Article from 4WDing Australia.
If you are looking for some camping near Perth that’s different to the ordinary, White Gum Farm is a fantastic place to add to the list. We’ve just spent a great weekend there, and would add it to the 60 best camp sites near Perth.
Lake Kimberley at White Gum Farm
Where is White Gum Farm?
You’ll find this great spot not far from York, and only an hour and a half from Perth’s city centre.
What’s there?
White Gum farm has a fully licensed bar and restaurant, a giant dam for fishing, swimming and paddling in, a significant aviation presence, a 4WD park and plenty of room for the kids to run around.
A microlite made into a kids swing
The facilities are very, very well done
How much does it cost?
Camping is $10 per adult, per site, and an extra $5 if you require power. It is worth noting that the power abilities are limited, and running high current items like air conditioners will trip the power out, and make you rather unpopular. We stayed in the powered section, but didn’t bother hooking up.
Our camp site at White Gum Farm
The camp sites are massive
Other accommodation
If camping isn’t your style of accommodation, there are a range of cabins, and donga rooms that you can stay in.
What can you do there?
There’s a lot of out of the box things that make White Gum Farm so popular, and plenty for all different ages too.
Enjoy Lake Kimberley
White Gum Farm has its very own dam, which is huge and greatly appreciated in the summer months. Lake Kimberley took 200 hours of machine time to make, and is 14 metres deep when full. It holds a huge amount of water and is very popular for swimming, paddling, fishing (catch and release) and just sitting around.
The bar and restaurant overlook this brilliant lake, and make for a perfect place to watch the world go by.
Kick back and relax in, or around Lake Kimberley
Some interesting facts about Lake Kimberley
White Gum 4WD park
If you are into 4WDing, then White Gum Farm is the place for you. They have the only 4WD park in Western Australia, and for $25 per vehicle you can drive to it (only about 500 metres away from the camp ground!), and spend the day there. Test your vehicle and whether its completely stock or highly modified, you’ll find something challenging to do.
EDIT – I’m told this is closed between November and March each year to comply with the fire risks!
Challenge yourself at the 4WD park
Testing the flex out in WA’s only 4WD Park
Offset hill climbs make for a bit of a challenge
Fly in a plane or helicopter
White Gum Farm has a strong aeroplane and helicopter presence, with small planes, gliders, microlites and Gyrocopters flying around regularly.
If you want to learn to fly, you can do that, or just go for a ride in one. White Gum Farm also has a 737 plane that was carefully transported out, and you can do a tour through the plane and learn all about the history of Oz Jet.
Fly in one of these little Gyrocopters
Enjoy the restaurant and bar
Perhaps the major attraction for many here is the licensed restaurant and bar. Kick back under the shade in the heat of the day, or enjoy a beautiful meal. When you are done, walk down the hill 50 metres and hop into your tent or Caravan, and call it a day!
Live music is sometimes on, and its worth asking about this prior to arriving, as it went until about midnight when we stayed.
Outdoors or indoors at White Gum Farm Restaurant
Bushwalking
If you are keen to walk around, there’s plenty of property to explore. You can walk down to the 4WD park along ‘the edge’ and see a heap of kangaroo’s, or enjoy an amazing sunset.
There’s plenty of property to explore!
Overall, worth a stay or not?
We really enjoyed White Gum Farm. It’s certainly different to your average stay, its cheap and has more than enough to keep you entertained for the weekend. The owners have made it a pretty incredible place, despite a huge amount of work to get it this far. It’s a huge credit to them, and we’ll be back again to see how its progressing!
Kick back with some good food and enjoy a great weekend
Sharing is caring!