Closest point to drive and park is on all weather unsealed roads, from there it is on foot to the campsite
73.9 km NW of Sydney
GPS: Latitude 33° 23′ 1.068"S Longitude 150° 41′ 31.74"E
There are two main walking access routes. Plus two more bonus ways in, for the more adventurous. Options 2,3 & 4 require a topographic map and navigation skills.
1 - shortest and easiest) From the far western end of Upper Colo Rd, walk about 2.5km along a marked track/trail that runs roughly parallel to the Colo River. Most of this walk is on private property, please stay on the marked track and show your respect to the land owners.
2 - longer and hard)You can walk from Sams Way at Mountain Lagoon, following the Gospers Ridge Trail and then Mailes Ridge for approximately 12km.
3) Another option from Mountain Lagoon is to take the T3 Track and then a walk down the Colo River, then walk or lilo down stream to the campsite.
4) Another option from the Putty Road side, is to follow the Bob Turners Track (4km to River) and then walk or lilo to the campsite (another 11km).
General Information
There is a long walk into this campsite There are a total of 10 campsitesThe river can flood so check levels. There is a nice sandy beach section and some open flat areas to camp and play.
Bookings and contact information
You are not able to book these campsites - first come basisFor more information contact the NPWS Richmond office on:Phone:02 4588 5247
(more contact details)
Fees
Free Camping - no camp fees applyAdult=$0 Per NightChildren=$0 Per Night
No car entry fees applyVehicle=$0 Per Day
Facilities
Toilets Pit or composting toilets are available
Showers No showers are provided on site
Water There is water onsite (or from a nearby creek) that can be treated for drinking
Picnic Tables Picnic tables are provided on site
Pit fire BBQs Wood fired Pit BBQ's are provided - bring your own wood
Electric of Gas BBQs Gas or electric BBQ's are not provided
Rubbish Bins No rubbish bins provided - take your own rubbish with you
Campfires Fires are generally permitted at this campsite, be aware of local fire bans.
ActivitiesSwimmingThere are places to swimNearest known Camping Stores
The description of access to Colo Meroo is misleading, uninformative and a piece of crap.
:(
Hi Geoff
Thanks for the feedback. I would appreciate and further info that can help make this better for other people.
here is the quote from the National Parks site on how to access the campsite.
"You can drive to Mountain Lagoon and walk roughly 12km each way. There is no access to the campground across private properties along the riverbank. If you're walking, drive along the Bells Line of Road, take the Mountain Lagoon turn-off at Bilpin, then turn left into Sams Way."
re-reading the directions are vague, you are right. Any other info???
No, more than vague. Your description chops two sentences into one and doesn't make sense. But more on that in a minute. For a start, there is indeed a ~12km walk in via Mailes Ridge Trail. Why then do you bother saying "accesable by all weather unsealed roads suitable for 2wd vehicles"? Sounds a bit stupid if you ask me. Next is the reference to Bob Turners Track. This track is indeed well known, though it provides access to the Colo River approximately 11km upstream of Colo Meroo. It would thus take a long time to "walk in" from there as Colo River walking is slow. You could lilo/paddle from BT track if you knew what you were doing. Next problem is that the BT track provides access to the Colo from the other side of the river, from Putty Road. It is absolutely nowhere near Sams Way at Mountain Lagoon, and it would indeed take (a lot) more than an hour to drive between the two. Sams Way is the access for the Mailes Ridge Trail, and also the T3 Trail. The whole thing needs to be rewritten.
>The campsite is accesable by all weather unsealed roads suitable for 2wd vehicles
Walk in along Bob turners track from Sams Way, driver along the Bells Line of Road, turn onto the Mountain Lagoon at Bilpin, then turn into Sams Way. Or you can canoe or float down the river on a li-lo
I do want to make this site helpful for people, and I must admit most of my work has been spent on the bushwalking side and little on the campsite stuff.
I will be working through much of the campsite info over the next few months.
I understand the issue with "accesable by all weather unsealed roads suitable for 2wd vehicles". This was intened to mean to the start of the walk is, (and another part says that it is a long walk in). So I take your point that it confussing and will consider that in the redesign of the camping info.
Since you are so farmiliar with the area, are you willing to provide some directions to the campsite?? if so I am sure other people would benefit from it.
Yep I aggree Cassidy. This campsite has become popular by the sounds of it, I will try to get down there and get some photos, If you have some you would like to share please feel free,
I've liloed to this campsite from Bob Turner's track. River flowed slowed in the deep sections for the 1st half of the day, except for the couple of small rapids we went over. Towards the end of the day the river widened and got shallower and we channel hopped to find deep bits.
Campsite was 200m up a track from the river. Not to hard to find.
The sheltered cooking/ eating areas were well recieved.
The description from NPWS is more or less accurate. If you want it rewritten and expanded, how about...
"There is currently no access to Colo Meroo from Upper Colo due to issues with landholders. The most straightforward approach is thus from Sams Way at Mountain Lagoon. The Gospers Ridge Trail and Mailes Ridge is walked for approximately 12km. Other options for access include the T3 Track (also from Mountain Lagoon) and then a walk down the Colo River. Or, from the Putty Road side, access is possible from the Bob Turners Track (4km to River) and then a walk or lilo to the campsite (another 11km). Another possibility for experienced walkers in this vacinity is via the ridge which goes over Mt Townsend."
Hi Geoff
Thanks for you detailed descriptions for access. I have made some changes and checked it against the map. They are some great options and much better then what was there.
Thanks for your help. your feedback is greatly welcomed.
Thanks again
BTW we I will be doing a bit of a redesign of the camping info pages soon. I am aware that is fairly cluttered and a bit tricky to read. Hope to have it up in a few weeks
Can you tell me if you have any detailed trip notes for the walk down to the Colo Meroo campsite via the Gospers Ridge Track (not the Tootie Creek track)? I only have some information from a few years ago that said half way there it becomes overgrown and tricky to find the track along the ridge.
Thank you for your help, I find your website very helpful and glad of the effort you put in.
How disappointing it is to return to this page after a couple of years to find that I have been called "miserable" and a "dickhead". Obviously no editorial control on these comments either. For the sake of anyone stumbling onto this web page and is wondering how I earned these comments, well I guess you can see that I referred to the original description as a piece of crap. And that it was to anyone who has been to the area. Neither of the people who chose to make negative comments about me saw the original description, because it had already begun to be improved following my comments. The original description was, as I said in my first message, misleading and uninformative. So much so that it could have potentially been dangerous by someone not doing further research before trying to access the campsite with the information supplied. This was especially true of the original reference to the Bob Turner Track. The current description relies a lot on my input, and you can see that in my post on 7/11/08, and the fact that I was thanked by admin. Are Andrew and Daniel friends of admin and blindly trying to support him against someone who, in fact, has contributed more to this page than them?
Geoff, I just think you could have made your comments in a much nicer way. There really is no need to be rude and obnoxious when Matt tries very hard to be helpful and informative.
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for your response and your help in making this page better. You have made a great contribution to this, and helped other people find the campsite. I do not know anyone of the people who has left comments on this page, they have reacted how they have. Perhaps I should take some editorial control over these forums. I try not to delete comments as I want to show a history and avoid a bias. If I start deleting comments then I run the risk of people feeling like I am editing comments to make me look good. In this case I thought by leaving these comments, if anything show that wildwalks is not perfectm, and had benifited from your input. I find Anneys comment interesting, I think she has a point, but I also think that it would have been helpful of Daniel and Andrew to have expressed their thoughts in a more positive way.
Can I ask for calm here, that we use this space to be more positive to each other, after all, the chances are we will end up in a tent next to each other soon enough anyway, and I hope we do.
Geoff if you are still concerned about these comments left and feel like I should take more or different action, then I am very happy to work that out please e-mail, matt@wildwalks.com or we can get together for a coffee or something.
Thanks
Matt :)
Matt you have the patience of a saint. Thanks for this amazing and informative site. You've been my guide since moving to australia a few yrs ago and I've enjoyed many a bushwalk suggested on your site.
Keep up the great work!
We recently li-lod down from Bob Turners and it was one of the best things Ive done..
However we couldnt find the Colo Meroo campsite? Im going again next weekend.. Are there any landmarks or ways you can identify the campsite? ( I will probably take a GPS and plug in Latitude 33° 23′ 1.068"S Longitude 150° 41′ 31.74"E ) but hoping someone has some less technical advice incase we need to find it the old fashioned way.
Hiking near Sydney 
NEW
SwimmingThere are places to swimNearest known Camping Stores
You are not able to book these campsites - first come basisFor more information contact the NPWS Richmond office on:Phone:02 4588 5247
1 km
not too much longer now :)