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> Girraween National Park |
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Girraween is close enough to the highway to allow travellers to make a short detour for a picnic beside Bald Rock Creek. Two well-developed camping grounds make this park ideal for camping in small or large groups. Secluded campsites, hot showers, picnic tables and barbecues make for an enjoyable stay. Please bring your own firewood and take rubbish with you when you leave. Stop at the park Visitor Information Centre for details of walks and learn more about the park.
Walks range from a short 30 minute stroll to Granite Arch to a 6 hours extended hike to Mt Norman. Those not wanting to venture too far from the picnic area can enjoy time pottering around the creek discovering all kinds of plants and animal life and looking at the reflections in glistening rock pools.
Girraween is popular amongst wildlife enthusiasts. All creatures great and small make Girraween their home, including the rarely seen common wombats and superb lyrebirds.
Stay a while. During the day whilst walking the many tracks, you may spot brilliant turquoise parrots, yellow-tufted honeyeaters and grey kangaroos. Look for Cunningham skinks, bearded dragons, and red-bellied black snakes soaking up the sun rays on exposed rocks. By night, red-necked wallabies, brush-tailed possums and tawny frogmouths can be seen by torchlight.
If you are lucky you may catch a glimpse of the critically endangered Bald Rock Creek short-necked turtle (Elseya cf bellii) and leaf-tailed gecko (Saltuarius wyberba) only found in Girraween.
During spring, wildflowers splash colour amongst Girraween’s forests of red gum, stringybark and blackbutt and you may be lucky to find some of the endangered species mentioned earlier.
Visit Girraween National Park WebSite |
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> Sundown National Park |
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In contrast to Girraween’s rounded granite hilltops and open valleys, the Severn River has carved through Sundown’s high traprock country creating spectacular sharp ridges and steep-sided gorges into which access is difficult. Sundown is clothed in thick box-ironbark woodland in the south and stringybark-gum woodland in the northern higher areas. Dry vine scrubs grow in side gorges - refuges from heat and fire for some rare and threatened plants and animals.
At the southern end of the park the Broadwater camping area is a great spot to pitch a tent - particularly when the Severn River is running. You can drive there via Glenlyon Dam Road in a conventional vehicle and camp on grassy campsites near to pit toilets and donkey-boiler showers.
The Broadwater camping area is very popular for birdwatchers, with a deserved reputation as a place to regularly see turquoise parrots, hooded and red-capped robins, painted quail and diamond firetails.
A 4WD vehicle is needed to reach the bush camping sites at Red Rock Gorge, and Reedy and Burrow’s Waterholes at the northern end of the park. Getting into this section of the park entails more than 20km of rough driving. The track travels along a ridge above the Sundown Mines Complex where tin and copper were mined from 1880 to the 1920s.
These mines are contaminated and have been closed off for public safety. Be sure to take the short side track to Red Rock Gorge where (in a good season) falls 50m high tumble over cliffs stained red with lichen. A short walking track and lookout provide impressive views of the gorge and falls.
Sundown’s true character can really only be seen by bushwalking along the river and in the side creeks and gorges. Bushwalkers need to be well prepared with guide books and maps. Camping and walking at Sundown is best between May and September when you can expect cold nights, frosty mornings and warm, clear days. Campers need to be completely self-sufficient as facilities are limited and supplies are some distance away.
Visit Sundown National Park WebSite |
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