Ravensbourne National Park Walk - QLD

Enjoying a Saturday walk whilst staying in Cabarlah, Ann and I joined Drew and his two children, Sam and Chelsea, for a walk in the local rainforest.

Ravensbourne National Park is situated on a spur of the Great Dividing Range between Toowoomba and Esk.

Buaraba Creek walk, with palms on one bank and open forest on the other, is a striking destination. Piccabeen palms grow thickest where drainage is poor.

Rainforest changes to eucalypt forest as the path goes downhill and out of the protected gully. Birds find this area, where different forests meet, irresistible.

Downhill all the way and uphill all the way back!


Buaraba Creek is spring fed and always moist.

Creeks and gullies are more than drainage lines where water runs after rain. Here they harbour narrow strips of rainforest stretching like fingers from the scrubs higher up to the open country in the valleys below.

Signs of a Beaver, or signs of higher water levels...?

Piccabeen palms, ferns, elkhorns and fungi thrive in the cool, moist remnants of rainforest and wet eucalypt forest along the edge of the Great Dividing Range.

Evidence suggests the rainforest is slowly overtaking the open forest. Gullies with trickling streams are moist and inviting, while exposed ridges are warm and dry.

A lot of fun for the kids

especially with this colourful bread to look forward to in the picnic lunch!

At the end of the walk there is a sandstone outcrop which was undoubtedly used for shelter by the Koori people.

Other signs are the burnt out trees, hollowed out by fire

Beutel Lookout give panoramic views over the range towards Brisbane and the Scenic Rim and the Lockeys Valley.