Waterfall Creek Trail

Springbrook National Park

What starts out as ordinary walk leads to some great rock hopping, swimming and gorge exploring

Waterfalls
Lookouts
Swimming
Bird Watching
Scrambling or Climbing
Horses Permitted
Cycling Permitted
Rainforest
Eucalypt Forest
400m
Maximum Elevation
550m
Total Climb

Getting there:

Opposite Numinbah Valley School of Arts (2136 Nerang Murwillumbah Road), follow the Great Walk signs, direction Springbrook.

Maps

QTopo Numinbah Valley

Route/Trail notes

Follow the Great Walk Trail for about 2km to an intersection with two gates and a large sign that says: "Numinbah Valley Conservation Area". To the left and downhill, the Great Walk continues towards Springbrook, but go straight ahead and uphill (south) along a 4WD track (Chesters Road). A few hundred metres along the track, power lines cross overhead, and to the west is a great view of Egg Rock and the Numinbah Valley. Further along, a track runs downhill to the left (old street number on a post: 365), ignore this (unless you'd like to go an check out a quaint old shed) and keep right (most worn path). Then, further along you will reach a second fork (old street number on a post: 400). Take the left branch and keep going to the end of the track (with a sign saying: "Return to Carpark 2.5km" and "Waterfall Creek Trail 2.6km return"). Follow the Waterfall Creek Trail and make your way down to the creek. After a kilometre or so the track starts to follow the creek closely, and you can get in at any point you like (remembering where you did for when you come back). Head upstream, rockhopping at first, but then you will start to encounter a series of small gorges - some of these you can skirt around and stay dry but it's much more fun getting wet and either paddling or swimming (make sure you've got your old sandshoes and a waterproof bag). Eventually, the "gorgey" section finishes and then the creek becomes more a series of cascades and waterfalls; go as far up as you like, but eventually you'll reach a waterfall that's a bit high to climb with ease. Head back by retracing your steps.

Permits/Costs

None.

Other References/Comments:

Chester Road goes all the way back to the Nerang-Murwillumbah Road, but you can't bring your car up (which is unfortunate) because there's a locked gate.

GPS Tracks

  • No GPS available for this walk yet.

Comments

A bit tricky to find. The extra walking from back tracking stretched out our walk to 19km! Oh well extra scenery & exercise I guess :) A nice walk with a stunning creek.

JillianJuliet on 1 May, 2023

Plenty of water in the creek, so make sure you bring your towel. It's great fun going through the gorges, not unlike Northbook.

PS: I updated the earlier walk description to provide a few more details.

Michael D on 28 Dec, 2022

Directions on this page were unhelpful🙃

Lihz on 15 Aug, 2022

Beautiful creek good walk

Amy Davis on 1 Aug, 2022

A nice stroll that I'd probably go on regularly if I lived locally but I wouldn't drive over an hour for this one again. Some steep sections with a lot of scree made a bit of slow going but it was a decent walk on what seems like a trail occasionally used by 4wds in parts. The creek was pretty but the water level was down when I was there. There are a lot of interconnected tracks to explore for another time, so that's a positive; as long as you don't get lost. But that seems unlikely.

Kelso on 20 Sep, 2021

Good hike for a shorter one. Good idea to take an offline map as there are lots of places it branches off and it's easy to get off the circuit track.

Kel on 12 Jul, 2021

The stormy weather forecast made for a very quiet day. Impressive moss covered log loading ramp from timber getter times.

Wanderlust on 5 Apr, 2021

Where

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