While travellers are familiar with famous favourites like Noosa and Lamington national parks, there is a treasure trove of hidden gems offering a variety of great natural experiences.

Here are nine of those lesser-known national parks waiting to be discovered:

1. Bunya Mountains National Park

The Bunya Mountains National Park, just over three hours’ drive from Brisbane, provides an alpine escape perfect for families and romantic getaways. The mountains are lined with towering bunya pines and the area was once a ceremonial gathering place for a significant Aboriginal festival called the Bonye Bonye festival. The Bunya Mountains feature more than 100 individual holiday cabins and cottages for rent, ranging from studios to multi-bedroom chalets. The national park is home to a large population of wallabies and offers a patchwork of walking trails through bunya pine forest, including easy waterfall circuits and more intense hikes across the mountainside.

2. Porcupine Gorge National Park

Winding through the arid savannah terrain, Porcupine Gorge National Park is an outback oasis. Just over an hour’s drive from Hughenden, the waters of Porcupine Creek, surrounded by a green outline of rich vegetation that line the gorge, pop against the orange and yellow of the Outback plains. The most spectacular way to appreciate the vast canyon is with Fox Helicopters on a scenic flight to the upper section of the national park not accessible from the ground. Camping is available at the Pyramid campsite and there are three marked walking tracks leading hikers to lookouts or down into the gorge.

3. Conway National Park

Leafy rainforest canopies, secret beaches and sparkling views across the Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef are all packaged up into 75km of refreshing rainforest coastline in Conway National Park. Lining the peninsula beyond Airlie Beach, Conway National Park boasts waterfalls and swimming holes, uncrowded beaches, stunning lookouts and a network of hiking and mountain-biking trails. Hit the dirt with Bike & Hike Whitsunday and experience ancient rainforest in a guided mountain bike tour. The national park is also home to six rare and threatened species like the endangered Proserpine rock wallaby.

4. Mount Hypipamee National Park

Mount Hypipamee National Park in Tropical North Queensland has other national parks green with envy thanks to an impressive crater that plunges 58m into the ground. At the bottom of the volcanic pipe lies a 70m deep lake, coated by an eye-catching lime green blanket of native waterweed. The crater is thought to have formed after a massive gas explosion ruptured through a crack in the earth’s surface and looks as if nature dropped a huge bowling ball into molten rock. The best vantage point to take in this geological wonder is from the viewing platform on the Crater Track walk.

5. Girringun National Park

Home to Australia’s highest single-drop waterfall, Wallaman Falls in Girringun National Park, is a heavy hitter when it comes to wonderous natural features. While many flock to watch the water fall and then dissipate into mist at the bottom of the 268m Wallaman Falls, the dramatic Blencoe Falls in the upper section of the national park are just as remarkable with two levels of waterfall cascading down the gorge. Closer to the coast, Attie Creek Falls and the Cardwell Spa Pools offer two superb swimming holes.

6. Kroombit Tops National Park

For history buffs, the little-known Kroombit Tops National Park, south west of Gladstone, is a destination with a hint of history mixed with a little bit of mystery. It is the final resting place of the American Liberator World War II bomber, Beautiful Betsy, which vanished over Queensland in 1945 during a flight from Darwin to Brisbane. The wreckage lay undiscovered for 49 years until a park ranger stumbled on it in 1994 where it remains as a monument to the servicemen onboard who passed away. Kroombit Tops National Park is also home to the critically endangered Kroombit tinkerfrog of which there are thought to be less than 150 in existence.

7. Main Range National Park

Main Range National Park stands high and mighty just a 90 minutes’ drive from Brisbane and lies within the World Heritage Gondwana Rainforest. While many national parks boast outstanding walking tracks, Main Range National Park takes the cake thanks to the luxe Scenic Rim Trail experience. The six-day all-inclusive guided trek winds through the Scenic Rim and parts of Main Range National Park stopping overnight at a number of Spicers lodge and cabin accommodation including Spicers Hidden Vale and Spicers Peak Lodge. For those wanting to tackle just a section of the trail, shorter walks are available.

8. Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park

Created more than 400 million years, the extraordinary limestone rock formations and caves of Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park hold important natural and cultural significance. Ranger-guided tours inside the caves showcase the magnificent hanging stalactites, stalagmites and flowstones that have formed due to dissolving limestone. The national park is also home to Aboriginal rock art galleries that can be accessed on various walking trails. The site was visited by Hollywood star Zac Efron during the filming of Netflix series, Down to Earth with Zac Efron.

9. Conondale National Park

Take a drive over the hinterland range of the Sunshine Coast to find an effervescent swimming hole the locals have been keeping secret for years. Booloumba Creek, in the Conondale National Park, takes natural colour palettes to a whole new level as the freshwater creek blends bright turquoise with deep emerald. There are a number of camping spots throughout the national park (permit required) and a network of walking trails, of which the Booloumba Falls walk leads to a cascading waterfall and swimming spot.

Content source and photos: Tourism and Events Queensland

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