Curtin Springs Wayside Inn

Wayside Inns are a name given to remote businesses that have long histories and have developed to provide a full range of services to visitors, many wayside inns are still family owned and operated.

As the first Wayside Inn in Central Australia, Curtin Springs offers a perfect base from which to visit the Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon areas.

Stay a while longer and ‘peel back the layers’ by including our experiences, tours and hospitality in your travel plans.

Enjoy our authentic homestyle meals, our lovely gardens and take an opportunity to unwind in what visitors refer to as an oasis.

The historic Bough Shed offers the perfect place for a cold beer, hot cuppa or a meal. Take the time to look through our family history and general information about what it takes to live in such a remote place, raise a family and run a business here.

The store is open from 7am very day of the year. Closing time depends on the time of the year, how many visitors we have and what our staff numbers are. We sell petrol, diesel, soft drinks, ice creams, food, souvenirs, tea and coffee as well as alcohol both to drink in or takeaway.

Accommodation: There are 27 accommodation rooms ranging from our budget rooms with shared bathroom facilities up to the family rooms with disabled bathrooms.

Meals: Our restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner with meals served under the historic Bough Shed, the original homestead. Meals vary around the age-old favourite of a good steak and great homestyle meals.

Curtin Springs Paper: 1 hour tours of the production area of Curtin Springs Paper run at 10.30am and 4pm every day.  Tour participants have exclusive access to the full range of Curtin Springs Paper products and The Gallery.

Campground:  We have a small number of powered sites and unlimited unpowered sites.  There is no charge for unpowered sites.  We have  never turned visitors away from the campground. A space can always be found. 

Tour Groups: We provide a range of services for tour groups from full dinner/bed/breakfast options to providing meals on their way through.  We pride ourselves in helping tours to keep to their schedules.

What else is here:  We have a wide range of native birds and parrots in our large aviaries. The birds are our legacy to Dawn (Peter’s wife, Ash’s Mum). After arriving in 1956, there was a 9 year drought.  Dawn was known to have said during that time; “I need to hear something that is not a crow or a galah”.  Peter acquired some parrots for her and the collection has grown ever since. They are highly prized members of our family.

Here are the other services available at the homestead.

Details about our campground.

Powered sites in Central Australia are usually in very high demand and should be booked in advance.

You can book our powered sites, or keep an eye on availability here.CHECK AVAILABILITY AND BOOK NOW

This is the information for our unpowered campsites.

Please come into the store on arrival, so you can receive the information as to how the campground works and where you can go and set up for unpowered camping.

• There is no charge for unpowered sites.
• We do not take bookings or reservations for unpowered sites.
• We do not allocate sites for the unpowered area.
• They operate on a first in best dressed approach, so the earlier you arrive in the day, the more choice you will have of a site that will work for you.
• There is a $4 per person per shower charge that applies to everyone staying in the campground, whether staying in powered or unpowered sites. The shower charges are payable in the store.

You are welcome to leave you pet secured at your campsite, however I’m sure you appreciate that we cannot take any responsibility for them. Many visitors in the campground do a swap/pet sitting service for each other, so it’s worth asking those you are camping near what their plans and take turns to look after each other’s pets.

We have a BBQ area that visitors are welcome to use, but we do not have a camp kitchen as such.

We encourage everyone to book every single thing that you wish to do while you are visiting our amazing part of the world. This includes things like Field of Lights, camel rides, helicopter flights etc. Anything on your list that can be booked, you should  book. We want visitors to have an wonderful time during their visit and the best way to do that now is to  get it sorted well before you arrived in the region!

Yes, you can use a generator as long as it does not disturb others – eg by letting it run late into the evening.

Yes, you can have a fire. There is no firewood in the immediate vicinity, so collect it well before you arrive. Please don’t take an axe or chainsaw to our trees in the campground!

These are the other services and facilities at Curtin Springs.

Water is available at the amenities building. You can fill your tanks with our water, the cost is $10 per tank per fill.
Camping in the outback is all about getting red dirt in everything. Your challenge could be – how many socks can you change the colour of during your trip?
To help you achieve some of these targets, none of our sites (either powered or unpowered) are grassed – the campground is all dirt. 
Limited shade is available – it takes a long time for trees to grow in the desert!
Beautiful sunshine is a great gift during the cooler months of the year, which is the busier time of our tourist season. 
You can dispose of your black water at Ayers Rock Resort or Alice Springs, please do not dump it anywhere else.
Please protect your safety and our privacy by camping in the correct areas. You may be asked to move if you are not in the correct area.
Come up and join us for a cold drink and dinner after you day of exploring our amazing part of the country.CHECK AVAILABILITY AND BOOK NOW

Other information. Mythbusting!

There is a common misconception that camping is allowed in the ‘road corridor’ in the NT. This is not the case. Please camp ONLY in the structured campsites and do not simply set up your camp anywhere along the roadside.

TRAFFIC REGULATIONS 1999 – As in force at 19 December 2018
Section 34 – Person or thing obstructing road .

• A person must not enter or remain on a road… for the purpose of:
  • erecting a structure; or
  • camping
• In this regulation: road includes a road-related area.

Any questions to be directed to the Department of Infrastructure, Planning & Logistics of the Northern Territory Government