Walks Near Lilybrook Recreation Park at Lake Wyaralong

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Posted 2023-05-04 by Roz Glazebrook ⇒ follow

I had been to Lake Wyaralong four times before a recent fifth trip. The first time I kayaked up the Lake and visited the Ngumbi Base Camp. I wrote about that trip here .

The second time I walked in and camped overnight at the Base Camp and climbed Mt Joyce. I wrote about that trip here .

On the third trip, we had planned to walk the Ridge Trail, but we had to change our plans because the Ridge Trail was closed so we did some other walks nearby. I described those tracks here .

On my fourth trip, we did an anticlockwise loop up Mt Joyce, then over the mountain and down the other side. We then followed the Shoreline Track back to Ngumbi Base Camp where we had lunch. We covered 20 kilometres before we ended back at the Eastern Trail Access car park where we had left our cars.

This fifth trip was supposed to be similar to my second one. We had planned to walk into Ngumbi Base Camp, climb Mt Joyce and return the following day. On my third trip to the area, our plans had to change at the last minute because of a controlled fire burn-off. The original plan was for people who hadn't done any or many through walks, to carry all their gear in a pack and to walk in the short seven kilometres to the Ngumbi Base Camp to try out their gear, set up camp and climb Mt Joyce and walk out the following day.

We were offered an alternative plan by SEQ Water to drive down from Brisbane to Lilybrook Recreation Park at the Eastern end of Lake Wyaralong, camp there and do walks around the area including the Goan Hill and Crows Ash Break Trails.

Wyaralong dam was constructed on the Teviot Brook approximately 14 kilometres northwest of Beaudesert in the Logan River catchment. It is the newest dam in South East Queensland, completed and opened to the public on 3 June 2011. The dam and lake will be used in the 2032 Olympic Games for water sports.

We only ended up with eight people on the changed walk. Eleven pulled out because it was going to be different from the planned walk. They missed out on a great weekend.

We left Brisbane early and drove through Boonah towards Beaudesert then we followed Beaudesert Boonah Rd for 2.7km and turned left into a road with a sign for Western Trailhead. We followed the road o the entrance of Lilybrook Recreation Area and the Western Trail Access.

The Lilybrook Recreation Area has toilets, barbecue areas, holding paddocks for horses and picnic tables. Lilybrook Recreation Area is named after the Lilybrook Homestead located there, built in the 1900s.

There was still the option to do the walks with full-through packs or just daypacks. The campsite was free. It mostly caters for groups and needs to be booked through SEQ Water. A large group of young kayakers were packing up to leave as we arrived. I talked to a couple of the young women and they said they had had a wonderful time kayaking up the Lake.

After arriving at Lilybrook on Saturday after a 1 1/2 hour drive down from Brisbane, we set off for our walk at 8am. The plan was to walk some of the Goan Hill trails. We ended up walking around 16.5 kilometres around the area. The trails were wide and also accommodated horse and bike riders. We didn't see any other walkers or bike riders, and only a couple of horse riders. I didn't see any wildlife along the walk, except for some long lines of processionary caterpillars along the tracks. These caterpillars turn into bag shelter moths. We did hear lots of birds.

Everyone chose to do the Saturday walk with full packs and use their day walk packs on Sunday. I cheated a bit and left my tent and sleeping bag in the car on Saturday, which brought my pack weight down to about 8 kilograms, which was the same weight as a couple of the other women who had fantastic lightweight packs, trekking pole tents and sleeping quilts.

A few of my friends are gear freaks and are always upgrading their gear o get the best, lightest weight gear. One of our walkers had a very heavy pack, so I'm sure she will be leaving some things behind on her next through walk.

There were a few hills and we were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the campsite. After setting up our tents and having a cold shower, we explored the campsite before having dinner. I walked down to the lake. It was beautiful but looked a bit too murky for a swim.

The campground was very spacious and there were toilets and cold showers in the nearby shower block.

On Sunday morning, we set out to explore some of the other walks around Crow's Ash. We walked about 10.4 kilometres with lots of hills. There were no other walkers, or bike riders and only a few more horse riders on this trail. There were some great views of the Scenic Rim mountains and Wyaralong Dam from the hills on the Crows Ash trail.

I saw a large group of Australian Wood Ducks feeding on the grass at the back of the camping ground. The Australian Wood Duck is found in grasslands, open woodlands, wetlands, flooded pastures and along the coast in inlets and bays. It is also common on farmland with dams, as well as around rice fields, sewage ponds and in urban parks.

After changing into clean, dry clothes we headed home. It was a really interesting and energetic weekend. We walked about 27 kilometres over the two days with lots of hills.