Bunyaville Conservation Park

Post

Subscribe

Posted 2019-01-08 by Roz Glazebrook ⇒ follow

Although I've lived close to for eighteen years, I had only been there twice before I recently went on two hikes with a meet up group, "Happy Hikers".

A few years ago, I went with a friend who took her two dogs for a swim in the lake. About a year ago, I went on a night training walk with my bushwalking club. We wore head torches that time. I had no idea where we went, but we hiked around the forest for about an hour and a half. I remember going up and down some steep, slippery tracks.

is 15 kilometres north west of central Brisbane between the suburbs of Albany Creek and Everton Hills. It has entrances on Old Northern Road and the Jinker Track.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Environment and Science manage the Bunyaville Conservation Park. It is a link to the Mountains to Mangroves corridor and provides habitat for lots of plants and animals.

The Park was previously called the Bunyaville Regional Park and has been a recreational destination for Brisbane locals since 1917.

The Jinker track bisects the forest. It has an interesting history. Timber getters used to cart timber along the bush track on a jinker, a four-wheel wagon pulled by six horses. When I first moved to Brisbane the track was a dirt road. It is now a busy bitumen road. There is an unsubstantiated "story" that an aircraft, possibly a B-25 Mitchell bomber, crashed near the Jinker Track during WW2.

Education Queensland operates an environmental education centre in the forest. It provides educational programs for schools.

Recently a small group of nine Happy Hikers set off into the park and explored lots of tracks and trails. Our leader knew all the tracks well because she lived nearby and walks there often.

Walkers, cyclists and horse riders share a number of gravel roads and tracks throughout the forest. Some tracks are only for bike riders, and other ones are shared. There is actually a 'give way code' for the park. Cyclists must give way to walkers and horse riders, and alert others when approaching them, and walkers must give way to horses.

We didn't see any horses, but we did see some bike riders on some narrow tracks. We moved to the side to allow them to pass. As well as ten designated mountain-bike trails; mountain-bikes are permitted on all shared trails in unless otherwise signed. Horse riders and bushwalkers are not permitted on these designated mountain-bike trails.

There are ten designated mountain bike only tracks, which are well marked. They offer cyclists different levels of difficulty from easy to challenging. The bike trails are one way. The track names are Track 1 Wallaby trail, Track 2 Jurassic trail, Track 3 Gum nuts trail, Track 4 Creek trail, Track 5 Kokoda, trail Track 6 Carnivore trail, Track 7 Steps trail, Track 8 Sugar glider trail, Track 9 Mini van trail and Track 10. Zig zag trail.

The walking trails include the Tree discovery circuit, the Bunyaville track, the Powerful owl track, and the Education Centre track. There are also lots of shared tracks throughout the forest.
There are picnic facilities including barbecues, picnic tables, drinking water and firewood and a toilet block. Parts of the Park are wheelchair accessible. Dogs are allowed on some shared trails but need to be kept on a leash.

After about nine kilometres into our walk, we were all looking forward to a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, the coffee shop was closed. Most of us went to the nearby grocery shop and bought a cold soft drink or snack. We didn't notice until later that one woman had found the bottle shop and enjoyed a nice cold beer. We all wished we had thought of that.

The only wildlife we saw was five bush stone curlews, which we saw on the way back after our morning tea stop. They were well camouflaged in the bush by the side of the track. I took a photo and managed to capture three birds in it.

Some of us went for a cup of coffee after we got back to our cars. We went to an interesting café, Connexio Games Cafe at Shop 3/57 Old Northern Rd, Albany Creek where people were playing board games. I'd never heard of games cafes before, but apparently, they are quite popular.

There is a large games library and people can also buy games from the café. They sell miniature games, board games, roleplaying games, card & dice games, and games accessories.

[LINK=http://www.conexiogamescafe.com.au/]Connexio games cafe

On the second walk with Happy Hikers a week later, we walked about six kilometres. There were a couple of steep hills, which was good exercise. We visited a couple of the trails and the lake from the previous walk, but this time we mostly walked on different trails.

I think I will be doing a lot more walking in now that I have discovered what a great place it is, and because it is close to home.

Download a Map

[LINK=https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/bunyaville/about.html]website[LINK]