Venue: Lake Eppalock Holiday Park
Address: 1 Gunmins Lane, Kimbolton, 3551
Phone: 03 5439 2538
Link: http://lakeeppalockholidaypark.com.au/
Date Visited: 5/12/14 – 7/12/14
Visitors: 2 adults, 3kids
Rate: $100 ($50/n) for a powered site not including sullage
Review:
The venue for our next “Friday Getaway” was 1.5hrs up the road at Lake Eppalock Holiday Park. Looking for a venue near to Heathcote for an event my brother was hosting, this came up on a list of possibilities. Booking was easy over the phone and availability was more than plentiful for this time of year.
Once again, arrived later than we thought (~7.30pm) but check in was a breeze and we had the “run of the ranch” basically being told to park wherever we liked! Not often you get that luxury. I soon found out that my inner OCD likes to have boundaries and lines when parking the van and parking without rules doesn’t suit my style! Still we managed to squeeze into the massive open space and unpacked with ease as we sent the kids to the jumping pillow to explore. As a result, I can’t really comment on the site size, as they weren’t marked. Based on the spacing of the power turrets though, I imagine they are pretty accommodating.
The area had a decent coverage of grass, but there were a few bare patches around. The CGear mat made it out on this trip, and the pegs went in with a bang from a block of wood (who forgot the hammer??) As mentioned, plenty of power and water (which is untreated and not suitable for human consumption) but no sullage. As a result and not wanting to have water running all over the show, I caught the waste water in a blue bucket before “distributing” it over some of the grassy areas.
The park allows fires in the barrels they provide. I don’t believe they allow you to bring your own, so the Tekno Barrel had a rest for this trip. You can BYO wood however (wood is available at the shop at the front) as long as it’s reasonably sized.
Ammenities were serviceable and reasonably clean, but I do worry how they will go for numbers when the park is chockers and fully booked. There wasn’t a plethora of showers but the one I used certainly had nice pressure and flow! Maybe this is why the lake was a little low…
No pool that I could see but when you’re next to Victoria’s 3rd largest lake, you can always have a dip in that… A good sized playground near the camp office is nicely covered grassed but the highlight for my kids was the jumping pillow which sat within a huge sandpit area. Adjacent to this was the camp kitchen and table area where a large BBQ could be catered for.
Apparently during the summer holidays they run activities and night cinemas but they weren’t up and running for us. I imagine they’d be pretty cool.
The site office is well stocked (although I never went in, going on the reports of the better half). Staff were courteous and helpful, delivering the fire barrel down and offering help where required.
In terms of location, it’s pretty good. Right on the edge of Lake Eppalock which currently has a reasonable level of water in it, we had some beautiful bush views across the empty park. It is isolated enough to make you feel like you are miles from nowhere, but Bendigo isn’t that far away should you need to go “into town” for emergencies… As mentioned, it was a tick over 1.5hrs from The Marsh which would make it similar from the outskirts of Melbourne. This makes it very accessible with good roads to and from the area (just watch out for ‘roos at dawn and dusk).
Overall we really enjoyed our time there. So much so that we are booked in again for 4 days over the Christmas period. Our original plans fell through and everywhere we rang was either booked out or $$$$ as expected. Whilst there, we casually enquired about availability to find that a large booking had cancelled and they could shuffle sites to squeeze us in. Bonus! I’ll revisit this review after that trip after we’ve experienced the camp in full swing with people all around. Hopefully it will be as positive as this one.
Staff: 7/10
Location: 8/10
Facilities 6/10
Price: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
More pics can be found halfway down this page in my thread:
http://www.expandasdownunder.com/threads/the-marshians-17-56-2-ob.5396/page-10
Address: 1 Gunmins Lane, Kimbolton, 3551
Phone: 03 5439 2538
Link: http://lakeeppalockholidaypark.com.au/
Date Visited: 5/12/14 – 7/12/14
Visitors: 2 adults, 3kids
Rate: $100 ($50/n) for a powered site not including sullage
Review:
The venue for our next “Friday Getaway” was 1.5hrs up the road at Lake Eppalock Holiday Park. Looking for a venue near to Heathcote for an event my brother was hosting, this came up on a list of possibilities. Booking was easy over the phone and availability was more than plentiful for this time of year.
Once again, arrived later than we thought (~7.30pm) but check in was a breeze and we had the “run of the ranch” basically being told to park wherever we liked! Not often you get that luxury. I soon found out that my inner OCD likes to have boundaries and lines when parking the van and parking without rules doesn’t suit my style! Still we managed to squeeze into the massive open space and unpacked with ease as we sent the kids to the jumping pillow to explore. As a result, I can’t really comment on the site size, as they weren’t marked. Based on the spacing of the power turrets though, I imagine they are pretty accommodating.
The area had a decent coverage of grass, but there were a few bare patches around. The CGear mat made it out on this trip, and the pegs went in with a bang from a block of wood (who forgot the hammer??) As mentioned, plenty of power and water (which is untreated and not suitable for human consumption) but no sullage. As a result and not wanting to have water running all over the show, I caught the waste water in a blue bucket before “distributing” it over some of the grassy areas.
The park allows fires in the barrels they provide. I don’t believe they allow you to bring your own, so the Tekno Barrel had a rest for this trip. You can BYO wood however (wood is available at the shop at the front) as long as it’s reasonably sized.
Ammenities were serviceable and reasonably clean, but I do worry how they will go for numbers when the park is chockers and fully booked. There wasn’t a plethora of showers but the one I used certainly had nice pressure and flow! Maybe this is why the lake was a little low…
No pool that I could see but when you’re next to Victoria’s 3rd largest lake, you can always have a dip in that… A good sized playground near the camp office is nicely covered grassed but the highlight for my kids was the jumping pillow which sat within a huge sandpit area. Adjacent to this was the camp kitchen and table area where a large BBQ could be catered for.
Apparently during the summer holidays they run activities and night cinemas but they weren’t up and running for us. I imagine they’d be pretty cool.
The site office is well stocked (although I never went in, going on the reports of the better half). Staff were courteous and helpful, delivering the fire barrel down and offering help where required.
In terms of location, it’s pretty good. Right on the edge of Lake Eppalock which currently has a reasonable level of water in it, we had some beautiful bush views across the empty park. It is isolated enough to make you feel like you are miles from nowhere, but Bendigo isn’t that far away should you need to go “into town” for emergencies… As mentioned, it was a tick over 1.5hrs from The Marsh which would make it similar from the outskirts of Melbourne. This makes it very accessible with good roads to and from the area (just watch out for ‘roos at dawn and dusk).
Overall we really enjoyed our time there. So much so that we are booked in again for 4 days over the Christmas period. Our original plans fell through and everywhere we rang was either booked out or $$$$ as expected. Whilst there, we casually enquired about availability to find that a large booking had cancelled and they could shuffle sites to squeeze us in. Bonus! I’ll revisit this review after that trip after we’ve experienced the camp in full swing with people all around. Hopefully it will be as positive as this one.
Staff: 7/10
Location: 8/10
Facilities 6/10
Price: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
More pics can be found halfway down this page in my thread:
http://www.expandasdownunder.com/threads/the-marshians-17-56-2-ob.5396/page-10
