Any good overnight Bushwalks in SE Qld?

[Martihai001]

Hi,
I am new to the Gold Coast, and am excited to go backpacking in a new place. I grew up in Seattle Wa, and have been backpacking many times. For my recent 18th birthday my Dad and I received new packs, and want to go on a weekend trip to test them out.
My Dad and I are looking for a simple 3/4 day ROUND TRIP bush walk in SE Qld. I have been researching around, but have run into some difficulties finding a good one.
Anyone with past experience have any good ideas? Because It is the first time we have gone in about a year and a half, and we both have new packs, we wanted to take it easy, and work our way up to doing all ten of the Great Walks in Queensland.
Hope to get some good ideas going. Also if anyone has an itinerary from when they went, or anyone we can talk to about planning our trip, let me know!
Thanks so much for the help.
Happy Hiking!
-Martihai001

[ofuros]

Food for thought around Brissy....
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/lamington/index.html
Binna Burra & Green Mts sections have some good circuits.
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/sprin ... index.html
Warrie circuit is long with numerous waterfalls, but is closed for track work at this moment in time.

West of Brissy.....
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/girraween/index.html
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/main-range/index.html
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/mooge ... index.html
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/mount ... index.html

Plus some off-track walks...
http://www.southee.com

A couple of handy guide books for S.E. QLD....http://www.takeawalk.com.au/Z1Main.htm
& track down or borrow this from the local library....The bushwalker's guide to South East Queensland / by M. Hammond, T. Young.

Also a few day walks, overnighters & circuits in this section of the forum too...viewforum.php?f=48

Anyway, just a few ideas...Enjoy your family walks in South East Queensland, Martihai001, it's a great area to explore.

[metastable]

Green Mountains and Binna Burra are probably a good place to start in terms of easy walking. The trick to getting a 3/4 day walk would be stringing together a number of walks. You could do something like Day 1 from Green Mountains, Toolona creek circuit, camp at Bithongabel bush camp Day 2: walk to Echo point campsite around the Albert Creek Circuit. Day 3: head back to Green Mountains.

Myself and my 7yr old boy did Toolona creek circuit to Bithongabel and then back to Green Mountains the next day. A nice walk, something like 13km the first day, then 5km the second, so an easy second day. By throwing in the Albert Creek Circuit and camping at Echo point you could get another decent day out of it.

Or if you wanted to just get some miles under the legs you could walk the border track from Binna Burra to Green Mountains, which is a big day, camp at Green Mountains, which gives you some civilization, but still camping and then walk back the next day, perhaps doing some side tracks on the way.

[Champion_Munch]

Hi Martihai, welcome to QLD! As has already been suggested, Lamington and Springbrook NPs have many options for good half or full day walks and are both close to the GC. If you enjoy walking in rainforests and seeing waterfalls you will have a great time there. Lamington has a large network of graded, well-signed tracks. Most of these branch off from the Border Track, which links the two major sections of the park (Binna Burra and Green Mountains/O'Reilly's). The Border Track is also day 1 of the Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk, so this will give you a feel for the kind of bushwalking you should expect on a day of a "great walk." You can pick up a map (non-topographic, but this is all that is necessary for the signed tracks) at a lodge at the Green Mountains section. metastable has already given good suggestions for overnight walk options here.

Because most of the walks are under cover of the rainforest, Lamington is suitable for walking all through the year and even on rainy days, when the rainforest is at its most spectacular (although avoid if storms are expected). Most of the parks further west (main range, moogerah peaks, mt barney, girraween) are also excellent, but tend to have exposed, rocky walks and are best done in Winter and Spring. I rarely visit these parks in Summer as it is simply too hot (although others may disagree...), and even when walking in the cooler months, I always set off as early as possible to avoid the heat of the day where possible. Remember to take lots of water with you (2-3 L per person per day, depending on how hot it is and how long you are walking) and treat all water you collect from rivers and streams. Hat and sunscreen are also a must most places in SEQ.