Thursday, February 01, 2007
Queen Mary Falls, Main Range National Park
We spent much of the Australia Day long weekend camping at Queen Mary Falls, on the western side of Main Range National Park.

Main Range National Park is part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia World Heritage Area: a string of large protected areas in South East Queensland and Northern NSW.

The Main Range Section is an extinct and eroded 24 million year old shield volcano, much like that centred on nearby Mount Warning. The main ‘Main Range’ is a 100km long escarpment on what would have been the western part of the volcano. It has steeply sloping east-facing craggs with more undulating valleys flowing out west, spared from the excessive erosion from rain shadow and slower flowing creeks.

Cunninghams Gap was the first section of the park to be gazetted as National Park in 1908. However, the majority of the range was not protected until the 1960s and 70s, with the coup de grace coming in 1980 when the isolated sections were amalgamated into the contiguous park it is today.

As a result and coupled with the rich basaltic soils underfoot, most of the none-park area has been cleared, first by timber getters and then for pasture. Even the protected areas have been extensively logged, with the entire 25,000 hectare park cleared of the biggest of trees. Regrowth in these areas will take another 250-350 years to reach ecological climax. Some species – such as Red Cedar – were decimated.

Despite being in the more gentle valleys of the western side of the Main Range escarpment, Queen Mary Falls still plunges 45m down a basalt outcrop. 10km west, the creek forms the Condamine River, which flows into the Balonne River, which joins with the Barwon River to become the Darling, which in turn, flows into the Murray and then sometimes into the ocean near Adelaide. I say sometimes, as commonly so much water is pumped out to irrigate rice and cotton in the desert that by the time the river reaches Australia’s driest capital city it is all but gone. There the Adelaidians take what’s left.

The immediate area around Queen Mary Falls has a paucity of good long walks, but rock hopping down the creek beds provides ample entertainment. The [series of three] falls themselves are impressive enough, with significant overhangs, which allow access behind the falling water. All are in large ampitheatres, overlooked by hexagonal columns of basalt, betraying its volcanic heritage.

On the second day we scrambled through the Moss Gardens and the rainforest, along sections of the rabbit-proof border fence with NSW.

Being in the middle of cattle country meant two things: silt and flies. Extensive clearing in the upper catchment means the creek flowing over the falls is somewhat murky and the flow is irregular. This demonstrates the importance of protecting catchment areas above National Parks. Secondly, the campsite is virtually overrun with flies, making it unpleasant to sit and eat until after sundown. I assume there is a lack of dung beetles in the surrounding fields.

On the way home, we took the scenic route through Boonah, passing Carr’s Lookout and Wilson’s Peak – perhaps the most famous view in South East Queensland. A narrow road descends two long and steep escarpments through the National Park, before dropping onto the plains below with fantastic vistas of nearby Mounts: Superbus, Barney, Lindsay and Moon.
















The border fence


The view from Carr’s Lookout. In the centre is Wilson’s Peak on the border between QLD and NSW. To the right is Mount Barney in the distance. The ridge in the mid-distance is the Great Divide. Here water either flows west for thousands of kilometres through the Murray-Darling or east, along the more pedestrian route, 100km to Moreton Bay.

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