Lamington National Park
Lamington National Park is the largest of its kind in Australia and its sub-tropical rainforest is home to a wide (and wild) variety of animals and birds. Although a National Park, at its heart lies a resort, o' Reilly's, which has been in business over 80 years -- the ideal place to stay and explore the park's 160km of graded walking trails.
The resort also lays on 4 wheel-drive bus excursions through the forest and other guided adventure activities.
The Tree Top Walk, shown here, is a suspended wooden walkway strung between tree-tops. At one tree junction, you can climb even higher than the 20 metres you're already viewing from.
The bird feeding area is great for those of us from the northern hemisphere where pigeons, sparrows and chickadees are the norm. Here the birds are King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas.
The National Park is in the Gold Coast hinterland, almost directly inland from Coolangatta and Palm Beach. Getting there from Brisbane, or from the Gold Coast resorts, is to take any of the roads to Nerang off the M1 highway. The distance is only 65 km but the road after Canungra zig-zags its way up a thousand metres (about 3000 ft) from sea-level to the top of the Lamington Plateau where the rainforest exists.
As you might guess from 'Lamington Plateau' and 'Lamington National Park', Governor of Queensland, Charles Cochrane-Baillie, Baron Lamington, is an important figure in Brisbane and Queensland's history. He was the eighth Governor, serving from 1896 to 1901. Another reminder of Lamington's time here is the Lamington cake, which originated in Queensland and is now found all over Australia. Maybe in another hundred years, they'll conquer the rest of the world. The cakes themselves are a butter sponge cube, about 5 cm (2 inches) each side, covered in chocolate then dipped in desiccated coconut shavings. A very pleasant snack with afternoon coffee or tea.
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For the less adventurous, around the resort are a number of gentler visitor attractions, such as a Tree Top Walk over 60 ft from the ground (not for those who dislike heights), a garden of sub-tropical plants (photo above), a restaurant, and a bird-feeding area.
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