Queensland

Summary

The Sunshine State

Queensland has a wealth of bushwalking opportunities including multiple World Heritage Listed rainforests such as the Daintree and Lamington National Park, great coastal and island parks like Fraser Island and Hinchinbrook Island.

Popular Walks

Other Information

World Heritage Areas

  • Fraser Island
  • Gondwana Rainforests of Australia (Lamington NP, Springbrook NP, Mount Chinghee NP, Mount Barney NP, Main Range NP)
  • Great Barrier Reef
  • Riversleigh
  • Wet Tropics (Daintree NP, Barron Gorge NP, Cedar Bay NP, Girringun NP, Wooroonooran NP)

Contact details

Queensland Parks and Forest:
https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/

Regions

The link below provides a region map of QLD as a reference to what council zones are included in the 7 geographic regions of QLD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Queensland#/media/File:Qld-regions-map.gif

  1. Far North Queensland
  2. North Queesnland
  3. Central Queensland
  4. Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday
  5. Wide Bay Burnett
  6. Darling Downs South West
  7. South East Queensland

Medium
13 km
4.5 hrs

Bare Rock track and Morgan's Walk

Bare Rock is a minor peak North of Cunningham's Gap with great views towards the Mistake Mountains.

Easy
5 km return
1 hr

Box Forest Track

Rain forest walk from top car park to the bottom rest area at Cunningham's Gap. Includes 2 creek crossings and plenty of little waterfalls along the way.

Medium
9 km return
4 hrs

Cascades Circuit

A nice circuit starting off in a eucalypt forest and venturing deeper into the rainforest along the upper reaches of Dalrymple Creek.
Dalrymple is a level 3 track - medium
Cascades is a level 4 track - hard
Easiest way is to complete in clockwise direction and end up on the fire track heading back to the camp ground.

Easy
400 m return
30 mins

Cliff Circuit

This walk takes you to the top of Queen Mary Falls, which is part of the headwaters of one of Australia's longest river systems, the Murray–Darling. Great care should be taken when viewing the gorge below. Supervise children closely.

Hard
20 km return
7 hrs

Cunninghams Gap to Laidley Creek Falls

I've always loved the view of The Ramparts to the north of Cunninghams Gap when driving up Main Range, and have done the walk from the Gap to Bare Rock on a couple of occassions. This is only a short walk on a well-graded track, and not too much of a climb. The view at the end makes this a great short walk all by itself. However, I've always wondered what lay beyond. There's a map and a reasonable description of the route from Bare Rock to Laidley Creek Falls in "Take a Walk in South-east Queensland" (John and Lyn Daly) - refer page 257 Cunninghams Gap to Mount Castle. There's also a description in the out of print (but online) Bushpeople's Guide to Bushwalking in Southeast Queensland (Sylvesters Lookout to Mt Cordeaux)http://www.southee.com/Bushwalking/Ch15-MistakeMountains.html#label025. Several blogs indicate that it is a difficult walk with no views. I decided to investigate for myself (and without available walking buddies for the day - by myself) last weekend (14 May 2016). I never intended to walk through to Laidley Creek Falls, just investigate conditions beyond Bare Rock with a view to doing the walk through later in winter. Following are my observations.

Very Hard
32 km
13 hrs

Cunninghams Gap to Mount Castle

Easy
1.2 km return
30 mins

Dalrymple Circuit

A short easy walk from the Manna Gum camping area in the Goomburra section of the Main Range National Park

Medium
9.5 km return
3.5 hrs

Gap Creek Falls

This is a moderately strenuous walk, with good views and a nice creek to paddle in.

Easy
300 m return
15 mins

Governors Chair Lookout

Magnificent views out over the Fassifern Valley.

Take a seat in the large rock at the edge which was popular resting spot for early governors on their journeys over the range at Spicers Gap.

Be careful as it is a sheer cliff edge.

Easy
3.2 km return
1 hr

Heritage trail

From the Governors Chair car park an interesting self-guiding walk, showing various road construction methods, follows the historic road.