The 54 km Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk is located 100 km south of Brisbane, Australia and is identified by three sections; the Border Track section, the Woonoongoora section and the Warringa Pool section. The walk is broken up into 3 days starting at Green Mountains and finishing at The Settlement Campground, Springbrook National Park. The Great Walk navigates through ancient rainforests and along the rim of an ancient volcano which erupted 25 to 23 million years ago. The rainforests are warm, subtropical to warm temperate, there are numerous lookouts and scenic spots, deep gorges, pristine creeks and waterfalls. This great walk follows in the footsteps of the Yugambeh, the traditional aboriginal people of this region. This area is rich in their culture and we have been asked to take care of their wilderness.
Tour Itinerary:
Day 1: Green Mountains to Binna Burra
Distance: 21.4km
Duration: 7 hrs
This section of the Great Walk begins at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Guesthouse and climbs steadily along the Border Track to Mount Bithongabel on the McPherson Range. The gentle climb up to the range passes from warm and cool sub tropical rainforest into warm and cool temperate rainforest. The flora is diverse and ancient with some plant communities being rare and endangered. The track traverses the range (the rim of an ancient volcano – once the Tweed volcano, now the Tweed Valley erosion caldera). From this range you will have spectacular views from its many lookouts to Mount Warning and the distant Nightcap and Tweed Ranges. The McPherson Range is also famous for the missing airliner the “Stinson” which went missing in February 1937. The track passes close to the spot from where Bernard O’Reilly spotted discoloration of the vegetation on Mount Throakban some 13km away on the Lamington Plateau. O’Reilly’s hunch that this may be the crash site of the missing airliner was correct. There were 2 survivors and 5 casualties. From the McPherson Range the track descends gradually along the Beechmont Range to our overnight camp at Binna Burra.
Day 2: Binna Burra to Woonoongoora Walkers Camp
Distance: 19.5km
Duration: 7 hrs
From Binna Burra the track descends through cliff lines of rhyolite and volcanic ash then passes through a patch of dry rainforest (dry adapted flora) and into the Kurraragin Valley. We follow Egg Rock creek passing “Egg Rock”, a volcanic rhyolite plug and through fine stands of Piccabeen Palm, large Red Cedar and Majestic flooded Gum trees. The track then heads north east through cleared woodland and into the Numinbah Valley and follows the Nerang Murwillumbah Road before climbing up and into Waterfall Creek Valley ( an Amphitheatre of spectacular white cliffs, the result of a rhyolite flow from the ancient volcano). Continuing up a gentle slope we find the grassy area of the walker’s camp.
Day 3: Woonoongoora to the Settlement Campground
Distance: 9km
Duration: 4 hrs
From our campsite at Woonoongoora we climb uphill over 900 stairs to Apple Tree Park on the Springbrook Plateau. The steep climb passes through groves of cycads and ancient plants with fossil records dating back over 300 million years. The track then follows the west branch of Little Nerang Creek passing through narrow gorges, pools and cascades and emerges atop a basalt slab above Warringa Pool. We continue to Purlingbrook Falls, passing behind the falls and climbing to the top of the plateau and through open Eucalypt forest to the Settlement Campground.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Cost does not include travel to or from Brisbane or Surfers Paradise where the tour starts.
Also see tour packages in:
Australia and Oceania
Australia
Outdoor: Land Rambler
Hiking & Trekking
Rainforest
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