Jaysee Park, Mundubbera (The Black Stump), QLD.

This rest area is listed as Mundubbera Jaysee Park on Wiki Camps and as Black Stump Rest Area in my Camps 7. I can understand why people refer to it as The Black Stump. 

This is just a rest area on the side of a busy road but it's worth stopping by to see the Bimble Box Tree, commonly known as a Knobby Tree for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, the one here is in poor condition. We did see a much healthier specimen growing on the side of the road but it was not worth the risk of pulling up with a van on the back to have a closer look. Keep an eye out for it on the way to Gayndah, about 4.5 km from this park on the left hand side. 

Bimble Box Tree / Knobby Tree / Poplar Box Eucalyptus populnea

Artwork at the entrance to Jaysee Park

Details for Jaycee Park, Mundubbera:
Where: On the Burnett Highway about 2.5 km north-east of Mundubbera.
Camping: 20 hour rest area.
Facilities: Toilets, pets, water, picnic tables, phone, TV and WiFi reception, information signs, play ground,views. No longer has showers.
Of interest: The Bimble Box Tree.
Cautions: $5,500 fine for staying longer than 20 hours in every four week period.
Nearby National Park: Auburn River National Park, 41 km.

Mount Walsh National Park, QLD.

Mount Walsh National Park has three different entry points. Coongarra Rocks is accessible by 4WD, the Waterfall Creek section is remote and can become inaccessible even by 4WD in the wet and the Mount Walsh Day Use Area which is accessed by a short 2WD dirt road.

It is well worth a drive to the Mount Walsh Day Use Area. There are beautiful views of Mount Walsh on the drive in.

The Bluff Walking Track, otherwise referred to as the Summit Walk leaves from the Day Use Area. Starting out as a Class 4 walk it quickly becomes a Class 5 walk. Good fitness is required as this is a tough steep walk. We slogged up and up for a long time but we did not make it all the way. There is little shade on this walk and we made the mistake of attempting it in the middle of the day. We were rewarded with great views over the surrounding countryside. We climbed high enough to observe Peregrine Falcons dart past and Wedge-tailed Eagles glide by. 

Looking towards Biggenden from Mount Walsh

The day use area is a nice spot for a picnic. We saw quite a few birds as we recovered from the walk.

White-throated Honeyeater

This Mistletoebird seemed reluctant to show his face.

Bird List: Black Kite, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Crested Pigeon, Laughing Kookaburra, Red-backed Fairy-wren, Noisy Miner, White-throated Honeyeater, Rufous Whistler, Golden Whistler, Grey Fantail, White-winged Chough, Mistletoebird.

Details for the Mount Walsh Day Use Section of Mount Walsh National Park:
Where: 84 km west of Maryborough, QLD. Turn off the Maryborough-Biggenden Road 2 km east of Biggenden, travel along a good 2WD dirt road for 5.3 km.
Facilities: Toilets, cold showers, tank water, sheltered picnic tables, parking area, walk access.
Cautions: The Bluff Walk requires a high level of fitness.
Camping: Remote walk-in bush camping is permitted in Mount Walsh National Park with a permit.

Ban Ban Springs, Queensland.

One of the things we have learned is that when you are on a roadtrip for any length of time camp fees add up! $12 - $25 a night seems cheap when you only go camping for a few nights a year on holiday but when you pay night after night it can have a serious impact on your budget. One way to get around this is to spend some nights in the many free camps scattered throughout Australia. Free camps vary enormously from something suitable for an overnight rest stop on a long trip to camping areas worthy of being a bucket list destination. We often drop into free camps to take a break on our travelling days and I usually take a few photos so I have decided to add posts about the free camps we see on our National Park Odyssey in the hope that this information will help encourage more people to get out there and see this wonderful country of ours; even if they are on a tight budget. I will label all the free camp posts so that our readers can find them on the right hand side of my blogs by clicking on Free Camp.

The northern half of Ban Ban Springs Rest Area.

The rest area at Ban Ban Springs is on the side of the road just south of the junction of the Burnett and Isis Highways: 28 km south of Gayndah and 37 km west of Biggenden. These are busy highways with continuous traffic noise. Overnight camping is allowed in this large rest area for up to 20 hours. Toilets, bins and picnic tables are available. There is a service station nearby and a seasonal produce stall on the other side of the road. There is a separate truck rest area to the south of the public rest area.

There are permanent springs at Ban Ban Springs that are sacred to the Wakka Wakka people. In 2005, the springs became the first place in Queensland to be formally registered as an Aboriginal Heritage Place on the Queensland Aboriginal Heritage Register. 

On our trip in July we stopped for about 15 minutes and saw quite a few birds. Blue-faced Honeyeaters mobbed our picnic table and a large group of squabbling Apostlebirds arrived. Other birds we saw were: Grey-crowned Babblers, Magpies, Striated Pardalotes and Red-backed Fairy Wrens.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Apostlebird

Details for Ban Ban Springs Rest Area, QLD:
Near the junction of the Burnett and Isis Highways: 28 km south of Gaynder.
Nearest National Park: Coalstaun Lakes National Park, 18 km.
20 hour rest stop. Free.
Types of camping: caravans, motor homes and large rigs. 
Pets allowed.
Facilities: toilets, sheltered picnic tables, bins, wood BBQ's (BYO wood), turning circle. 
Of interest: Aboriginal history, permanent springs. Service station. Produce stall.
Cautions: Close to highway. Road noise.

Auburn River National Park, Queensland.

Auburn River National Park

Auburn River National Park is about 410 km north-west of Brisbane. Access to the park along Auburn River Road is slow going as it is rough and corrugated for 7 km. 4WD is recommended in the wet.

The campground has 5 areas/sites but the booking system allows for 10 bookings. We came here after a busy school holiday weekend and we heard many complaints that over the weekend there were more than five bookings and when people arrived they found that the five areas were full and that despite having paid for a booking they ended up camping along the road wherever they could pull up. Personally I wouldn’t come to Auburn River if there were more than 3 or 4 bookings as I like to experience the remote feel of the place and there is only one toilet.

Each site has a different layout. 1st site top left. 3rd site top right. 4th site bottom left. 5th site bottom right. The 2nd site was occupied by a large family group.

How many sites are there at Auburn River National Park?

There is a Day Use Area with a large shelter over two tables and a gas BBQ. The day use area shares the toilet with the campers.

Day Use Area, Auburn River National Park.

Gorge Top Walk: Class 3, 3.2 km return.

The first walk we did was on a pleasant walking track to a lookout over the gorge. We loved the spiral rock work at the lookouts in Auburn River National Park.

Lookout at the end of the Gorge Top Walk

The view from the Gorge Top Walk Lookout.

A feature of the walk were two types of Bottletree. The Queensland Bottletree Brachychiton rupestis has a swollen trunk and small leaves. The Large Leaved Bottletree Brachychiton australis has a slimmer trunk and distinctive large leaves the shape of maple leaves. Large Leaved Bottletrees are deciduous but there were a few leaves left for us to look at.

Large Leaved Bottletree Brachychiton australis

Queensland Bottletree Brachychiton rupestis 

We noticed a couple of other interesting plants: a type of She Oak that had very long needles and a fleshy vine.

Unknown fleshy vine and a local Causarina (She Oak) at Auburn River National Park

Gorge Lookout: Class 3, 600m return.

A short walk from the Day Use Area to a lookout over the gorge.

Auburn River Gorge Lookout.

Riverbed and Rockpools Walk: Class 4, 1.5 km return

A rough track drops down to the gorge and fitness is required to return up the track to the campground. Once arriving at the bottom of the gorge you can scramble over large boulders to interesting rocks rounded by the flow of the river. To get to these “dinosaur eggs” Parks Queensland has painted dinosaur tracks to mark the way. We were keen to see the rocks but after only going a short distance we decided to call it quits as our rock scrambling skills weren’t up to the task. We turned back and found a nice spot to have a picnic. 

Following the dinosaur trail.

Tranquil spot in Auburn River Gorge for a picnic.

We scanned the rock face in front of us for Peregrine Falcons but had to content ourselves with seeing some tell-tail “whitewash”  and a few twigs which may have been where the falcons roost.

A zoomed in look at the rockface for evidence of Peregrine Falcons.

Auburn River National Park is known to have a number of lizards, including the Rainbow Skink Carlia pectoralis. We didn’t see any lizards or snakes at all. In fact, we didn’t see any animals on this trip. The weather and the time of year may have contributed to this lack of wildlife sightings. It was the middle of winter after all and it poured with rain on our first day and was very cold and windy on our second day.

The main campground birds were Pied Currawongs. There were a few Striated Pardalotes, Whistlers and Pied Butcherbirds about. Overall our birdlist was disappointingly short.

Adult Pied Butcherbird sharpening its beak on a well worn fork in a tree where it "butchers" its prey. Immature Pied Butcherbird (R)

Rufous Whistlers.

Details for Auburn River Camping Area, Auburn River.
Access: 4WD in wet weather.
Directions: It is important to put Auburn River Camping Area, rather than Auburn River National Park, into Maps or you could end up being directed to a section of the national park that is on the wrong side of the gorge! Auburn River is about 410 km north-west of Brisbane and about 40 km south-west of Mundubbera. Travel 13 km south of Mundubbera along the Mundubbera-Durong Road, turn west into Hawkwood Road. Travel approximately 20 km before turning into Auburn River Road and drive a further 7 km on the rough road to the camping area.
Type of Camping: tents, camper trailers, Off Road caravans.
Sites: The campground has 5 areas/sites but the booking system allows for 10 bookings.
Facilities: 1 toilet, tank water at the Day Use shelter. Fire rings. Generators permitted. No showers. No drinking water. We had Telstra mobile reception.
Prohibitions: No pets. Do not collect wood from the park.
Fees: $6.15 per adult per night. Family rate available.
Bookings:  Phone 13 74 68 or online at https://qpws.usedirect.com/QPWS/Facilities/SearchView.aspx
Cautions: 4WD access when wet. Stay on the road as the soils can be treacherous in the wet. The lookouts are not fenced. 
Day Use Area: Sheltered picnic tables, Gas BBQ, toilet, tank water.

Birdlist over the three days:

Pied Butcherbird, Crow, Pied Currawong, Striated Pardalote, Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler, Grey Fantail, Weebill.

Shared Walks in Glen Rock State Forest, QLD.

Before arriving at Glen Rock State Forest we printed out a shared trail map. It turned out to be a good thing that we brought our own map because we couldn't find any information about walks at the campground or in the information hut. Even with the map we had a great deal of trouble finding the starting point for Christies Loop. We walked back along the entry road and eventually noticed a new shinny gate in a fence. We could just make out another new gate on the other side of the paddock which was flanked by a couple of green posts of a type commonly used in national parks. Throughout the walk we came upon several green posts whenever there was a choice in direction to be made but unfortunately they were all new and none of them had any arrows or other information on them. As we climbed we had phone reception so we ended up using Google Earth to guide us. We had to backtrack a couple of times but there wasn't much chance of getting completely lost as there were fantastic views of the valley below. We were more concerned about adding too many extra kilometers to the walk as the going was pretty tough. Later, a ranger told us that 4WD clubs had helped the rangers by installing the green posts. As we packed up to leave the campground, members from a couple of 4WD clubs were arriving for the weekend to continue helping with the establishment of the trails. 

Christies Loop, 5.2 km return. Shared walking, horse and mountain bike trail. Good fitness is required because the trail has a very steep ascent and a very steep descent. 

The starting point of Christies Loop. Only a few cow pats to negotiate!

The walk crosses the valley floor and climbs to the top of the ridge before descending again. The only answer to "Why did we do it?" is "Because it was there!".

The creek crossing was completely dry.

At the top of the ridge looking back at Glen Rock.

Our destination.

From here we walked on the most pleasant part of the trail to another peak only to discover, when we looked at Google Earth, that this wasn't part of Christies Loop and we had to back track.

The pleasant part of the trail that wasn't part of the trail after all.

Rufous Whistler, female.

We didn't see a great variety of birds on this walk but there were quite a few Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Rufous Whistlers and Fairy Wrens.

The descent required a bit of concentration as it is quite steep but before long we were back walking along the creek bed. We saw a few cows on the walk but they seemed quite shy. In our absence a herd of cows had moved into the paddock, even though we tried not to disturb them, they quickly left when we showed up.

Blackfellow Creek Trail, 16 km return. Shared walking, horse and mountain bike trail. 

Blackfellow Creek Trail

This trail heads along the valley floor towards Main Range National Park. The walk is easy and pleasant. We didn't see any other people but we could see wildlife footprints along the track. The trail went past Glen Rock and we were able to view it from a different angle.

Dingo and Eastern Grey Kangaroo footprints.

Glen Rock

We noticed that large numbers of Double-barred Finch were sheltering in lantana alongside the track. Thankfully some of them emerged enough for us to get photos.

Spot the Double-barred Finch.

There were also plenty of Silvereyes feeding alongside the track.

Silvereye.

Soon we came to a waterhole and after that the creek was flowing and we saw a greater variety of birds.

The first waterhole that hadn't completely dried out.

White-necked Heron

White-faced Heron.

Rosellas

Rufous Whistler, male.

We arrived at a creek crossing and startled a magnificent adult Brown Goshawk. We spent the next 20 minutes playing hide and seek with the goshawk in the hope of getting a usable photo but goshawks are very intelligent and it had no intention of giving us a good view. 

Coming up to the creek crossing where we startled a brown Goshawk.

We found several pupal cases emerging from the ground but we didn't see any Rain Moths. We did see lots of Monarch butterflies.

Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus and Pupal Case of the Rain Moth Trictena atripalpis

We had spent so much time taking photos that we ran out of time to complete the walk and we reluctantly decided to return to the campground. We will definitely be back.

Casuarina Camping Area, Glen Rock State Forest, QLD.

Glen Rock, reflecting the setting sun.

The drive south from Gatton to Glen Rock has great views of the food producing farms along the valley floor. We passed an organic pecan farm and a paddock with three camels. Closer to the campground there are Brahman cattle farms where the cattle come in three colours; red, black or white.

Food crops growing in fertile alluvial soil.

Pecan trees.

Red, white and black Brahmans.

The road has been done up since it was extensively damaged by flooding and is in good condition. The concrete causeways, some with 3m markers, indicate that flooding should be taken seriously around here.

We set up in the well appointed campground and had the place to ourselves for a couple of days before people started arriving from the Mitsubishi 4WD Club for a working-bee to help the rangers. 

Casuarina Camping Area, Glen Rock State Forest.

There is a slab hut opposite the campground which is used as an information centre. We browsed through the hut but had to return with a torch to read the maps as it is surprising dark inside.

Slab Hut at Glen Rock State Forest.

Detail: slab hut at Glen Rock.

A resident goanna cruised around the campground. 

Lace Monitor (goanna)  Varanus varius

The most common birds in the campground were Noisy Miners but Grey-crowned Babblers were also present as well as Butcherbirds and Magpies. Every afternoon Rosella's flew overhead. There were Crimson Rosella's and Eastern Rosella's and large numbers of birds that at first glance appeared to be Pale-headed Rosella's but proved to be hybrids on closer inspection. Despite their numbers they proved challenging to get photos of.

Grey-crowned Babbler

We noticed strange alien-like creatures had emerged from holes in the ground. Upon further research I discovered that this is the empty pupal case of a Bardi Grub. The grub is actually the caterpillar of the large Rain Moth and it lives in the ground for many years feeding on the roots of trees. The adult emerges just before heavy rain, typically from April to June, leaving the empty case sticking out of the ground. 

8 cm pupal case of the Rain Moth Trictena atripalpis

Details for Casuarina Camping Area, Glen Rock State Forest, QLD.

Access: Narrow sealed roads in good condition for most of the way. Good dirt road for the last few kilometers. Caution: this is a floodplain.

Directions: Glen Rock State Forest is 42 km south of Gatton, on East Haldon Road via Tenthill and Junction View. The route is well sign posted.

Type of Camping: tent beside your car, caravans, camper trailer, motor home. Maximum stay of 30 days.

Sites: Not numbered. One large grassy area with two sites and another large grassy area divided into 4 large sites with small trees separating each site. Each site suitable for up to 12 people. Also a group camping area and a horse yard (a new yard was being constructed while we were there).

Facilities: drop toilets, cold showers, covered tables in each site, fire rings, non-potable water taps. BYO wood. Walking is permitted on roads and tracks. Shared walking, horse and mountain bike trails. No bins. We had no Telstra phone reception. 

Prohibitions: No domestic pets except horses. No generators. Do not collect firewood from the park.

Fees: $5.95 per person, children under 5 years are free. There is a Family Rate of $23.80 for 1 to 2 adults with children under the age of 18, with a maximum of 8 people in total. 

Bookings: Phone 13 74 68 or online at https://qpws.usedirect.com/QPWS/Facilities/SearchView.aspx

Cautions: Floodplain: some causeways have 3m flood indicators. Narrow bridges, causeways and grids. The creek near the campground was completely dry while we were there. One of the campsites was heavily affected by ants.

Day Use Area: Large shelter with tables and wood BBQ's, individual tables and wood BBQ's, drop toilets. Bush Tucker Walk.

Wildlife List for this trip:

Eastern Grey Kangaroo. Wild dogs/Dingoes could be heard at night and we saw their footprints when we went on the Blackfellow Creek Walk. The ranger we spoke to said there are Dingoes in the area. Unidentified small and large bats.

Butterflies: Large numbers of Monarch and Lesser Wanderer. 

Birds: Pacific Black Duck, White-necked Heron, White-faced Heron, Masked Lapwing, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Brown Goshawk, Peaceful Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove, Crested Pigeon, Galah, Australian King Parrot, Crimson Rosella, Eastern Rosella, Eastern Rosella hybrids, Laughing Kookaburra, Rainbow Bee-eater, White-throated Treecreeper, Variegated Fairy-wren, Striped Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Yellow-throated Miner, Lewin’s Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Striped Honeyeater, Eastern Whipbird, Grey-crowned Babbler, Jacky Winter, Grey Shrike-thrush, Rufous Whistler, Grey Fantail, Willie Wagtail, Magpie-lark, Dusky Woodswallow, Grey Butcherbird, Pied Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Pied Currawong, Australian Raven, Welcome Swallow, Golden-headed Cisticola, Double-barred Finch, Silvereye.