Exploring Girraween National Park

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Posted 2024-07-18 by Roz Glazebrook ⇒ follow

I hadn’t been to Girraween since the 1970s before a recent trip. It was so good to go back. I don’t remember much about my previous trip, except I have a photo showing my friends and I walking in the rain. I remember sliding down rocks and trees and my friend Aileen ripping her trousers on one of our slides down wet rocks on that visit.

In those days I had an old oilskin raincoat, which is what bushwalkers used to wear back then. They were great coats and I remember being very upset when mine fell apart. I bought a fancy Gortex one from an outdoor shop in Hobart which cost me $300 back in about 1998 when my now 37 year old son was about 11 years old. I haven’t had to use it much in Qld. On visits to Tassie bushwalks, I still use it. The last time was up in the Walls of Jerusalem in Feb 2023 when it rained on our walk through the Walls.

Girraween National Park is an area of the Granite Belt in the Darling Downs region of Queensland. The national park is just off the New England Highway, about three hours drive from Brisbane. It is on the Queensland–New South Wales border, 260km southwest of Brisbane, halfway between Stanthorpe and Tenterfield.

The area is known for its spectacular flowers, dramatic landscapes and unique wildlife. Bushwalking and rock climbing are the most popular activities in the park.

The recent trip was with my bushwalking club. We planned to stay at the Mountview Winery for five days and do day walks into Girraween and Bald Rock National Parks. There were a variety of walks on each day ranging from easy walks to medium and hard walks.

There are more than 17 kilometres of walking tracks in Girraween National Park with huge balancing boulders and lots of wildflowers in spring and large granite outcroppings, such as the Pyramid dominating the scenery. There are walks suitable for all age groups and fitness levels from short strolls to all-day treks.

The parks are very different to other national parks in Queensland like Lamington and Springbrook because it replaces rainforest with rocks and huge boulders.

There are 22 species of mammals in the park, but the most common ones are red-necked wallabies, brush-tailed possums and native birds. Some people are lucky to see echidnas. We saw some wallabies.

The National Park is spread across 117 square kilometres. It contains lots of giant, gravity-defying granite formations which rise out of the earth, carved into the landscape over tens of millions of years thanks to wind, water and ice.

We drove down on a recent Thursday in June. On our recent visit, some people camped and others stayed in cabins at the winery. I camped. It was very cold and did rain the first night, but I was warm, as I had taken two sleeping bags and lots of warm clothes. There are lots of options to camp in the national parks as well as different places around the area.

On Friday some of us drove to Bald Rock National Park and climbed Bald Rock. Bald Rock is part of a geological evolution, which commenced some 220 million years ago, during the lower Triassic Age, when the volcanic extrusions of the New England Batholith were thrust upwards through ancient terrestrial and marine sediments.

Over the next couple of days we explored areas around the National Parks and local attractions. We walked to the Junction of Ramsay Creek and Bald Rock Creek and visited Dr Roberts’ waterhole, The Sphinx and Turtle Rock. We also explored around the Underground River and walking over the huge boulders. The Junction walk was only 5.2km and takes around 2 hours return. It was an enjoyable easy walk along the Northern Bank of Bald Rock Creek.

The walk to Dr Roberts Waterhole. was only 1.2 km and took 30 minutes return. Although it was only a short walk we enjoyed looking at the reflections in the still waters of Bald Rock Creek from the Dr Roberts waterhole lookout.

This waterhole is named after Dr Spencer Roberts. Wildlife and visitors today benefit from the legacy of his wisdom and vision of a national park in this area. He lobbied over many years to preserve the area.

Dr Roberts wanted to protect the habitat of two main creatures including wombats and lyrebirds. He was convinced their habitats needed to be protected to ensure their long-term survival in Queensland. He appealed to the government for their protection in a national park.

Two parcels of land were declared as national parks –Bald Rock Creek National Park in 1930 and Castle Rock National Park in 1932. Unofficially, they were collectively known as Wyberba National Park. Thirty-four years later in 1966, the two national parks were amalgamated to create Girraween National Park.

The Turtle Rock and Sphinx walk was a 7.5kilometre walk on mainly formed tracks with some trails. We had fantastic views of the rock formations. We started our walk from the Castle Rock campground. You did need a bit of imagination to see the Turtle and Sphinx in the rocks. The walk included walking on tracks and on granite rock slab which was about a 200 metre ascent over the route and took us around 4 hours. The Sphinx is a granite pinnacle with a large balancing boulder on top while Turtle Rock is a granite monolith resembling a turtle shell.

Some others in our group did harder, longer walks and climbed Mt Norman, which is a Grade 4 trek for experienced hikers, with rock climbing experience required to reach the top.

There are lots of walks ranging from easy to hard in the area, which can suit people with all types of abilities from young children, to families and the elderly. Some of the more advanced walks can be challenging and not recommended if the rock is wet from rain.

There are lots of places to stay around the Stanthorpe and National Park area including camping in the national parks or in some of the wineries, or staying in cabins or airbnbs.

Some people in our group started out camping but moved into cabins after a couple of nights of heavy rain and tent mishaps. It was freezing at night and I needed all my warm clothes and two sleeping bags. One morning there was ice on our tents and heavy frosts. The temperature that morning was -1degrees . One afternoon there was a major thunderstorm which just missed our area. We could see the black clouds in the close distance.

I camped the whole time. I almost moved to a cabin after the first night of very heavy rain, when my tent was sitting in a pool of water, but just used an old tarp to cover the damp tent floor to stay dry inside.

I did put up my wildlife camera down in the bush at the bottom of the campsite and was excited when I got home to see I had captured a fox and beautiful male Superb Fairywren in its breeding colours. I did ring and leave a message for the owners of the winery about the fox to warn them as I had seen their chooks roaming around during the daytime. Hopefully, they were shut up securely at night.

We had some great social events at night including wine tasting, a woodfired pizza night and a karaoke night where we all sang and danced.

One day on our way home from our walk we stopped at Heavenly Chocolate shop at 2117 Pyramids Rd, Wyberba for hot chocolate. There was a huge range of gorgeous chocolates and beautiful king parrots feeding in the bird feeders.

After our walk to the junction of the rivers, I popped into the Information Centre at the National Park. It was very interesting with displays of animals and plants found in the park. There were stuffed animals including a platypus, koala, gliders and birds and lots of posters and information about the park.

A lot of the walks around Girraween and Bald Hill National Parks do require you to wear shoes or boots with good grip, especially if the rocks are wet from rain.

I need to go back and do some of the walks I didn’t get to do on this trip. I would like to climb the Pyramid and Mt Norman. We had planned to climb the Pyramid for sunrise but cancelled it because of the rain and the danger of climbing on wet rocks. I must go back in springtime too to see all the beautiful wildflowers. The local Indigenous name for Girraween translates to “place of flowers”. There are over 750 plant species in the National Park. I hope I don’t wait so long to return to this beautiful area.

Where rocks come to life sign