(Lamington National Park)
A full day walk that follows Toolonga Creek in which over 8 waterfalls will be seen, also reaching Mt Wanungra lookout to provide views to Byron Bay and North Stradbroke Is. The around trip takes 5-6 hours.
Distance:
18km
Duration:
6 hours
Difficulty:
Medium-Easy
Getting there
Driving from Brisbane take the Narang exit and follow signs to Canungra and then the signs to O'reilys Plateu, Geen Mountain Car Park.
Maps
There is a gift shop up from the main car park where you can buy various maps that cover the local walks. There is also a National Park Information Centre.
Route/Trail notes
The First part of the walk to Picnic Rock is easy and the surface is a compacted rock and concrete track. After this the track is a average rainforest track. It is muddy and if there has been recent rain in the weeks before it is bound to become quite boggy in parts. The walk along Toolona creek crosses the creek over 5 times and takes you to or past around 7 small waterfalls (sometimes a short track will leave the main track to take you to a waterfall). It is really a spectacular walk.
Once you reach Toolona Falls which take approximately 2 1/2; hours, you soon join up with "The Border Trail" and head to Mt Wanungra it is a well signed a 100m detour to the Lookout. The Lookout is approx 50 min walk from Toolona Falls and is a good spot to take a break for lunch. The walk along the ridge back towards o'reilys is currently very boggy (11-Jul-09). There are signs up everywhere saying Park Improvements Underway. They have some bags of concrete and gravel and have started to fill in the track. As the track heads of the ridge and down towards o'reilys the tree trunks are covered in moss and creeper plants colouring the whole place green.
Permits/Costs
No Cost. However you can pay for guided walks.
Other References
http://www.oreillys.com.au/lamington-national-park/bushwalking/full-day-walks/
Comments
17 Dec, 2009
A good walk, best done in early morning. A few leeches.
16 Aug, 2009
We didn't have a topo map so used an EPA map from the info centre. Big mistake! Distances did not seem correct, but then they do warn not to use them for information purposes only. Otherwise walk was great. The track can be divided into two sections; the Toolona Creek part (9.5km) and the Main Border track (7.5km). The second part isn't very interesting, mainly downhill and easy walk. The first half takes you through rainforest along creeks and waterfalls. Very nice scenery, lots of uphill walking. I was suprised of the difficulty of that section of the walk. Overall I would do that section again and would recommend it to all.
On driving to O'Reilly's: from Canungra it's a 50 minute / 35km drive on narrow winding uphill roads. On the way up we encountered a collision between 2 cars trying to pass each other, and on the way down had to stop for cattle on the road.
20 Sep, 2008
Once you depart the waterfalls and climb up the switchbacks, it can kind of get disheartening, but definitely worth it. Especially for a nice dip in the waterfalls on a hot day