Paddling in Budawang National Park

Budawang is wilderness country — steep, forested, and deliberately remote.

The park sits in the southern highlands of New South Wales, inland from the South Coast, and the rivers that drain it reflect that character: shallow, rocky, and fed by rainfall rather than managed flows.

This is not a destination for high-volume whitewater or long flatwater touring. It is a place where the water and the walking are inseparable, and where the rivers are part of a declared wilderness area.

The Yadboro River is the most accessible water in the park.

Long Gully campground sits on a grassy flat beside it, and the river here is calm enough for paddling close to camp — the kind of water suited to an inflatable or a packraft carried in with the rest of your gear.

The Mongarlowe River runs along the park's northern edges, with clear water and swimming holes that draw visitors from Braidwood.

The Bimberamala River and Yadboro's tributaries, including Sugarloaf Creek and Currowan Creek, thread through the interior, but these are shallow rivers — not reliable paddling corridors, and not the reason most people come.

The wilderness declaration shapes everything here. Overnight walkers are limited to groups of twelve, and the park's own guidelines encourage keeping to eight.

That ethic carries over to any river travel: low impact, self-sufficient, and prepared for country where there is no easy exit. Access roads are rough, signage is minimal, and conditions change with rainfall.

Paddling in Budawang is incidental to the landscape, not the headline.

Bring a packraft if the Yadboro is your reason to stop, check conditions before you go, and treat the rivers the way the park treats everything else inside its boundary — as wilderness first.