Turlee Station

Turlee Station

Update 28 July 2015 - Turlee Station is NOW CLOSED. Tragic, but true.

Update 02 Dec 2014: Sophie & Nathan have left Turlee Station and I am yet to meet the new owners. What I do know is that we called in to stay in 2012 and the Wakefields had put in a great new airstrip and half a dozen deluxe cabins to add to their rustic shearers quarters accommodation. Anyway, here's what I posted back in 2008 ...

We stayed at Turlee Station on the way back from an Arnhem Land safari one year. It's somewhere that deserved another night or two so next time I'm definitely staying longer.

Not having its own airstrip, we landed at the Mungo Lodge airstrip (about 35 mins drive away) and were picked up by Sophie and Nathan Wakefield who run Turlee.

Turlee is brilliant in a very different way to some of the surprisingly elegant resort accommodation you can find in the outback.  Here, what you see is what you get, and that's very basic shearers' quarters and shared amenities, so expect to get a bit of red dirt between your toes.  But this is far outweighed by the honest outback hospitality you'll receive.

The (refreshingly young!) Sophie & Nathan are working tirelessly to make their isolated dot on the map a memorable destination for us all and I came away thinking it was actually an honour that these people shared a little of their lives on their isolated slice of the continent.

After a great night with our hosts, we shared our billy tea next morning with Bob, the resident roo shooter, who was in for a chat let me tell you, standing up there on the back of his ute surrounded by his grisly overnight haul. Bob's one of those Australians you could have listened to all day.

On the way out we overflew the Great Wall of China, way more dramatic to see from the air. My tip is to give the new owners at Turlee Station a call and try to drop in some time.