Camping in the middle of Launceston

We camped on Old Macs Farm  (not Old McDonald's as per the song) which is a beautiful 50 acre farm and fishery with lots of small lakes and plenty of flat grassy room for parking your rigs no matter what size with plenty of sun for solar charging. You do need to be self sufficient as there is no toilet close by (300m up a steep hill) and no electricity. It is a great place for RVs of every sort but it is NOT meant for tents and campers. It is not quite free camping as there is a small fee of $10 per night per rig no matter what size family you have and fresh water is available in several locations (in Dec 2014). It is more like a farm stay rather than a caravan park. It is closed for winter though (something like June – October) so call to check availability!

Old Macs Farm camped next to the lake

Centrally located

It is very convenient as it is just 3 km into the centre of Launceston. It is not exactly a quiet place if you just wanted to sit back and veg as it is a working farm and Ian is always doing something, like running the pumps (transferring water from one dam to another), mowing the lawns, whipper snipping, etc.

Plenty of room

Bird life

There is the constant chatter and songs from the many birds that water attracts which can be lovely or noisy depending upon your disposition. We saw black swans with 7 cygnets as well as a myriad other birds.

Looking down onto the farm from a higher vantage on the property

Other activities on site

Not only can you walk around the wetlands and see ducks and swans etc, there are also some alpacas (or are they llamas?) which you can feed on the property. You can hire a canoe and paddle on one of the dams. You can go fishing in a dam (you must get permission & pay). There’s a communal fire pit in a couple of places with Ian supplying the wood. There are also many picnic tables and shelters scattered around the top area.

Curious animals

There’s also a very popular public restaurant on site which does Italian nights on Fridays and offers a great $10 value campers breakfast. We didn’t partake of either at this point.

This would truly have to be the best value RV rest stop in Tassie if not all of Australia.