Along with Wauraltee Beach on Yorke Peninsula, Perlubie Beach near Streaky Bay, SA, seems to get a lot of attention with its absolute water front camping, right on the sand. Photo’s of crystal clear blue waters and beautiful sunsets are plentiful on social media. So, with us staying in nearby Smoky Bay, we had to make a trip out to see what all the fuss with Perlubie Beach camping was about.
If camping on the beach, you do need to book online before hand. There is another option nearby, Perlubie Park, which I talk about at the end of this post.
Location
Perlubie Beach camping area is about a 20 minute drive north of Streaky Bay, or 45 minutes south of Smoky Bay. Post-Covid, the area boomed in popularity, and in peak times it was reported to have up to 150 caravans lined up on the beach. I would have to imagine the entire beach end to end would be filled with campers in that scenario. So, it did make sense that the local council introduced a cap on the number of campsites available. A far better alternative to Wauraltee Beach in which beach camping was banned completely.
There are 30 sites marked out a long the northern end of the beach, but 10 of these are reserved for locals. Each of the sites is generously large, probably 20 metres wide. This gives each campsite has plenty of room to spread out without living on top of neighbours. It makes driving the van in without having to reverse easy, too.
Whilst the beach is quite firm for the most part, it does soften up higher where you’d want to park the your car, or set up camp. 4WD is definitely needed. I didn’t want to be the person getting bogged as I tried to position our van, so I aired down which made things very simple. The on board air compressor in the Y62 helps to air up on the way out!
Post Card Perfect?
As luck would have it, we arrived on a day with overcast conditions, and a fair bit of sea weed on the beach at the northern end, in front of all the campsites. Not quite the social media perfection I’d seen online. If social media is to blame for the explosion in visits, maybe my pictures will lower expectations somewhat!
Even so, despite the rather drab looking beach, I could definitely see the appeal here. The beach is protected, and stays shallow for a long way out. Perfect for families with young kids. It reminded me of Flaherty’s Beach, but on a smaller scale. And you can camp on the beach, which is amazing (provided the weather is kind)
I knew I had to return once we had bought a Hybrid van, and so that’s what we did! As part of a larger Eyre Peninsula tour, we snagged some pretty awesome conditions. Sunny, and low winds that dropped out completely in the late afternoon making some awesome sunsets on the beach. Seaweed seen the previous year was virtually nonexistent.
But, we also copped a day of extreme wind. Everyone was getting sand blasted, and a lot of awnings suddenly got withdrawn and everyone disappeared into their vans to seek refuge. Weather conditions will definitely determine your level of enjoyment here.
Facilities
Perlubie Beach camping has a few shelters at the northern end for day use. These are just before the camping area starts. There is a very basic toilet block at the entrance too. Even so, campers would need to bring their own toilet facilities, as you could be located up to 600 metres away from the toilet block, and it’s all private property (keep out) over the dunes.
I know it’s popular and they can probably charge what they want and still get people coming, but I do find $30 a night a bit steep for what’s here in the way of facilities (Basically – not much at all). Good views aren’t cheap it seems!
When to Visit?
This one is both obvious and hard to predict – but it’s when the weather is perfect! But, because of the limited sites, booking ahead of time is likely going to be needed, particularly in peak times. So, you’re at the mercy of the weather gods in that case. You’d also want to be mindful of the tides. Full moon tides (e.g Easter) will probably result in some water getting uncomfortably close to camp. Add in a bit of wind and you could wake up to your door mat floating away.
We did experience this on the day of high wind, with the afternoon tide getting far above what could be seen as the normal high tide level. It was never at a point where I considered a need to pack anything away to prevent getting wet though (I had my eye on the tide times and knew it would recede before it got too close).
On our first visit, the weed built up on the beach seemed to be worse at the northern end of the beach. That might be weather dependent, but I think the sites further south would perhaps have more chance of not being weedy. On the second visit the entire beach was weed free.
Fishing
Streaky Bay is well regarded for its excellent fishing, but land based anglers will have to work a little harder at Perlubie. A number of other campers had little tinnies they were launching to go fishing. Us not so privileged were limited to trying our luck off the beach. Low tide is the best bet as you can walk basically all the way out to the weed line. Others had some success casting squid jags over the weed and retrieving slowly.
I did see a group of people using a drone to carry a large bait hundreds of metres out to sea which looked like great fun. Predictably, they hooked up a stingray though, which is less fun to deal with!
Those with boats came in with a few blue swimmer crabs, and squid.
Perlubie Park
Following the restriction on number of campers allowed on the beach, a nearby campsite named Perlubie Park opened up. It’s pretty much an open paddock with a camp kitchen, and it seemed pretty busy when we went past. Whilst it’s only a few hundred metres from the beach, since its not on the beach, I don’t really see the appeal. If I’m going to get blasted by wind and sand (or dust at the campsite) I at least want a nice view to go with it! Still – it provides options and for $20 or $30 a night (depend on your site type), its cheaper than a typical caravan park.
