Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The Lower Portals
Mount Barney National Park is a rugged area of bushland, encompassing a number of high peaks straddling the border between Queensland and NSW.

We were sent to down here to witness the "most beautiful swimming hole in the known universe", the Lower Portals, on Barney Creek.

Mount Barney itself is a 350 million year old igneous intrusion of granophyre (granite), weathered down from its original 2000m to its current 1359m over that time. Surrounding peaks (Mounts Ballow, Lindesay and Maroon) – old shield volcanoes – present an impressive backdrop to Barney, providing bushwalkers with a (near) wilderness experience 1 ½ hours out of Brisbane.

Barney was first climbed by Europeans in 1828, when Captain Patrick Logan, Alan Cunningham and Charles Fraser (three famous names reflected in local place names). Logan was the only one to make it to the top; Cunningham and Fraser turned back (too hard).

We weren't there to climb it this time. It is an expedition for sans les enfants. The tourist route (Peasant's Trail) is possible in a full day, but to do the mountain justice, different exploratory routes (at least on the summits) are surely a must. It will be a trip for later this year.

Instead, with a number of smallish children in tow, we opted for the march to the Lower Portals. Short (3.7km each way), but steep and hot, in open eucalypt forest. (Also got stung on the eye by a wasp, which was painful.)

The Lower Portals is a steep gorge on Barney Creek; a gateway – as it were – to the upper reaches of the creek and up a back route to Mount Barney. They are impassable, unless you are prepared to swim through with your gear in a bin liner and climb up a waterfall. The alternative is to ascend a ridge and skirt around.

The photos below are of the swimming hole at the bottom of the portals. Until I have seen more of the universe – or Mount Barney – I guess they rank up there at the top of the best places to swim…..

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