Springbrook National Park

There are many places in the world you can visit which take your breath away. However, if you actually live in the area, it ceases to impress all that much, particularly if you have been there many times before.

Just imagine if you were born near the Niagara Falls and have seen the falls hundreds of times, I don’t think it will make your blood run faster every time you go and view them.

Having given that some thought I have decided to give the nearby waterfalls some more attention because after all, they are beautiful and 99% of my blog readers have never been there.



We live in an interesting part of the country. About 20 million years ago there were active volcanoes north and south of the city Brisbane. Many visitors travel to the nearby mountain ranges not realizing that they are driving along and up the outer side of a very old and very large volcano. The road rises to over a thousand meters and finishes at what is known as the “Best of All Lookout”.

Not many people know that when they are staring into the valley below, they are not only
standing at the border of the state of Queensland, but also at the rim of a very large crater! Right in the middle of the crater is the old core (Mount Warning) with the nearby town of Murwillumbah. The crater consists of a semi-circle with the open end towards the ocean. Wherever there are old craters you can expect larger waterfalls as the old lava streams would have left many cracks, through which run numerous rivers. We visited two of these waterfalls,
both very different from each other.

Purlingbrook Falls

Just over 100 km away from Brisbane, near the town of Springbrook are the Purlingbrook Falls. The top of the falls is situated at an elevation of 600 meters from where the water drops over the edge to the river 110 meters below. A walking track on both sides of the valley leads to the bottom of the waterfall. Some years ago you could actually walk behind the waterfall itself but, due to erosion, this is no longer possible.

Some distance further up the road is the “Best of All Lookout”, but for us is turned into a ”Worst of All Lookout” as we were now up in the clouds and with a visibility of less than 10 meters. So for the exercise I have included some pictures which I have taken during previous trips.



The Natural Arch

On the other side of the Springbrook National Park is the “Natural Arch. This is a very different place as you first have to walk down a mountain track for some distance. The river flows over (apparently) soft lava and over millions of years has worn through the side of the mountains creating a hole through which the water tumbles down into a cave below. So in fact you have a waterfall inside a mountain. All can be viewed from the cave and is pretty spectacular.