Lamington National Park Things to Do

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Lamington National Park boasts extensive walking tracks along the McPherson Range, which allow visitors to explore the area's forests, creeks and waterfalls. Dramatic lookouts afford views over the Gold Coast, south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales.
Lamington is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, which includes the most extensive areas of subtropical rainforest in the world. The West Canungra Creek Circuit track descends to ""Yerralahla"" (blue pool), passing by some large rainforest trees including red cedar, (Toona ciliata), and then follows the creek upstream for most of its length, crossing it several times. Here you may need to remove your shoes a couple of times, depending on river height.
The track exits via the Box Forest circuit. Fossilised ancestors of this species from over 20 million years ago have been found in the World Heritage listed Australian Fossil Mammal Sites in Riversleigh in north Queensland.
Distance: 13.9 kilometres at around 5.5 hours duration
For a personal account of the track, see the General tips
It's categorised as a full day walk of moderate difficulty

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This track continues on from the Elabana Falls track 2.7km from the entrance. After following along Canungra Creek turn right at the next junction.
Highlights:
The track follows Canungra Creek and there are many falls and crossings along the way. Daragumai Falls and Picnic Rock are considered good lunch spots, but there are no facilities. Box Log and Elabana Falls should not be missed on the way home.
Predominant Vegetation:
The track winds through stands of Brush Box and Piccabeen Palms, to the lush subtropical rainforest along Canungra Creek.
Key Animal Species:
Bird life is plentiful along this track and you may see the Log Runner or the Australian Ground Thrush.

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O'Reilly's was founded during the first European settlement in this region. The Irish family O'Reilly came here in 1911, when the Australian government advertised in Europe that dairy farmers would get land for free in Australia. They got a patch of land in the rainforest and they had to clear it themselbes, which was of course a very difficult and strenuous task.
After a few years, though, the family had the idea that it would be much better to protect the forest instead of destroying it. After visitors from town were delighted by the beauty of the region, the O'Reillys realized that there was a future in tourism. They established a small guesthouse - and this was one of the first ecotourism ventures in the world, long before this word existed :-)

The guesthouse is still there, and daytrippers, walkers and holiday makers come here to enjoy the lush rainforest, the remote location and the beauty of the National Park. Of course there are more and newer buildings now, but there is still the sense of a very rustic, natural location, and it is very calm and unspoiled. Although there were many tourists, I really loved it!
Birds fly around, pademelons are hopping on the lawns, and only a few metres away there is the dense rainforest that you can explore on long and short walks.

We only had two hours here. I really would have liked to stay longer, but it was sufficient to do a short walk in the forest, to have a meal in the café with great views, and to watch some of the animals. Of course if you stay here for a whole day or even longer, you can engage in the activites that are offered (for example bird watching tours, guided walks or 4WD safarais) and do more and longer walks in the rainforest. There are also special activities for children.
There are different kinds of accomodation at different price ranges, as well as a restaurant, café and gift shop and a spa.

As I said - it IS really commercial and touristy, and it is not the kind of thing that I usually like. But it persuaded me when I was there - it was just too nice to not like it.

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Besides the board walk and other walking tracks on the ground, there is also a tree top walk! This was the very first of its kind in Australia and was constructed in the 1980s. Ok, it really shows: Compared to others, it is not really high, it is made of wood and it does not look very trust inspiring. In fact, it looks quite old (or it did when I was there - maybe it has been renovated in the meantime). Access is only by some kind of ladder, which is not very encouring, too...
I still walked on it, and found it very pleasant! It is of course not as spectacular as its bigger brothers in sisters in other corners of the country, but it is nice enough.
The walk is 180m long and made of nine suspension bridges, which are about 15m from the ground. There is also an observation platform that is 30m high.

Walking on a tree top walk is fabulous because it gives you the possibility to see the rainforest from a very different angle - to see the tree tops and branches up close, and the ground of the forest with its vegetation from above. Although I must admit that on the other tree top walks that I visited the experience was much better, as they provided better views, this was still a good experience and I saw some very beautiful trees.

Picture 3 shows the inside of a tree that is completely hollow! There is a sign that tells you to have a look and I found it fascinating :-)

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Included in this tour was also a visit to O'Reilly's Winery. I was not too enthusiastic about this, as I don't like wine, but it was still a nice visit because the winery is quite pretty and our guide did a short tour around it for those people who did not want to take part in the wine tasting (luckily, I was not the only one for a change!)
The winery is located within the very green Canungra Valley, so the scenery is very nice. Behind the main buildings, there is a small creek surrounded by trees, and we stayed there for some time - a very peaceful spot.

Of course Southern Queensland is not one of Australia's famous wine regions (those being the Barossa Valley in South Australia, the Yarra Valley in Melbourne, the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and the southwest of Western Australia). However, there has been an increasing amount of wine growing in this region, and the Canungra Valley is very suitable for it as it provides a lot of shade between the mountains of rainforest, so it does get neither too hot nor too dry here. Wine growing was started here only in 1998.

The main buildings are open daily from 10.00am to 04.30pm.

Near the entrance, there is also this quite big memorial that commemorates a plane crash in 1937. The Stinson plane was on the way from Brisbane to Sydney via Lismore, when it crashed somewhere in the rainforest. Task forces looked for it for several days without any results. Finally, the search was called off. It was officially believed that the plane had not crashed in the rainforest, but on the sea.
However, the locals did not really believe this as they knew about the weather conditions in the region and thought it much more likely that the wreck was located somewhere in the dense forest. Bernard O'Reilly, the grandfather of the present O'Reilly family, went on his own search for the wreck, first on horseback, then on foot. And he really found the plane, eleven days after the crash! There were two men surviving: Joe Binstead, who had a lot of broken bones and fractures, and John Proud, who was not injured and had been able to look for water and food in the forest.
Bernard O'Reilly gave them tea and groceries and then walked on, finally meeting other people and being able to organise a doctor and a rescue party.

It really is an extraordinary story that has also been turned into a book and a film. How wonderful that two people survived the crash because the locals would not rely on the authorities, but believed in their own knowledge. However, it must not have been easy for Bernard O'Reilly who had to see all the dead bodies in the wreck... I think it is fair enough that he became somewhat of a national hero!

I think that the memorial is really beautiful - it is quite simply done, but the figures/statues show so much emotion by their simple gestures.

You can read some historical newspaper articles about the crash and rescue in the library (see Things To Do tip)

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From O'Reilly's buildings, there starts a short rainforest boardwalk, called Booyong Walk. It is not long (about 800m), but it is indeed very nice. If you don't have the possibility of doing a real walk or hike in the national park, maybe because of walking difficulties or because you are travelling with small children, this is a very good alternative. As it is a wooden boardwalk, it is very smooth and you can even push a pram there.

This patch of rainforest was very thick and looked very healthy (as far as I can judge). Although I had done quite a lot of rainforest walks before, I was again amazed and impressed by it. The trees are so wonderful, and some had the craziest forms and growings, just looking so fascinating.
And have a look at picture 4, showing the huge roots of one of the trees - this is a common sight and Queensland's rainforest, and I am impressed again and again. Some of those high roots are as high as my waist!

The walk was called Booyong after one of the trees growing here, a huge water gum tree.

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Kamarun Lookout is a beautiful lookout on the way to O'Reilly's. We only had a short stop here, but I really enjoyed it. It gives you an idea of how green this area really is! On a fine day you have a really fantastic view.

The lookout is located about 10km northwest of O'Reilly's, at a small turnoff from the Lamington Park Road.