The Wilderness of the Border Ranges

A month ago was speaking with a Park Ranger, Lionel,  at Byron Bay, an aboriginal descendant of the ancient peoples, Githabul,  who lived in the area of the Mt Warning Gonwanda land calandra.  His description of the history of the place fired my imagination, which is pretty full on most of the time anyhow, to go see for myself the cradle of the rainforests of the world.

BORDER RANGES NATIONAL PARK

Border Ranges National Park (31,683 hectares), a World Heritage listed rainforest park on the rim of a vast and ancient volcano, . It stretches 85 kilometres from east to west. Together with the McPherson Ranges, the Springbrook Plateau and the Nightcap National Park, Border Ranges National Park forms part of the caldera of the Mount Warning shield volcano the largest caldera in the southern hemisphere.

Border Ranges National Park has been included on the World Heritage list as part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia) along with other major rainforest stands in north-east NSW and south-east Queensland. World Heritage properties, places of outstanding value to the world, may be natural wonders or monuments and landscapes of human culture.


More than three-quarters of Border Ranges National Park is managed as wilderness. As declared wilderness, these areas are provided protection for their natural features and access is by foot only.

I left home at 2.30am and picked up my friend in Toowoomba and headed "South of the Border"...a big deal for us Queenslanders who are so precocial ...Mostly travelled in the dark to Warwick, Killarney, Legume and as day was breaking hit Kyogle just in time for milking....the farmers were all up and about after a night of heavy rain, which made the air so clear and crisp....crisp being the operative word here.


Did not catch a sunrise as the cloud was too thick but do enjoy being rugged up and warm as the mist rose from the valley floor.  The roads were gravel and quite steep and slippery after the heavy rain...no trouble for the beast but would not like to have been negotiating with a sedan with the silt slick on the road..

After leaving Kyogle and criss crossing a creek on the valley floor.

The thick cloud is rising and the sun is trying to get a grip in the east and was soooo cold around 1 degree C.

The start of the climb leaving the farmland behind with the sun struggling through the fog here and there...

Sheepstation Creek the first walk of the morning and was cold in here

The top of the falls along this creek.

This was a little fraught as was hanging from the side of the bank...wet and slippery just like me...

This sweet little yellow robin, darting here and there catching little insects and picking up larva in the moist ground...I wish I could cling to a tree like that....

Moved on to Brindle Creek to walk in to find the ancient Antarctic Beech trees over 2,000 years old.  The track was quite faint in places and very pristine the walks with the moss overgrowing the trails so would summize that this area of wilderness is not overused.  This place had an atmosphere all of its own....even began to whisper, I guess that is how it affected me......walking in a primeval rainforest.

Quite dark under the canopy like a religious cathedral with a green dome.

Crossing the creek on a moss covered plank back into the thick undergrowth

Walking in this wilderness was special, uplifting and a privilege....not to mention the burning in my muscles after the walk...:)))...know I am alive....