Further Along the Border to Cameron Corner – the Genuine Outback Part 2

After tasting the delights of Hungerford, Thargomindah and Noccundra along Queensland’s southern border, Cameron Corner had a lot to live up to. It is where New South Wales (NSW), Queensland and South Australia all meet. To add to the fun, you get two or three times zones, depending on the time of year. You can celebrate the New Year three times in one night just by stepping around the corner marker. Cameron Corner is not a town, just a roadhouse/store with a cluster of accommodation dongas and, as you’d expect, a golf course.

The main drag from Noccundra is fairly wide, smoothish and sandy. Then you turn onto Cameron Corner Road for 97km of more narrow, rough, rocky ‘farm track’. Due to recent rain, there were numerous large pools of water over the road which necessitated trying to find the wheel marks of those who preceded us making detours through the bush to get around the water. While we managed to achieve this without incident, some didn’t. The next morning, in the carpark four middle-aged women who appeared to be friends/family were standing around a large blob of mud which vaguely resembled a Pajero. They were arguing furiously about whose fault it was that they were all a tad dirty and had to be towed onto dry land. (That they appeared not to know how to get the Pajero into 4WD may not have helped them.) A quieter group was the couple with two small kids who had spent the night in a puddle before being extracted – Mum didn’t look very happy at all. It was obviously Dad’s fault.

This story is part of our Australian Back Roads & Remote Travel series. Read more here.

The store, located in Queensland about 200m from NSW and 20m from South Australia, has accommodation and camping, meals, souvenirs, telephone, fuel, and minor mechanical repairs. The bar was well stocked and it provided the staple pub menu items with the addition of spag bol for a bit of variety. With a few drinks and squinting, the donga compound appeared to be a bit like a Mexican courtyard. While far from luxurious, it was comfortable and had the amenities needed.

The actual meeting spot of the three states is marked by a bronze survey marker on a waist-high concrete post. If you’re one of the many people whose bucket list includes ‘place left buttock in three states at once’ you can tick that one off by sitting on the survey marker – as I did.

To my surprise, the tri-state golf course seemed to be a popular thing. I was lounging in the Mexican hacienda when a Jeep pulled up and out jumped a young couple. Instead of unpacking their gear into their donga, like most did, they just grabbed their clubs and headed to the course. You play holes in each state, and the state of each hole is pretty bad. The tees and fairways make the rough on a normal golf course look as smooth as a baby’s backside. The greens are black but vegetation-free. I’m sure that if you made enough noise through the scrub while playing, you’d likely scare the snakes away.

If you ever wondered how the old vehicles that participate in various outback ‘bashes’ manage to make it around the bush doing their good charity work, the answer is many don’t. In the dunes behind the store, in addition to a fine collection of random discarded items, is a bash vehicle cemetery. Most appeared to have died from natural causes.

After a couple of nights, it was time to go. We headed through two dog fence gates and 500m of South Australia, then entered NSW and were immediately confronted with 13 signs, which reminded us why it’s called the Nanny State.

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