Camballin

Camballin is a small town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is located just off the Great Northern Highway, otherwise known as the Savannah Way, midway between Derby and Fitzroy Crossing.

It services the Aboriginal settlement of Looma (closed to visitors) and the vast Liveringa Station, but is best known as a step off point for the best Barramundi fishing within the Fitzroy River.

The Western Australian government dammed a section of the Fitzroy River in the 1960s as a means of irrigating the areas surrounding Camballin for rice cultivation. The weir created is known locally as The Barrage.

Oh, and the area is also very well patronised by freshwater and estuarine (saltwater) crocodiles.

Get in
Leave Derby and travel approx 110 km south-east along the Great Northern Highway until you arrive at the Camballin turnoff. Camballin is approx 22 km by unsealed road inland.

Get around
It is almost certain that you will need a well-equipped four wheel drive with high clearance to get past the town of Camballin and into the Fitzroy River area.

See
The Barrage Camballin Irrigation Scheme (follow main track from Camballin to Morawa Crossing). You can camp under the old weir control room and sit back and watch the fresh water crocodiles bask on the opposite bank of the Fitzroy River.

Throughout the region you will see where the local Looma community residents have been with campfires (usually located next to a pile of feathers) where a recent meal of bush turkey has been consumed.

Do
Fishing is the main pastime, as is the taking of freshwater crayfish or Cherrabin. You will need a dinghy which can be launched from areas downstream of the Barrage.

Eat
Barramundi are found in abundance along the river system as are other fresh water fish species. For those who like wild boar hunting, camballin region has a healthy supply of wild boar roaming the vine thickets of the river banks. Otherwise no cafes, restaurants etc.

Sleep
As you might have gathered, it is required that you bring your own accommodation, namely tents or an off road caravan or camper trailer.

Connect
As of March 2024, there is no mobile signal in town, nor on the highway once you get east of the Derby turn-off.

Go next
Liveringa, Looma, New Looma, Upper Liveringa Pool, Fitzroy River, Six Mile Creek, Uralla Creek, Great Northern Hwy