Eungella National Park Things to Do

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Bushwalking in Eungella National Park was a great experience because the rainforest is so fascinating - I love the dense and impenetrable green surrounding the paths, the noises of the animals, the air that smells of moisture and soil...

There are several walking tracks in the park, all together of 20km. The park also features the start of the Mackay Highlands Great Walk - a 56km track that needs about five days to be completed.

You find a description of all the walks that can be taken within the park if you click on the link below. The walks range from 250m (Sky Window Walk) to 5,7km (Crediton Creek Track).

We did the Araluen Cascades Track, a wonderful walk to the Araluen Waterfall. It was very easy and flat.

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Our walk led us to the beautiful Finch Hatton Gorge which ends in the rock pool of Araluen Falls. These falls are near the township of Finch Hatton, the walk starts at Finch Hatton Picnic Area and takes about 1,6km. It is a very easy walk.
Finch Hatton Gorge is enclosed by big boulders and looks very interesting and beautiful - in fact, I liked it much more than the waterfall.
The pool at the fall is a popular swimming area and so quite a lot of people were here. But wether you climb and hike around at the boulders or go swimming in the pool - please take care all the time! The rocks can be very slippery and it's not always visible what is under the water, so please be aware of possible dangers. Accidents happen too often at these kind of places because people don't take care!

The place was named after explorer Henry Finch Hatton, a British gold miner of the 19th century.

You can see the waterfall in photos 1 - 3 and the gorge in photos 4 - 5.

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Although also the other parts of Eungella National Park are great, Broken River is probably the part why most tourists come here, because this is where you can see the platypus!
There are different places around the river from where you can watch them: A wooden platform and several natural places like big rocks or the shore. Thus, it is just luck if you are at the right place when a platypus shows up!
When we were here, we waited on the platform for about twenty minutes, but nothing happened. Then our tourguide came and told us that the platypus could be seen from the rocks now, so we went there and sat down on the rocks, and then we saw it!
It was just fantastic.
The animal dives around and you never really know where it will come up, so you kind of scan the surface of the water with you eyes all the time. You can then see it for maybe two seconds and then it's down again and you start scanning again not to miss it when it comes up next time :-)
Unfortunately my camera is very bad for this and my zoom is not strong enough, so photo 5 shows my bad attempt to take a picture of a platypus. I stopped trying after a few times because I rather wanted to enjoy the experience of seeing this animal instead of worrying about my pictures.
We also saw some turtles and several birds from the viewing platform.

The best times to see the platypus are around dusk and around dawn, and you need to be really quiet!

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Sky Window Lookout is a fabulous lookout from where you can see a part of the rainforest and the surrounding farmland. It is really stunning. I always love to see the rainforest from above like this, it is so impressive to see the intense green and to see all that giant trees distinguished from one another, like a miniature land, but yet so vast.

The lookout is located on a 100m circuit walk from the Sky Window Picnic Area that leads through beautiful rainforest - a very nice walk, and short and easy.

There are facilities here as well.

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If you are doing a self drive road trip from Brisbane to far north Queensland it is well worth making a short detour to visit Eungella National Park.

There are many well marked and easy walking trails throughout the park which is well known for its local platypuses.

You will find a great observation point along one of the trails which looks down from up high into a natural pool where the platypuses live, work and play.

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This information centre is also a pleasant picnic area. There is a nice walking track down to a water hole [ you might see a platypus ] plus other tracks that take you further into the forest.
The centre also provides maps and information on the elusive platypus.

There is a cafe, phone and toilet facilites as well.

There is also a campground — accessible only to walkers (about 600m away).

Camping costs are ... $4.50 per person per night. $18 per family per night.

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Eungella is renowned for its dairy farms which spread throughout the district. Sadly there are not as many farms these days.

However the farming land with its green pastures and gentle rolling hills makes for a pleasant drive.

I came to Eungella National Park primarily to see platypus, but saw so much more than that.

By staying at the Platypus Lodge (see my accomodation tip) I also had close encounters with a huge lace monitor and a potteroo (the spelling may be way off here!).

If you are a big fan of nature then the Eungella National Park offers a fantastic experience which you can't afford to miss.