Small Cave (Plunkett Conservation Park)

South East Queensland

This walk takes you through fairly open bushland, up an incline to a conglomerate rock outcrop with views of the Cedar Creek Valley.The paths in this reserve are mostly wide enough to fit a ranger's car but are quite rocky and steep in some places. You are able to cycle, horseride and walk your dog here (but no motorbikes).

Lookouts
Dogs Permitted
Eucalypt Forest
150m
Maximum Elevation
200m
Total Climb

Getting there

Take the Chardon Bridge Rd exit off Beaudesert-Beenleigh Rd. Follow until you go just past Garden Rd, you will see the reserve entrance on your left. 

Route/Trail notes

Starting at the Chardon Bridge Road entrance slip rail at Plunkett Regional Park (which is aproximately 70 meters North of the Garden Rd), follow the management track 900m up a decent hill and down again. You will come to a cross roads of sorts. Go left then immediately veer right opposite a bench seat up a very narrow trail (this is part of the Melichrus Trail).

Follow this until you eventually reach a T intersection at a management track again. Go Right here. Follow several hundred meters until you come to a high point on the trail at another intersection and go Left. Follow this up a steep incline, until you reach the top of the climb.

From here keep following the trail along a ridge  a couple of hundered meters until you will see some rocky country in front and to your right. The track veers left here.  Ignore this trail to the left and walk off track to your right contouring around the hill about 50 meters and look up at the rocky ridge for a small cave.  It might take 5 minutes or so to locate.

Permits/Costs

NIL

GPS Tracks

Comments

Enjoyed the scrambling between the boulders on top with a view here and there.

Wanderlust on 18 Feb, 2022

Short and easy.

Lihz on 25 Aug, 2021

Completed this with an 8 yo and 2 dogs. Played around at the caves for avbout 15 minutes, took about 2 hours total return. (Started at 7:30am and was still plenty hot already). There were tiny amounts of mud on the trail from recent rains, but an enjoyable walk.

daveyk on 27 Dec, 2020

Nice walk, with a decent amount of elevation. Fun climbing around the rocks at the top. The cave is big enough to sit in and really nice and cool compared with the heat along the tack.

Maverick on 27 Sep, 2020

Little bit tedious, was good little training jogging track and a great little cave and look out

Jemma on 6 Aug, 2020

Moderate hike. Cool little cave up top and nice rest for some lunch. 7yr old struggled a little but with the uphill towards the end. Easily done in 2 hours. Be sure not to miss the green trail sign post to the left on the way back.

Moopy Juice on 18 Jul, 2020

Very dry good walk

MiuMiu on 31 May, 2020

Nice walk, paths fairly rough!! Spotted a pair of Black red tailed Cockatoo’s, lovely to see!

Sue Will on 30 May, 2020

Good walk, fairly easy, some uphill. Great cave to find and a nice spot to have lunch. Doable for kids. and they will love the cave find.

Melkrel on 11 May, 2020

Not too challenging all at. Walked with a 9 & 12 yr old who loved the cave and rock hopping. After visiting the cave, we explored the rocks a little higher up and further along to the right. Lots of fun. Great directions to ensure we made it up the right track to the top, multiple walking trails in this area.

Curry Bunch on 28 Jul, 2019

I went bushwalking here recently. It was great with some level tracks and some steep hills. I got a good workout and it was beautiful and peaceful. Just remember to drop a pin where you park your car. There is one main car park but two exits out of this conservation park. I couldn’t find the cave but I’m going back again to try to find it.

Jas on 6 Jul, 2019

Followed the instructions provided to find the cave. Great walk with the dog. Few short steep sections.

Whicheverway on 30 Jun, 2019

We took our 7 and 9 year olds on this walk and had a great time exploring. Thanks to the instructions above we were able to find the cave without any problems, which was good because there was a storm rolling in and we were in a bit of a rush to find it and get back to the car! (still got a bit wet, but it just added to the adventure!)
I'd love to go back and do some more exploring on a nice sunny day.

Sarah on 16 Jun, 2019

Took the kids up to the cave and had some fun scrambling around. Good afternoon walk with not too much driving.

Richard Mason on 19 May, 2019

Great walk relatively easy just ensure you have maps on as it is easy to get lost. Signage not too good but otherwise enjoyable

Sharon on 3 Feb, 2019

Nice walk, however did a loop of the Melichrus trail before finding the track to the rocks and cave.

David H on 29 Jul, 2018

Good short walk

drewmac on 25 Mar, 2018

Nice walk, the tracks were wet because of the rains a few days ago but it was a nice walk. Beware if there is a lot of sun and think about drinking
We saw one kangaroo and also a big koala which was ok for camera session :)

Fabrice GAU on 26 Feb, 2018

Very nice walk, easy path to walk at brisk pace. I'd like to mention that the conservation park does have a lot of somewhat labyrinth-style looking intersections - meaning every one looks pretty much identical to the last one & without taking note, it's easy to head along the wrong one. On a positive note, we got to see more than we anticipated of the park ;) Loved the cave & all the rocky outcrops at the summit.

petalani on 5 Aug, 2017

This was our first walk as new bush walkers. We found it to be a nice walk, relatively easy, and the path was exactly as stated in the description. We managed to do the walk and get back within 1 hour.

Nicola Ruru on 17 Apr, 2017

Where

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