When I hear the name of “Wee Jasper” I think of caves. It, together with Bungonia, was the destination from Sydney for caving when I was in the scouts. In fact Wee Jasper has a group of five well established camp grounds providing shade, and in most cases, access to a river for cooling off. It provides an ideal location for family camping – even the dog is welcome on a lead.

The Wee Jasper camp grounds are described as basic. However that is misleading. The five camp grounds have different levels of facilities from Billy Grace which includes hot showers, toilets and a children’s playground to the supply of drop toilets. Each camp ground has different things to recommend it:

• Billy Grace is the biggest with the best facilities including access to the river;
• Fitzpatrick provides access to the Hume and Hovell track along with a cave system but no direct access to a river;
• Swinging Bridge has the best fishing and deep water swimming;
• Micalong is at the start of many walking tracks;
• Carey’s provides launching of fishing boats (tinnies) when there is enough water in Burrinjuck.

There are no powered sites and several campers were running generators when we were there. Also there were many sets of solar panels in evidence.

Three of the camp grounds are situated on the banks of the Goodradjibee River: Billy Grace, Swinging Bridge and Carey’s reserve. Carey’s reserve is on the head waters of Lake Burrinjuck/Burrinjuck Dam. Micalong creek reserve is located on Micalong creek which is a tributary of Goodradjibee River.

One of the biggest benefits for us is that Wee Jasper is only about an hour and a half’s drive from Canberra where we live. It is about 3.5 hours drive from the southern outskirts of Sydney.

On the way into the reserve you will cross an excellent example of the style of wooden bridge built in the the late 1800s which are now rapidly disappearing to be replaced by concrete.

We stayed at Billy Grace which is arguably the biggest campground we saw (we visited four of the five) but also the busiest. The wide expanses of grass with many shade areas, provide excellent camping. The scenery is typical NSW grazing land with scattered trees and low hills.

This is a very family friendly camping area. The river was very popular for wading and riding flotation devices. There was a regular stream of kids on bikes riding around the camp ground. As promised, the kiosk provided a very basic range of items. The most important for us were the ice creams. Others might find the provision of cooking gas and ice the most important.

This is the ideal spot to stop and do nothing. There is no phone service and so no distraction from that quarter. However, the week after Christmas, was exceptionally busy. Although all the campers were well mannered, that number of people together generates noise and distraction.

We stayed two nights and, due to the heat and the time of the year, did very little. It was that kind of place. Tin Lizzy performed very well. I had added an awning just before we left which was put to good use.

We did manage to flatten the starter battery because the cut off switch between the starter battery and the house battery was disabled. Thankfully the solar panels charged the starter battery in a couple of hours.

The cost per night was medium for this level of camping, setting us back $13 per adult per night and $2 per child. This is paid at the kiosk at Billy Grace where you may pay with either cash or via eftpos.

Wee Jasper is not a place that I would normally choose to stop. There is not much to do. However if what you want to do is camp with the family and do nothing, then it is ideal. Choose the camp ground that best fits with your interests and enjoy.

If we returned, I would be visiting in spring or autumn and camping at Micalong to try out some of the tracks.