Bunya Mountains National Park is about a 4-hour drive in your Brisbane CBD car hire. It has been named Queensland’s second oldest national park, and is home to over 30 endangered species.
How do you get there?
You can take a number of routes from Brisbane to Bunya Mountains National Park. The most common are via Toowoomba and via Yarraman.
– Toowoomba: It will take you an hour and a half to reach Toowoomba, and a further two hours to reach Bunya Mountains National Park. We suggest stopping in Toowoomba to stretch your legs, have a bite to eat and maybe even do some sightseeing! You could explore The Cobb + Co Museum, for instance, which is home to Australia’s largest collection of horse-drawn vehicles!
– Yarraman: If you pick up a Brisbane Airport car hire and head to Yarraman, you will arrive in about two hours. It’s another hour from here to Bunya Mountains National Park. While you’re in Yarraman, check out the Yarraman Heritage Centre, which opened in 1997. This is the place to learn all about the small, rural town’s fascinating history and buy some locally made crafts.
What can I do there?
Once you’ve reached Bunya Mountains National Park, it will be hard to know what to do first! There are a wide range of activities to enjoy, so there’s sure to be something that floats your boat.
– Have a meal: If you start feeling peckish while you’re here, don’t worry – Poppies will sate your appetite! This cafe is located on Bunya Avenue, and serves great coffee and delicious meals. Try the Bunya BBQ Package, which contains a variety of meat that you can cook yourself!
– Go for a walk: Bunya Mountains National Park is known for its scenic walking tracks. They range in length from 500 metres to 10 kilometres, which means you can either go for a pleasant stroll or enjoy a more challenging hike through the trees.
Try the Bunya Bunya Track (500 metres, or 20 minutes) if you want a short, pleasant walk, or the popular Scenic Circuit (4 kilometres, or one and a half hours), which offers glorious mountain scenery and a chance to gaze at some rock pools. Both of these tracks begin at the Dandabah picnic ground, and could be the perfect activity to follow a tasty picnic lunch!
– Admire the scenery: Here you’ll find the largest Bunya Pine forest in the entire world. These trees can grow up to 45 metres tall, and have pine cones the size of footballs! In addition to the flora, there is also some breathtaking fauna. Over 120 species of birds call this national park home, and you will no doubt see many of them flitting through the trees as you pass.
Keep an eye out for the black-breasted button quail, one of Australia’s most threatened bird species, as well as the brightly coloured parrots that frequent this area. There are also wallabies, turkeys, possums and even koalas, which roam free on this land. We here the wallabies are quite friendly, but it’s important that you don’t feed them!
What should I take with me?
When you’re out and about in the Bunya Mountains National Park, make sure you have snacks and plenty of drinking water with you. The weather is quite changeable, and the crisp, mountain air means it’s often cooler up here than closer to the ground. So, it pays to have warm clothing, as well as a hat, sunscreen and insect repellent.