Got to love traveling. Got to love Chappys Travels.

[00:10:44]I love it. We thought we're only going to do it for a month or two, and look at us. Near 3 years. We're back in the um where we're from, and we're actually talking to a neighbor.

[00:10:55]And the tenant we have in our place was talking to our neighbor and saying, "Oh, they said a couple of years they'll be back.

[00:11:02]I'm really enjoying myself here. I really really really wish they kept going."

[00:11:06]Well, I said to Jenny, I said, "Don't you worry. You tell her that the Chappys will probably be on the road for at least a couple of more years, even more."

[00:11:15]We love our lifestyle. I'm sure you love your lifestyle.

[00:11:18]But if you haven't been camping or caravanning before, or you haven't been off-grid or free camping, like I say, get out there and give it a go.

[00:11:26]You'll find a place just around the corner from your joint, I'm sure.

[00:11:30]Look after yourself. You have a great time.

[00:11:33]Just enjoy life cuz the life's really beautiful. Get off that mainstream media. That will just send your mind downhill. And remember, if you're not traveling, why not?

[00:11:43]See you, Australia.

[00:11:45]See you later, guys.

[00:11:50]We drink each in the fountain of youth.

[00:11:56]Conquests of old bathe in the new.

[00:12:01]Desperate hands reach out the same.

[00:12:06]Face stuck on walls, wash them away.

[00:12:12]>> [music] >> A city