Lepidozamia Remote Bush Camp

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Posted 2023-01-25 by Roz Glazebrook ⇒ follow

I've been on lots of bushwalks in D'Aguilar National Park, which contains the D'Aguilar Range located along the northwest of the Brisbane metropolitan area. The park is traversed by the winding scenic Mount Nebo Road and Mount Glorious Road.

I have been on day walks and gone past some remote bush camps including one at Northbrook Mountain, and another one on Dundas Road, but until recently I had never camped up there in the National Park.

The one I camped at recently was the , which is located on an elevated forested ridge that overlooks the Kobble Creek area. It is accessed by walking 2.5 kilometres along the Lepidozamia track and about 150m past the Middle Kobble break turnoff.

The gate access from Mount Glorious Road/Northbrook Parkway is about a 50min drive from Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre in The Gap, or you can get there by driving through Samford, which is the way we went.

We drove through Samford to the start of the walk at Tennison Woods, Mt Glorious. We set off on the Lepidozamia Track, which is 5.5km north of the Maiala picnic ground.

Three friends and I walked into the campsite on a recent Saturday afternoon along a fire access trail through the beautiful rainforest and wet eucalypt forests. A maximum of 9 people (3 x 3-person tents) can camp in this area and campsites need to be booked through the National Parks website.

[LINK=https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/camping/lepidozamia-remote] Campsite booking

The walk into the campsite was along a gentle undulating bush road. I had been on the Lepidozamia track previously, but that time I only walked a short way before turning off on the track to the Piper Comanche plane wreck. I wrote about that walk here.

[LINK=https://www.weekendnotes.com/piper-comanche-wreck/]Piper Comanche plane wreck walk

On the way into the camp, we saw a beautiful green tree snake lying on the ground at the edge of the track. We also saw a dead rat. I took a photo and posted it on the Australian mammal identification site and the experts said it was a native bush rat (Rattus fuscipes).

I don't know what killed the rat. I hope it wasn't poisoned but I think that would be unlikely in the National Park, although I have heard baiting is done sometimes up there to control feral pigs. On the way out on Sunday I didn't see the rat, but saw a large python nearby and thought it may have eaten the rat, but later talking to one of my friends, she said she had seen the dead rat on the way out.

The campsite was well set up with a table and seats under a shelter; two water tanks and an open fire pit with seating around it. There was even a container on the wall under the shelter containing a map, some bushman's insect repellant and matches.

My friends who had camped there before on New Year's Eve said there was a can of tuna there then too, but some hungry campers must have eaten that since then.

The National Parks website says open fires are allowed unless there are any fire bans, but you aren't allowed to collect bush wood so you would have to carry in your own wood. There are severe penalties for using the bush wood. You probably need your own fuel stove. I think it could be dangerous too if it was windy as embers could damage tents or start a bushfire.

There was a goanna hanging around the campsite and lots of beautiful little birds flitting around the next morning. They
were very quick so I couldn't get a photo of them. They were so tiny I thought at first they were butterflies.

There are two large tanks and a shelter and fireplace at the campsite, but no toilets so you need to take a trowel to dig your own hole. You also need to treat the water by boiling or using tablets.

The ridge is exposed and could get windy and cold in winter or cold, rainy weather. There was some phone coverage in some areas, but it could be unreliable. The Rangers have done a great job keeping the grass down around the campsite and improving the track surface.

After setting up camp and having a snack we set off to walk down towards the middle Kobble creek remote campsite where some fellow bushwalkers were camping overnight. It was a beautiful walk through the Lepidozamia, which is a genus of two species of cycad, which are both endemic to Australia. They are native to rainforest climates in eastern Queensland and eastern New South Wales.

It grows in scattered small communities in wet sclerophyll forests or on rainforest margins, usually on steep slopes from sea level up to about 1,000 metres.

The track got pretty steep after a while so we decided to head back up to our camp. We turned around at about 5.30pm because we didn't want to get back in the dark. Instead, we had a relaxing dinner. Two other campers arrived and we chatted with them for a while. They were two 20-year-old young men and it was great to see them out enjoying nature. One of them said he was training to be a forest ranger and the other one was studying IT at uni.

I slept very well and woke early to see a beautiful sunrise over the valley. I'd had breakfast and had a short walk before my friends woke up.

We packed up slowly and were back at the cars before lunchtime. It was a great short break. I felt like I'd been away for a week. In less than 24 hours we had walked about 9 kilometres, camped overnight, relaxed under a shelter, seen a green tree snake, a large python, a native bush rat, a goanna and lots of beautiful birds and native plants.

This campsite would be a great one for families with young children to go to, or people new to bushwalking and camping to try out their gear before going on longer walks.

I would like to go back again sometime and camp there again, but go early in the day and walk down and back to Kobble creek during the daytime. I would like to take my wildlife camera next time too to see what is around the campsite at night. We did hang our food bags up to prevent rats and possums and goannas from getting to them.