Koora Boodja Campground

What is Camping with Custodians?

Camping with Custodians is an initiative by Tourism WA developing campgrounds on First Nations land. The visitor fees stay in the community and the community owns and operates them. Koora Boodja is one of seven of these campsites across WA, located on Yallalie Downs, Beemurra's freehold property of 1,242 hectares with a working beef cattle backgrounding operation.

As a Strategic Indigenous Tourism Project, their main aim is that the campground "will facilitate cultural tourism activities and diversify employment and economic opportunities, value adding to the existing operations undertaken by Beemurra". So, for Modus, we were excited to play a small part in such an important initiative.

What we supplied

Modus helped design and deliver three buildings, all manufactured off site and delivered complete. These included:

• Amenity Building - Yarra-5, three cubicles, two standard showers plus an accessible shower, 315 litre hot water
• Camp kitchen - using our Yarra as the template, including a full kitchen with gas barbecue and solar hot water
• Gathering place - custom Yarra as a base, to ensure a covered space where groups can gather comfortably in any weather

Why prefabrication suited the site

Due to the remoteness of the site, prefabricated construction was the best approach. Koora Boodja had no mains water, no sewer and no grid power at the campground, along with it being a working cattle property and so not a construction site all cleared and ready. Not to mention the site being two hours from Perth, so every extra trade visit is a day lost to travel.

About our prefab solution

• With our unique prefabricated modular system, the buildings arrived pre-clad inside and out, with doors pre-hung in frames
• Everything above ground, including internal fixtures, is manufactured off site and delivered as pre-finished modular components
• The simple bolt-together construction is fast and goes up in a matter of days

Why it mattered here

• No specialist installation team is required, so in this case they could rely on a local contractor to put it up
• This keeps work and spend within the community, which adds to the initiative of the campground
• It meant less waste and disruption on a working property still running cattle alongside the build

• The campground runs entirely off-grid, with solar power supplying the site, so campers still get hot showers at night and a fully functioning kitchen
• For the toilet building, flushing pans discharge to a septic system, which treats wastewater on site rather than connecting to a sewer

Inside the amenity building

• Custom Yarra-5, designed specifically for the campground
• Three toilet cubicles (1 UAT and 2 Ambulant), AS1428-compliant
• Two standard showers plus one accessible shower
• 315 litre electric hot water system
• Horizontal wood-look aluminium slat privacy screen in Spotted Gum finish at entry
• Mini-orb internal walls in Colorbond Surfmist finish for a homely feel
• Service duct area to house the hot water unit and plumbing, fully accessible from outside the building

Colours and finishes to match site and infrastructure

All three buildings were designed in the same colour palette for visual consistency but also to be suitable for the application. This colour scheme included:

• Pale Eucalypt® walls and ventilation louvres for the exterior
• Southerly® roof, trims and exposed steelwork
• Basalt® doors
• Surfmist® mini-orb internal walls
• Woodlook Spotted Gum aluminium slat privacy screens

These were matched together to blend into the Wheatbelt setting rather than stand out.