Donnelly River - canoeing
Submitted by randall df223 on Tue, 2012-08-07 19:17
I am probably going to invest this year in family canoe (2 or 3 seater). I am thinking of some canoeing and camping on the donnelly river (probably next winter), primarily because it appears the bibbulmun track runs along the river from around graphite road south and has several camp sites that appear to be on the river. The trip would include some red fin and trout fishing of course and perhaps marron?
Is any one familar with this stretch of the river? Is it navigible by canoe and are the camping spots on the river?
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Fish! HARD!
Perry Home
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 07/10/10
Randall - I'm very familiar with it
To answer you - yes and no!. It is one of my fave trout fishing rivers as there are so many places the fish can lie up - meaning there is lots of obstacles and logs etc lying across the river. My suggestion would be that you do a recce mission down there before gearing yourself up for a canoeing trip - that way you'll be able to make your own mind up. There is an open camping hut located at Chapple Bridge similar to the picks on this website. http://ozisafari.com/BibbulmunTrack.html. I also have a friend who I can put you on to who owns one of the Mill houses at Donnelly Mill that he hires out at reasonable rates.
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Thanks, will keep that in
Thanks, will keep that in mind. very early days at the moment (as in I don't actually have the canoe yet!) it would be with my 8yr old son and perhaps one of his friends. Perhaps another family. Swags etc, basic but warm camping. Will check out the info on the track itself too.
Fish! HARD!
Perry Home
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 07/10/10
Your alternative is
The lower area of the Donnelly where you come off Vasse Highway at Boat Landing Road - see maps - http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl. The waterway is alot more open down here and takes you down to the Donnelly River Mouth Shacks . Great forum topic link for you here bout the river mouth http://www.yakfishwest.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3011
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
That looks like the go!
That looks like the go! Thanks.
Fish! HARD!
carnarvonite
Posts: 8657
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Lower end
Even though there is a speed limit on the lower reaches of the river you will still need to be careful because a lot of the boats don't know what slow is especially if you are in a canoe.
Plenty of space to pitch a tent down towards the mouth past the last of the shacks on the west side.
It may pay to give the Pemby tourist centre a ring before you head down to find out if the river mouth bar is open otherwise you may find yourself with bugger all water to come back with. Have seen it drop something like 6 feet overnight when it breaks.