There will be a little bit of variety in this trip, so that we can not only enjoy a few remote geocaches, but also to have a look at some of this spectacular part of the country that not many of us have regular access to and enjoy some remote bush camping.

Highlights

Friday

There will be 2 meeting points.We will be departing at EXACTLY the times shown (GPS time). This is going to be a long day, so we need to be able to get moving as early as possible. (See the waypoints list below for GPS locations).

• 06:30 - BP Services on Bruce Highway (Caboolture).
• 08:00 - Yarraman (optional for people from outside Brisbane).

Straglers will need to catch up!

We will be cutting cross country just north of Yarraman through some forest roads to Taroom, via the town of Cockatoo. Our target for the day will be an early evening arrival at Lake Murphy Conservation Park [More] (North West of Taroom).

Saturday

A relatively early start here, we will pack up camp, and head back to the Fitzroy Developmental Road, where we will head north to join the Dawson highway and continue through to Rollestone, Springsure and eventually Ka Ka Mundi around lunchtime.

The afternoon will be spent exploring this section of the National Park, before retiring to camp for dinner and a few light refreshments.

Sunday

After breakfast, the plan is to head on Salvator Rosa section of the national park. We will spend some time here exploring this part of the park. The day will be pretty flexible and relaxing, basically exploring both sections of the park before returning to camp for a 'Happy Hour'.

Monday

After a leisurely breakfast, We will pack up camp and exit the park making our way back along the Dawson highway to Moura, where we will again cut accross country through to Theodore, then head East towards Cracow for a well earned lunch at the famous Cracow Pub [More]. Leaving here, we will do a forest drive through to Auburn River National Par for the night [More].

Tuesday

Another leisurely morning will see us packing up and leaving Auburn river, then a straight forward relatively easy drive back to Brisbane, via the scenic Murgon to Kilcoy road.

Ka Ka Mundi

Across the undulating plains, Ka Ka Mundi’s sandstone cliffs dominate the clear blue skyline. This remote section of Carnarvon National Park contains more than 30km of escarpments and plateaus in the central highlands.

This section protects bonewood, softwood and brigalow scrubs on clay soils in central Queensland’s brigalow belt. Poplar box and silver-leaved ironbark forests and grassy downs grow on the richer black soils. Lush oases with rainforest scrub flourish around springs at the base of the cliffs and the creeks, attracting king parrots, wompoo fruit-doves and fig birds.

Aboriginal people have close ties with this place and there are many stories associated with Ka Ka Mundi. They believed harmful spirits lived in the caves around the Bunbuncundoo Springs but the springs had healing powers. Old cattle yards near the springs are a reminder of the early pastoral history. Ka Ka Mundi was grazed for more than a century before it became national park in 1974.

Salvator Rosa

Spring-fed Nogoa River and Louisa Creek wind through a picturesque broad valley beneath craggy sandstone outcrops in the Salvator Rosa Section of Carnarvon National Park. At the western edge of central Queensland’s sandstone belt, Salvator Rosa contains deeply eroded and spectacular rock formations, such as Spyglass Peak and the Sentinel, which dominate the skyline.

Eucalypt woodland and open forest cover most of the park. The wildflower displays are spectacular in spring. At least 10 of the park’s recorded 300 plant species are rare or threatened.

Explorer Thomas Mitchell named this valley during his 1846 Gulf of Carpentaria expedition and established a base camp here later that year.

Cracow

Once a prosperous gold mining town, Cracow is located 154 kilometres south east of Biloela. Gold was discovered in 1850, with the Golden Plateau N.L Company operating the mine from 1936 to 1976. Once promoted as a 'ghost town' Cracow has recently been given a new lease on life with the reopening of the gold mine.

Much of Cracow can be enjoyed on foot, by taking a 'walking tour' of the deserted buildings in the main street, the cemetery and the abandoned grand hospital. Envisage how life was in this once vibrant and prosperous town.

A visit to Cracow Hotel is an experience and tour in its own right. Enjoy country hospitality, a meal, a yarn and hotel's display of memorabilia dedicated to the pioneering stockmen and country 'larrikins'. Take a short drive to 'Cracow Beach' and marvel at the rare Livistonia Palms prevalent to the Dawson River area.

Geocaches

Taroom

Straddling the Leichhardt Highway-Dawson River crossing in the fertile brigalow country of Queensland’s Western Downs, Taroom shares a special niche in history. A coolabah tree in the main street is branded with the letters LL - scored in the bark by explorer Ludwig Leichhardt in 1844 on his overland trek from Dalby to Darwin. A large sandstone monument dedicated to Leichhardt stands in the park beside the Taroom Shire Council Chambers. The serenity of the modern Taroom belies the settlement’s bloody beginnings. In 1857 Yeeman Aborigines, resentful of white encroachment on their tribal lands, attacked the Hornet Bank Station and slaughtered eight members of the Fraser family, the children’s tutor and two shepherds. The Yeeman paid dearly in subsequent reprisals by white settlers.

Lake Murphy

Nestled beneath the low Murphy’s Range in the central highlands, Lake Murphy remains largely unchanged from the days when the first Europeans passed this way. Ludwig Leichhardt and his exploration party camped under the forest red gums on the shore of this lake on 19 November 1844, during their epic journey from the Darling Downs to Port Essington in the Northern Territory. This expedition paved the way for pastoral expansion in the Dawson district during the 1840s and 1850s. Lake Murphy was named after the young man in Leichhardt’s party who first saw the lake. Lake Murphy is the party’s only remaining campsite on public land in the Taroom area. Lake Murphy provides a seasonal refuge for waterbirds. This perched lake fills only when nearby Robinson Creek overflows, and has been dry five times in the past two centuries.

Auburn River National Park

The 405ha park protects an area of open eucalypt forest and dry rainforest. Silver-leaved ironbark and forest red gum dominate the grassy open forests. Bottle trees thrive in the dry rainforest on the northern bank of the river near the camping area. The Auburn River, with its rock pools and cascades, winds through the park, providing habitats for numerous birds, reptiles and mammals. Its banks are lined with bottlebrushes, flowering leptospermum shrubs and stunted figs.

References

Bush Camping

Fourbears

Bush Track

Shenzi

OMY130

Wedge Tailed Eagle

Cracow Hotel

Black Headed Python

4WD Tracks

Apostle Bird

Rong

Baby Dragon

Australian Bustard

Expedition Range

Flloyd