National Park

The Gold Coast is an ecologically diverse area featuring a range of National Parks, nature reserves and World Heritage-listed national parks, it also has Australia’s largest area of subtropical rainforest and has the world’s biggest volcanic caldera (of which Mt Warning is the “core”) and 300kms of walking trails. Burleigh Head National Park is popular for it’s local proximity, walking track and scenic ocean views back to Surfers Paradise and down to Coolangatta. The Hinterland, often referred to as the ‘green behind the gold’, features a range of parks and is well signposted with roads meandering through subtropical rainforests hundreds of metres above sea level, with lookouts providing breathtaking views back to the coastal strip and Surfers skyline.

Throughout the Parks you’ll find maintained walking tracks that lead you through the rainforests to the natural attractions of each park section. Tamborine, Lamington and Springbrook National Parks all feature a range of beautiful waterfalls and spectacular lookouts. Time spent at each of these three parks depends on your own wishes to explore the area with a lot of the lookouts and waterfalls being a short distance from the main parking area and some tracks that offer full day walks. Such is the great expanse of the entire region that you could continually return to discover new sections of natural wonder.

Some of the key attractions, but far from limited to, include:

At Springbrook – Natural Bridge is popular attraction formed by natural forces a waterfall runs down into the cave below which is also home to thousands of glow worms which light up the cave at night. Also there are a number of waterfalls including Purlingbrook Falls, Goomoolahra Falls and Twin Falls along with lookouts Wunburra, Canyon and the Best of All Lookout.

At Tamborine – There are various sections to Tamborine National Park which include the waterfalls of Witches Falls, Cedar Creek Falls and Curtis Falls along with various lookouts and scenic walking tracks.

At Lamington – There are a vast array of walking and hiking tracks to explore this expansive area including half hour, one hour through to half day and full day tracks that explore the Green Mountains and Binna Burra sections. There are also day visitor and picnic sections which include bbq and scenic views.

The drive to the parks is a great journey in itself offering a wonderfully scenic journey although buses and caravans are advised to take note of some of the steep gradients. These sections are usually well signposted.

There is also the Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk which is a mapped 54km trek that takes you through National Parks and along the rim of the ancient volcano. You can experience the lush rainforests, waterfalls, flora and fauna, and camping. There are plenty of charted short walks too. For more information on planning, booking campsites, maps and how to get there visit Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk at derm.qld.gov.au. For detailed information about the parks and nature reserves, including conditions, amenities, walking track/hiking maps and more the State Government Department of Environment and Science website provides a wealth of information and guides, see: parks in South East QLD at the QLD Department of Environment and Science.