Campsite Review: Habitat Noosa Everglades Ecocamp

Hey guys! Bridie here from Accelerate Auto Electrics, hope you’re ready for this rollercoaster camping trip. This campsite review will be a little different as I’m a rookie camper. But nonetheless, I’m excited to share my first camping experience with everyone!

I’ll even share with you what went wrong! Hopefully, you learn from my mistakes and get a laugh out of it.

Getting There

Getting there was a breeze! I was coming from Caloundra which is about an hour away, but keep in mind travel time will depend on traffic and roadworks. The campsite is located 20 Minutes out of Noosa at Lake Cootharaba. No need to go off the beaten track until you arrive at the campgrounds. There you drive along a dirt road, but nothing my little car (a 2wd) couldn’t tackle!

What we loved

• Location, Location, Location – We grabbed a beautiful spot right on the lake, surrounded by nature and the beach is close by.
• Bar and Bistro – Great for families and relaxing with some friends!
• Amenities – modern and clean
• Accommodation options – There are plenty of accommodation options for all kinds of campers, even glamping!
• Walking tracks – There are heaps of walking tracks to choose from. Although I didn’t personally do one because I spent all my time at the beach, I did see a lot of people putting on their hiking shoes and heading into the bush.
• Kid Friendly – There was a lot of kids riding around on their bikes, kicking a soccer ball or running around the campsite!
• Watercraft Hire – You can hire out watercraft for the day and jump in the lake to cool down.

Room for improvement

• Signage – Getting there in the night was difficult as we couldn’t see any signs to say where the campsite was, we couldn’t even see the entrance. We just took a wild guess and drove down a dirt road and luckily it turned out to be the right one! There were limited signs at the campsite which made it difficult to find our way around. Note: There is a big Habitat Noosa sign on entrance, but due to its colour, you may not be able to see this at night.
• Showers – Not so much a ‘room for improvement’ but just to note, the showers are solar powered. This means you will not get any hot water until the sun starts coming in. Best to shower at night or late in the afternoon.

Things to do

There are plenty of things you can do down at the Habitat Noosa! Check out the list below

1. Historical Nature Walks! There’s a range of great walking tracks easily accessible from the eco-camp.  Click here for more information
2. Free shuttle bus to Noosa – Noosa is the perfect location to sit back and relax, you may as well get a free ride in.
3. The CootharaBAR bistro & bar – Enjoy an uninterrupted view of Lake Cootharaba with a cold beer!
4. 65 Acres of Land – There’s plenty of room for the kids to ride their bikes, bring a soccer ball, cricket set or a frisbee.

Tours & Hire

1. bar-b-canoe – Enjoy a canoe along the tropical rainforest waterways! Click here for more information!
2. eco-cruise – Enjoy a historical cruiser along the river with Morning Tea and Lunch Provided! Book Here  
3. Hire out watercraft! You can hire out Fiberglass and plastic canoes, One person and tandem sea kayaks, Waveskis, SUPs, Sailboat, Windsurfers, Motorboats (one-day advance booking required).

My Experience

Upon arrival, we struggled to find our way around the camp and find a place to pitch the tent. Thankfully, we eventually pitched up next to some amazing people who spoiled us with chocolates! WIN!

We set up our little pop-up tent (which was embarrassingly small next to campers with huge caravan setups) and then set up the gazebo. That was the hardest part because it was broken and not clicking into place. Eventually, we just stuck pegs in the holes and duct taped them up which, thankfully, actually worked.

Starting a fire was another challenge. We found that the wood we brought with us burned through very quickly and our fire didn’t last. So that made the first night pretty difficult.

Speaking generally, we didn’t have too many problems after that. We headed to Noosa the next morning and spent all day down at the beach, relaxing in the sun and window shopping. We then came back with long-burn firewood and made a great fire that burned all night!

All-in-all my first camping trip was something to remember, we made some memories, learned some lessons, and it was something we can laugh about in the future. I would have loved to stay longer because it took us a day to really get into it, so camping for only 2 nights was not enough.

My favourite part was probably the local ducks. We woke up thinking people were walking around on our tarp outside the tent but it was just some friendly ducks and they were always wandering around the campsite!

Camping Rookie Lessons Learned: 

• LIGHTS – Unfortunately, we didn’t take any lights because we couldn’t find them when packing and wanted to leave because it was getting late. So this meant we spent the entire time using our phone lights to get around during the night.
• TABLE – We didn’t have a table, which would have made eating and cooking 10x easier!
• FOOD –  This was huge for us, we didn’t plan what we were going to eat and wasted a lot of good food. Mainly because we were nervous about using the gas cooker as we had never used it before. Now that we are confident using it though we will definitely be making use of it and cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast!
• GOOD FIREWOOD – We grabbed a few blocks of wood and chucked them in the car and then threw in heaps of sticks and bark which we expected to burn all night, however, it only lasted about an hour. The second night however we went and bought long burn firewood and had a great fire all night!
• CLOTHES – (THIS TIP IS ONLY FOR FIRST TIME CAMPERS LIKE MYSELF WHO DONT KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING.) Take camping appropriate clothes! You need warm clothes for the night time, which was fine, I had plenty of warm clothes, but the days were warm and I wish I had shorts and better shirt options but I only had a skirt for the two days. Also, very importantly, take thongs for the shower. I had to walk around barefoot in the showers, although they were very modern facilities, it wasn’t very nice. Would not recommend it.

If you also struggle with remembering all the items you need for camping, we recommend you download our free E-Book here!

It includes a checklist that every camper (especially the rookies) should read to avoid these silly mistakes. It also lists great camping sites on the Sunshine Coast, I definitely recommend giving this a read!

We will be going back to Habitat Noosa soon – is there anything else you would recommend we check out?

View our Top 10 Places to Camp Within 1hr of the Sunshine Coast