Gondwana Rainforests: Gold Coast’s Land Before Time

By Niall Roeder

Where do you find suspension bridges upon waterfalls, adventurous boardwalks through dense rainforests and striking mountaintop views over vast, green hinterlands? Far North Queensland? Probably. Gold Coast? Yep. The Gondwana Rainforests are only an hour from QT Gold Coast and if your mind isn’t already blown from that realisation, it will be once you visit this ‘land before time’.

The World Heritage-Listed Gondwana Rainforests boast the most extensive areas of subtropical rainforest in the world, big chunks of warm-temperate rainforest and almost all of the Antarctic Beech cool-temperate rainforest. The Ancient Beech trees in said forest date back 2000 years. Stop and think about that for a second.

Springbrook is a plateau amongst the Gondwana Rainforests and is the remains of the Tweed Volcano, now known as Mount Warning. Standing 990m above sea level, the highest point is known as Springbrook Mountain. There are plenty of walking trails and lookouts on the plateau, all with breath-taking views of the surrounding rainforests and mountains, as well as the stretch back towards the Goldy coastline. This area is home to lace monitors, black skinks, carpet pythons, frogs, crayfish, eels, more than 100 species of bird and the mysterious Albert’s lyrebird, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled.

This is quite the opposite of the beautiful beaches the Gold Coast is renowned for. A lesser known, but an equally important and spectacular Queensland attraction. The perfect day trip: only one hour from golden beaches and luxury hotels you can be deep exploring ancient and untouched forestry and back again for dinner.