Outdoors
Border Ranges hikes to beat the heat and discover rainforest secrets

Photos by Joe Hinchliffe

Bushwalking in the Australian summer can be something of an extreme sport. For many, the period from end of November to the start of March is better spent on the beach or by the pool. 

But the mountains of South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales offer an alternative for those who want to immerse themselves in nature, without fear of parched mouths and peeling skin. 

In wet, shady gullies, by clear, cool creeks or at the feet of giant, thousand-year-old trees you can not only escape the season, but be transported to another era. 

Brindle Creek in the Border Ranges National Park is one enchanting option for those who want to get to know the rainforests in our backyard.  

It offers a full-day hike, as well as two that can be walked in less than an hour. However, while fit bushwalkers could easily breeze through the Red Cedar (0.75 kilometre) and Helmholtzia (1.2 kilometre) loops in a matter of minutes, these are places in which the contemplative could pass a day.

And it is in the quiet, slow passage of time that they reveal their secrets. 

The creek can be seen from both, but the Helmholtzia loop crosses the water several times via charming little bridges of mossy wood. 

Here, if you stop and look, you can see daredevil spiders clinging to webs that stretch from rock to rock, bejewelled by tiny droplets of moisture and swaying centimetres above the fast-flowing stream.

Below the surface, other many-limbed critters search for food. 

Crystal clear water does little to obfuscate the passage of the brightly coloured crayfish that call the creek home. 

Spiny Mountain Crays are large, growing to 13 centimeters and packing claws that can deliver a painful nip.

They live in high-altitude rain and wet eucalypt forests in a crescent from Mount Tamborine through the Border Ranges and up past Cunningham's Gap.

The crayfish take on an array of different colours throughout their range.

While in Lamington and Springbrook they are vivid blues and greens, the crayfish of Brindle Creek often take on rusty reds contrasting with snowy whites. 

The opening in the canopy along the watercourse also provides an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the birds whose calls resonate through the forest, but which often flit unseen through the tangle of vines and branches. 

A spiny mountain crayfish waiting for prey.

If the deep, resonant cooing of fruit-doves lulls you into a reverie, the iconic crack of the whipbird can snap you out. 

And while taking time by the creek bird watching or listening, you can appreciate the dazzling variety of plants that nourish and shelter the animals of the forest.  

It is the towering trees that command attention, and rightly so. Antarctic Beech and Hoop Pines have been lording over the mountains since the age of the dinosaurs and at least one Red Cedar tree on the Cedar loop is believed to be a thousand years old. 

This is a veritable highrise of a tree, thick with staghorns, orchids and bird nests and a rare survivor of the timber cutting days in which cedar was the most prized of timbers.  

But the plants which grow amid the buttressed roots of these forest elders are also worth appreciating. 

The Helmholtzia loop takes its name for one of the more striking of these. It is the botanical name for the rare Stream Lily which can grow to two-metres and is found only in the boggy soil of these ranges. 

Stranger things too grow in the damp and dark, with mushrooms and fungus of all forms and bright colours sprouting amid the leaf litter.

The longer Brindle Creek walking track to the Antarctic Beech picnic area was closed due to storm damage over the weekend.

But at six-kilometres each way, a full day is advised to tackle this walk. 

And more secrets of the rainforest were revealed by these fallen branches. Many epiphytic plants of the treetops, normally seen clinging to their towering hosts high above, were also brought crashing down to earth. 

And large Land Mullets sunned themselves in patches of light through holes punched in the normally thick canopy. 

The lizards can grow larger than 50 centimetres and are among the world’s largest skinks. 

The creek’s picnic area is reached by the one-way Brindle Creek Road, which loops off the Tweed Range Scenic Drive.

On the way back you pass several lookouts, including the spectacular Pinnacle Walk, which offers sweeping views of the Tweed caldera, a massive volcanic crater, Mount Warning -  Wollumbin down to Byron Bay. 

The park is on the NSW side of the border and best accessed via Lions Road – when it is not blocked due to border closures. 

It can be reached in less than two hours drive from Boonah and less than 150 minutes from Ipswich.  

For those wanting to make a weekend of it there are two camping sites which allow you to start your hikes in the cool of the morning. 

Booking is required for the campsites and there are park entry fees. 

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