Hi All,

I'm thinking of travelling to Australia for 3-6 months. Not sure whether it's worth the hassle of shipping my boat (Pyranha i:3).

I know there's a lot of white water rafting but are there many (what I would call) normal kayak clubs? There seem to be a lot of sea kayaking clubs but very few white water kayaking clubs.

Any advice on rivers or clubs anywhere in Australia would be great.

Thanks in advance,

Eamo

Hi Eamo,

I'm sure someone else would answer this question better, but being Aussie, I'll try
A couple of questions first up...
What part of Australia are you going to be in? Australia is pretty huge, and the quality and availability of the w/water varies considerably.
Also, when are you planning on being here? Summer is the water season in the northern parts of Oz - Brisbane and north. Winter gets pretty dry up north.
There's plenty of paddling in Tassie - the Franklin and Johnson if you;re into big water, The Tully in Cairns, the Nymboida just out of Grafton (norther New south wales). Oh, and there's always Penrith for water year round.
I guess the key thing to remember is that except for Tasmania, Penrith and a few larger rivers, is that just about all paddling in oz is water dependent, and Australia is pretty dry.
WRT boats, hiring any sort of decent boat is quite difficult. You can hire dancers and stuff like that, but don't expect to be able to hire any sort of playboat (even at penrith). The Nymboida canoe centre (at Goolang, which is just out of Grafton), has a couple of play boats and creekers for hire, expect to pay quite a bit for them though.
Clubs - I live in Brisbane in QLD - most all of the clubs there are through the universities. University of QLD has a canoe club which has w/w boats - a blitz special, and infrared, a medieval a couple of micro 230s..., which they will hire to members for a donation. It costs $150 to join for a year ($100 to join the union and $50 to join the club). It also has sea kayaks K1s, TK1s and a canadian. Griffith Uni Bushwalking Society also has boats - they have 2 flips, a phat and a few other boats I can't remember straight off, they also have a hobi cat!! They are about $20 to join the club, then will hire gear for about $10 a day. The Uni of Armidale also have a mountaineering club which has boats, not sure on price or availability though.

If you give me some idea on where you're planning on being and when, I'll be able to give you a much better idea on stuff to get wet on!
steff

That's great steff can word you up on the Northern Rivers, and I'll give you the info on the Southern ones.

There's great paddling in OZ, trouble is we have a lack of the wet stuff to make them go. The season in Victoria and Tasmania is Winter-Spring and most things are rain dependent even in that season.

Tasmania has some wonderful boating, loads of great creeking and being a little island it's pretty short drives to get to the water (note short drive by aussie standards means generally under 4 hours).

My advice would be to post on www.adventurepro.com.au when you know when and where you'll be - you be told what if anything is likely to be running.

In terms of clubs, steff is right most of them are based with unis but you don't really have to be a student to join. There's a large boating community in Tassie (google search Derwent Canoe Club) and a large one in Melbourne (based round Melbourne, Monash and RMIT universities).

Hi there Steff and Scarah!

First of all sorry for not replying sooner. I posted that query and checked it every day for a week and then just assumed it wasn't going to get a reply. Hopefully you both still use Playak and realise that you didn't just help some ungrateful guy. I do appreciate it!

So, here's the story. I will be leaving Dublin in mid-May for Australia, first stop Sydney (not very original, I know). I will be working there for three or six months in a bar/shop/café etc. anything to get some bucks rolling in. Then after working/surfing for 3/6 months I will go travelling all around Australia. So I would be able to go pretty much anywhere that there is water. There is a lot of commercial rafting going on in Australia on rivers such as the Tully, Murray, Thomson, Barron and I'm hoping that these rivers are okay for kayakers as well. I'd be a level 3 paddler with a solid roll. Do these rafters have some kind of exclusive right to these rivers or is it fair game for everybody?

Is it easy to hook up with other paddlers? There will be two of us Irish guys looking to go paddling at any opportunity. We hope to buy some kind of a rust bucket that will hold kayaks/surf boards/mountain bikes. That's the plan anyway.

So, in summary, we would be able to go wherever there is water. I'm pretty ignorant as to your rainy season.

What's the story with Penrith? Does anybody know how much it costs to spend a day there? Is it true there's a conveyor belt back to the top?! That would be bloody brilliant! No more dragging boats back to the put in!

Hey Scarah, I hadn't actually thought about paddling in Tasmania. Any idea how easy it would be to rent boats over there? Alternatively if we manage to buy boats in Australia is it difficult to bring boats onto planes/ferries? I haven't done much creeking so I'd love to get into that in a big way.

Steff, thanks for the very detailed info on what boats are available, that's great. Very specific! I will probably join one of those uni clubs. Depending on where I'm working/living. I will probably be travelling from December or so. Is that your driest time of the year?! Just my luck!

At some point we'll be going to New Zealand. Wetter country so therefore more rivers/paddling! If anybody knows what's good in New Zealand I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks again for your help and do let me know any other info you think might be helpful.

One last thing! Does anybody go kayak surfing in Australia or are the surfers extremely protective of their breaks?! I've heard that localism is pretty rife in Australia and the thought of a goat-boater like me joining the crowd outback might annoy a few of them. Or have I just heard the bad stories?

I'll be checking this forum again soon. Hope to hear from you.

Eamo

Hi again.
Sorry about the late reply - we don't seem to check this forum too often.

Ok so here goes with some answers.

While in Sydney Penrith is where you'll be paddling most of the time, yes there really is a conveyor belt and currently the cost is $25 for a day. The water is turned on for commercial raft trips only so in winter it may only be on a few hours a day. In summer you can pretty much rely on water all-day on the weekends and some midweek.

Rivers in Australia are public land (water? for want of a better term) there are no exclusive rights you can paddle what and where you want. Sometimes access to the river crosses private land and diplomacy is needed however usually there are few problems and the local boaters/ raft guides will let you know the deal.

Commerical rafting is pretty small here, up north on the Tully etc is where it is probably biggest. There's commerical rafting on the Franklin in tasmania over summer - an amazing 6-10 day trip in the wilderness - but that's a short season. Penrith the rafting is more like a theme park - get 'em in send 'em round and pack 'em off home.

If you buy boats, travelling becomes harder but not impossible. Internally and to NZ fly with VIRGIN and they are the BEST - they won't charge for boats and they are friendly. www.virginblue.com.au for flight in OZ and to NZ. Busses and trains - well have't tested it I'm afriad.

In terms of renting in Tassie best to contact Leigh at www.kayak4play.com.au he sells gear down in tassie and will direct you to any possible hire. Otherwise if you have a car catch the ferry to tassie from Melbourne (called the spirit of tasmania - you can book online - google search it) and it's no problem having kayaks on the roof of the car.

In NZ - well it's a huge sport over there. Go in summer (nov-mar) for a nicer time but really it's possible to boat all year round. Check out Grahame Charles' guidebook and also www.rivers.org.nz for info. @nd hand cars are cheap in NZ - cheapest way to do a kayaking holiday is to buy one.

In terms of hooking up with local paddlers in Australia use www.adventurepro.com.au the paddling forum it's not hard to hook up but most people are workers paddling on weekends. Melbourne has a large boating community (where I am) Brisbane has a smaller one (Steff's there) Sydney it's centered around Penrith - You'll meet other boaters at Penrith - it's a generally social place but it has been kinda quiet since the worlds. Tasmania has a very active community.

And finally yes we kayak-surf. With a huge coastline and loads of surf we have less problems with surfer than other places seem to have but they will still get pissed off if you drop in on them. There's usually heaps of space for everyone though - even on the Sydney beaches.

Wet season up north (Queensland) is roughtly nov-mar, Victoria and Tasmania will have water more like July - November (winter-spring). Tassie has more reliable water than Vic but both still dependent on rain.

Anyway hope this helps,

Sarah

P.S

My suggestion to get more paddling out of this trip would be basing yourself in Melbourne from June/July and paddling on weekends (incorporating a trip or two to tassie) . Then around Nov/Dec travel north, through sydney and up to paddling in QLD.

Visit NZ the best time is over xmas/new years but any time from late Nov to March is good.

events to attend: in Early oct there is an awesome extreme race in Tassie called the Lea race - it's a beautiful creek ideal as a first creek run and even if you're not competitive in the race it's a great event.

In january 07 there is another extreme race in tassie - the cataract extreme race. Also really worth going to.

Hi Eamo,
My turn I guess.

The rivers here are not the exclusive domain of rafters. Up north (Tully and Barron), the rafting companies are fabulous to kayakers (or when I've been there they have been), helping out with everything from shuttles to throwing a bag to a swimmer. As long as you don't get in their way (if try and run the same line as them at the same time), you shouldn't have a problem.

WRT access, all you really need to worry about is your put in and take outs. As I understand it, everything up to the highwater mark is public land, thus the water itself is fine - as long as you're not strolling through a farmer's land to do it. The kayak scene up in QLD is pretty small, though, and I personally haven't had a problem with access -all the farmers think it's a bit of a novelty - I've even kayaked through a golf course before.

WRT surfing - up in QLD there are plenty of breaks for everyone. Again, I haven't had a problem there - even on the Gold Coast. Most of the surfers I've met seem to think it's quite fun to have a kayaker or 2 out with them - giving them a tow out seems to help too.

If you want to paddle in NZ, Murchison has more class 3 boating than you can poke a stick at! If you head to the Rivers campground (camping is $6NZ a night for a super cushy campground), you will certainly hook up with some boaters. Boat hire is from the New Zealand Kayak school - they have a shed full of boats - everything from a 2 fun to a phat... You'll look at paying about $175 a week for just your boat. If you want harder water, head to Hokitika - lots of fly ins. Class 3 sections that are super fun- the lower Matakitaki, the lower section of the buller and osullivan's to areki on the buller. The clarence river is a nice 4 day scenic float with a few grade 3 rapids on it. We hired a raft from Ben Judge (Clarence river rafting) - we had 10 people and 5 kayaks and we swapped in and out of the raft/kayaks. It's a really easy river, but it's an awful lot of fun.

Hope this helps

steff

Se my profile for my website - I have outlined a number of my trips in Australia. The best ones that come to mind are:
1. Nymboida River, Grafton, NSW
2. Barrington River, Gloucester, NSW
3. Mitta Mitta River, Victoria
4. Murray River, border NSW/VIC
5. Franklin River, TAS

Most of these rivers have reliable water supplies in times of drought.
Better still - see my tips for canoeing in Japan - with inflatables

If you are keen to paddle in tasmania go to the derwent canoe club message board (groups.msn.com/DCCFlash) and post that message there. they will be happy to help. they might even provide boats (they might be a bit old though). If you enjoy creeking try to get a lee trip in. at low levels it is about grade three.

If you are keen to paddle in tasmania go to the derwent canoe club message board (groups.msn.com/DCCFlash) and post that message there. they will be happy to help. they might even provide boats (they might be a bit old though). If you enjoy creeking try to get a lee trip in. at low levels it is about grade three.