Tamborine Mountain, Tamborine National Park, QLD.

In June 2019 we spent a pleasant morning exploring three areas in Tamborine Mountain, QLD.

Cedar Creek Falls section of Tamborine National Park.

Cedar Creek Falls Track: 500 meters return to lookout, 900 meters return to rock pools, Easy Grade.

Swimming is allowed in some of the pools. 

Cedar Creek Falls.

Swimming is not allowed in the top pools.

Of the three areas we visited, this was the busiest. We parked in the last available car park. There are quite a few picnic tables so we were still able to indulge in one of our favourite pastimes. 

One of the picnic areas at the Cedar Grove section of Tamborine National Park.

A couple of Laughing Kookaburras keeping an eye on the picnic area.

The Knoll section of Tamborine National Park.

The Knoll Lookout and Picnic Area:

Picnic Area at The Knoll section

View from The Knoll Lookout

Sandy Creek Circuit: 2.6 km circuit, Easy Grade.

The walking track.

Top of Cameron Falls

There is only a limited view of Cameron Falls.

Mount Tamborine Rainforest Walk, Tamborine National Park, MacDonald Section.

The car park and walk trailhead is opposite the Tamborine Mountain Heritage Centre on Wongawallan Road. There is a covered picnic table a few meters along the walk from the car park.

Tamborine Mountain Heritage Centre.

Picnic shelter at the MacDonald section of Tamborine National Park.

MacDonald Rainforest Circuit: 1.4 km circuit. Easy Grade.

Male Satin Bowerbird.

Female Satin Bowerbird.

Wildlife: Red-necked Pademelon, Monarch Butterfly. Birds: Satin Bowerbird, Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Australian Brush Turkey, Grey Fantail,  Wompoo Fruit-Dove, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Laughing Kookaburra, Masked Lapwing, Logrunner, Noisy Miner, Australian King Parrot, Eastern Yellow Robin, Eastern Whipbird, Golden Whistler, Heard: Albert's Lyrebird.

Urunga, NSW.

The Urunga Lagoon section of Urunga Boardwalk.

There are two caravan parks at Urunga, both of which have good reputations. We wanted to explore the Urunga Boardwalk so we choose to stay at the Reflections Holiday Park which is right in front of the boardwalk. We joined the free Reflections loyalty program and got our site for a very cheap price. We choose a lovely unpowered site overlooking the Kalang River.

Camping at Reflections Holiday Park, Urunga.

Impressive camp kitchen in the caravan park.

The Urunga Boardwalk is a Grade 1 walk as it's entire length is wheelchair accessible. The main boardwalk is about one kilometer long and extends east, through a section of Ballinger Heads State Park, to the ocean. There is also a side extension that is 260 meters long and heads south into Urunga Lagoon. The walk is very scenic and dogs on leash are allowed.

The start of the Urunga Boardwalk.

Continuing along the Urunga Boardwalk.

Fishing on the Ballinger River.

Continuing along the Urunga Boardwalk.

A lookout along the boardwalk.

Continuing along the Urunga Boardwalk.

Looking south towards Nambucca Heads at the end of the boardwalk.

We thoroughly enjoyed walking along the boardwalk at different times of the day. Being late May the nights were cold but we still braved an early morning walk starting in the dark to see the sun rise.

Pre-dawn wake up.

Dawn on the boardwalk.

Sunrise from the end of the boardwalk.

Winter Sunrise.

It was so cold at sunrise that my eyes were watering.

Sunrise glow returning to the caravan park.

One of the things we loved about the boardwalk was that the waters surrounding it were teaming with life. We saw large numbers of Bream, Luderick and Mullet. As well as a few stingrays.

Stingray without a tail.

Bream alongside the boardwalk.

Mullet.

Luderick.

From the boardwalk on the landward side we could see Eastern Grey Kangaroos. There were also large numbers of Swamp Tiger Butterflies present.

Eastern Grey Kangaroo.

Swamp Tiger.

From the boardwalk we saw a Black-shouldered Kite and a family of Brown Quail as well as a variety of both bush and water birds.

Black-shouldered Kite.

We think the Urunga Boardwalk is one of Australia's best kept secrets and look forward to visiting Urunga again one day.


Wildlife in May 2019: Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Swamp Tiger Butterflies, Stingrays, Bream, Luderick, Mullet. Birdlist: Black-shouldered Kite, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Pied Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Little Cormorant, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Australian Wood Duck, Little Egret, White-faced Heron, Australian White Ibis, Rainbow Lorikeet, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, Australian Magpie, Masked Lapwing, Noisy Miner, Australian Pelican, Crested Pigeon, Silver Gull, Welcome Swallow, Crested Tern, Brown Quail, Willie Wagtail.

Karuah, New South Wales.

Karuah Jetty

As we were attending a funeral in Newcastle we decided to stay in a Garden Unit at BIG4 Karuah Jetty Holiday Park. We found the location ideal as it was a shorter drive for us from home and an easy drive to the airport and Newcastle. 

Garden Units BIG4 Karuah Jetty Holiday Park

Powered sites (L) and unpowered sites (R)

The caravan park has direct access to a scenic jetty, small boat ramp and a short mangrove boardwalk.

Karuah Jetty and small boat ramp.

Mangrove Boardwalk 

Quite a few Welcome Swallows have made the jetty their home and pelicans seem content to hang around the oyster shacks.

Welcome Swallows on the jetty.

Pelicans snoozing in front of an oyster shack.

In both the caravan park and the town of Kuruah there were large numbers of lorikeets. There were plenty of Rainbow Lorikeets but these were outnumbered by huge numbers of Musk Lorikeets.

Musk Lorikeet

Longworth Park is a pleasant picnic area in town on the Karuah River between an oyster outlet and the Karuah Bridge. We were informed by a local that this is a good location for dolphin watching but we didn't manage to see any. The park has an enclosed swimming area, toilets and a children's playground.

Specialist oyster boats on the Karuah River.

Enclosed swimming area.

We noticed a large nest in an electricity pylon across the river. There was an Eastern Osprey perched near the nest and later we realised that there was a juvenile in the nest.

Eastern Osprey in the nest.