Lamington National Park and Mount Warning National Park

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Lamington National Park

   Ask anyone in Brisbane about Lamington and they will probably mention one of two roads, and both of them will make you work. The national park covers the high plateau of the McPherson Range on the Queensland side of the border, a huge expanse of rainforest, waterfalls and cliff-edged lookouts at the heart of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage area. It was named after Lord Lamington, a governor of Queensland at the end of the nineteenth century, who is said to have been less than thrilled to have a park, and later a cake, named after him.

   Read the complete Lamington National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lamington National Park is where the day begins. Next is Limpinwood Nature Reserve.

2. 2. Limpinwood Nature Reserve

   Twenty-odd million years ago, a huge shield volcano stood where the Tweed valley is now, on what became the border between New South Wales and Queensland. Erosion has since carved out its centre, leaving one of the largest erosion calderas in the world, a vast bowl of green farmland ringed by cliffs and ridges, with the volcano's old central plug, Wollumbin, also known as Mount Warning, standing in the middle. Limpinwood Nature Reserve, on the northern rim of the caldera, protects a stretch of subtropical rainforest that is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site preserving forests whose lineage goes back to the ancient supercontinent.

   Read the complete Limpinwood Nature Reserve write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Limpinwood Nature Reserve comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mount Warning National Park.

3. 3. Mount Warning National Park

   Wollumbin, as the Bundjalung people call it, rises on the Queensland border like a huge broken tooth, the central plug of the eroded Tweed volcano. Captain Cook saw it from the sea in 1770 and named it Mount Warning, as a signal of the dangerous reefs offshore. At just over eleven hundred metres it is not high, but standing alone above a vast bowl, ringed by the cliffs of the old crater rim, it looks far greater. It is often said to be the first place on the Australian mainland to catch the sun each morning, though that depends on how you measure.

   Read the complete Mount Warning National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 134 km into the recorded legs you reach Mount Warning National Park. Next is back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve.

4. 4. back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Limpinwood Nature Reserve write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve, late in the day. Next is Lamington National Park.

5. 5. Lamington National Park

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Lamington National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Lamington National Park. That is the ride.