The North Coast of Brisbane hinterland

I decided to spend my last few days in Oz haunting in Maryborough and Hervey Bay. Rather than take the usual route up the main highway, I deviated up into the hills to the west of the highway.

This 'almost' mountain at 925 feet high is Mount Tibrogargan, one of the Glass House Mountains, so named by Captain Cook in 1770 when he sailed up the east coast of Australia. Unfortunately the electrified rail line runs between the viewing point and the mountain so you get the wires in the way.

It really does have a brooding ape shape and here is a closeup of the eyes.

This is a pineapple growing area which you can see in the background. Mullet is a local fish. Aussies loves the word as part of the phrase 'stunned mullet'. The Australia Zoo created by Steve Irwin is nearby but I didn't stop there.

Now up in the hills near Maleny looking down at the coastal plain.

In many ways, the area is similar to the Beechmont area south of Brisbane. It's approximately 1500' elevation and the area is very lush with rain forests.

Looking west. There are houses scattered all through these hills. It could be a good place to live.

Montville is a very trendy little town. Very, very trendy. I drove straight through it and didn't take any photos, so you get this sign instead. Yes, this is a dirt road. Life is complete when you drive down a dirt road. It is not complete when you stop in those trendy towns.

Fortunately, after a while, you come to Imbul. It's a small town on the Mary River that eventually flows through Maryborough.

There's a small shopping centre. Feeling somewhat thirsty, I had a very good milkshake.

There is a small park in the middle of the main street.

But I must admit that the real reason I came here was because of this station. Imbil is at the end of the Valley Rattler that runs steam engines between Gympie and Imbil.

There is even a turntable to turn the engine around.

The ticket office.

The line up to Gympie over the Mary River. If you get the chance, take a look at this little town.

Lions Road

This is just a short blog about the Lions Road.

This is one of those roads which you hear about and never see so one afternoon, Geoff and I headed off down to Beaudesert (southwest of Brisbane) and turned off onto this road that heads down into New South

Wales.

To read more about this road which was built by community members, click here.

This is pretty country just west of the coastal range where O'Reilly's is located. The view from the ridge on the way up to O'Reilly's would be of this area.

There is enough rainfall in this area for it to support a dairy industry.

Eventually, the countryside becomes more hilly.

There's not much traffic so it is fun to drive though the roads get narrow.

Crossing the border from Queensland to New South Wales. Years ago, there was an quarantine inspection point to prevent stock from being taken into NSW. Now they simply record every thing on camera.

This is the big attraction for me on the trip, the railway spiral loop.  It's easy to see part of the loop on the left of the photo, but a little difficult to see the lower part of the loop on the right. I have been on trains that went up and down the spiral in the day time, but it's one of those things to do in summer when the sun goes down late in the day.

 

The viewing platform. As you can see, it's quite mountainous in the area, so getting a train line through this area was difficult. Why the train line from Sydney to Brisbane had to go so far west is a mystery to me when a shorter and easier route could have joined Southport in Queensland and Murwillimbah in NSW.

It was incredibly noisy at the lookout with a flock of bell birds happily belling away. It's quite a small bird and you can see it in the lower middle of the picture. Click here for a YouTube of the sounds of bell birds.

The train line needs a lot of bridges to cross the numerous creeks in the area.

I liked the two halves of the photo divided by the train line.

One of the numerous creeks. While it has some water in it, I actually expected more after the recent rains.

And finally a hazy view of Mount Lindesay in the late afternoon. I quite enjoyed the drive and would happily do it again. This journey is better from north to south so that you don't have the sun in your eyes.

O'Reilly's tree walk

It's interesting the number of places you have heard about, possibly even thought about visiting, but never actually got there. For me, O'Reilly's is one of those places. It's situated in a rain forest on top of a mountain close to the border of Queensland and New South Wales. In many ways it is similar to Binna Burra which I blogged here. O'Reilly's is on the next ridge west of Binna Burra and there is a 23 km walk between the two locations that I keep threatening to do one day.

The road up to O'Reilly's heads south from the small town of Canungra and quickly climbs a ridge with wonderful views to the west.

The countryside west of this ridge is considerably drier than what lies east of the ridge. The mountains squeeze the rain out of the clouds coming off the sea.

Looking east back to the Beechmont ridge where we stay when we are in the area.

Looking down one of the valleys.

The road is quite narrow in parts with lots of bends and blind corners. Here we are starting to move into the lower part of the rain forest.

The vegetation changes with altitude. This layer of trees lies just below the rain forest.

The advantage of going early on a weekday, no crowds. Here is the yellow Hyundai Getz that I rented for a few days. These tiny cars are good on the narrow roads and adequate for a bit of freeway driving, but I wouldn't buy one of these. It seemed to be quite tinny and coarse compared to a Toyota Yaris which I rented earlier in the trip. The Yaris had very little luggage room however. We also rented a Toyota Corolla which was much better on freeway driving.

One thing to consider when driving in Oz is using cruise control to keep your speed down. The police do not give much leeway and it is very easy for your speed to creep up. I find that cruise control is effective in keeping me at the limit.

The usual dirt path into the rain forest has been replaced by a raised wooden walkway. It's probably easier for the disabled.

The entrance to the tree walk.

The tree walk is essentially a series of suspension bridges a long way off the ground. The bridges bounce and sway as you walk along them which can be a little disconcerting, but I enjoyed it all.

A vine strangling the tree within. Eventually the tree dies, rots and disappears leaving the vine as a shell.

About a third of the way along the walkway, there is a 20 to 30 foot ladder going up a tree to a platform. I decided to climb it and managed to reach the platform which is probably 100 feet off the ground. Here is the view down the ladder which has a safety cage.

 

However I could not face the next ladder that went even higher.

The view from the platform. Perhaps it was worth the scary climb.

Apparently you can get your name on one of the planks  of the walk, presumably if you donate enough. The total length of the walkway is approximately 160 meters.

The gate to a set of gardens at the end of the tree walk.

I'm not sure why this set of gardens exists, but it mostly features ferns and plants that are normally found in a rain forest.

Initially I thought the garden would be interesting because every plant was green.

But there are a few plants with reds and pinks. There has to be a logic somewhere, but it escapes me.

Finally, one of the local inhabitants, a brush turkey. They are quite plentiful in the rain forest but tend to be found near car parks where they scavenge for food.

Next time I am in the area, I will go back to O'Reilly's, particularly to do some of the walks through the rain forest. The drive up is not easy, but it's worth it.