Survey Walk at Lake Wyaralong

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Posted 2023-10-01 by Roz Glazebrook ⇒ follow

I had been to Lake Wyaralong five times before a recent sixth trip. The first time I kayaked up the Lake and visited the Ngumbi Base Camp.

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.

The Second time I walked in and camped overnight at the Base Camp and climbed Mt Joyce.

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

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.

The fifth trip was supposed to be similar to my second one. We had planned to walk into Ngumbi Base Camp, climb Mt Joyce, camp overnight 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 that area including the Goan Hill and Crows Ash Break Trails.

I made my sixth visit to Lake Wyaralong back in July. This one was a survey walk to explore some new trails down there. We had a great day and ended up walking about 24 kilometres. We explored some trails that we hadn’t done before, including walking around parts of the lake which was very interesting. There was a bit of bush bashing through lantana and then we had to climb up a steep ridge to get back onto the main track.

There was a small group of seven of us on that walk. We travelled down from Brisbane in two cars and met at the Eastern trailhead carpark near the dam wall. Our leader, Bernie loves the whole area and knows it very well, and has been walking in that area for over 10 years. He was interested in exploring some new tracks to expand the range of walks in the area. We were warned there were going to be some steep ups and downs and we needed a good level of fitness.

The lake and surrounding areas provide fantastic recreation facilities and are fast becoming a major tourism drawcard for the Scenic Rim region. There are lots of walking and mountain bike tracks around the Lake.

Our trip had been pre-approved by SEQ Water.

Some of the area had been recently burnt so we walked through some blackened trees. This was probably due to the controlled burn a few weeks before.

We had short breaks and snacks at the Ngumbi bush camp and at the table by the lake near the track up to the bush camp from the canoe and kayak launching spot. The lake looked very beautiful. We didn’t climb Mt Joyce on this trip but mainly looked for new tracks.

A few weeks later I went back and did another kayaking trip on the Lake. On that seventh trip, we kayaked up from the opposite end of the lake - on my first kayak there, where I started from the Meebun Recreation Day Use Area. This time we launched at the Knehr Road site. It was a beautiful day with lots of wild birds around. There is so much to explore around the area. I’m sure I’ll be back there again soon.