Balgal Beach for fishing, relaxing and long beach walks.
Balgal Beach is 40 minutes north of Townsville. The turn off is 1km south of Rollingstone. The rest area is 5km east of the Bruce Highway, and at the north end of town near the boat ramp.
The camp area is not very large and does fill up. Many travellers bring Balgal Beach up in discussions about where to go and stay. The toilets are good quality and are wheelchair friendly. Water is available, as is barbeque facilities and picnic tables. The rubbish bins tend to fill up, so consider taking your rubbish with you on departure.
Balgal Beach features a stinger net, which is installed and patrolled from November to May. A boat ramp facility with easy access to the Palm Island group and a sandy beach. The wide creek mouth is said to be good for beach and river fishing.
There is also a licensed café for that special occasion, or for your daily relaxing fix. It is worth exploring the area, after checking a map, to see the lay of the land.
Whatever your preferences are, time will slip by way too fast in such a conducive environment. This region has a number of good camping areas in reasonably close proximity, also on the beach. This makes for a lovely beach crawl in one of Australia’s most sought after holiday destinations.
Unfortunately, there is a 48-hour time limit and I strongly advise travellers, not to push these limits. The locals have not been happy with such activity. The best we can do is pay our way by spending in the town, not parking big rigs in front of the residents and keep our comings and goings down to a quiet purr at reasonable hours. If we don’t respect the fact that we are guest of a community, we may find this little piece of paradise lost to travellers who free camp.
If you are tent camping, another campsite is on Justin Street. The Townsville Regional Council has a page on their website with a list of campsites.
