About Lamington

Park features

Declared in 1915, Lamington National Park covers 21,176ha and boasts extensive walking tracks along the McPherson Range, which allow visitors to explore the area's forests, creeks and waterfalls.

Dramatic lookouts in Lamington afford views over the Gold Coast, south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Lamington is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, which includes the most extensive areas of subtropical rainforest in the world, most of the world's warm temperate rainforest and nearly all of the northern-most Antarctic beech Nothofagus moorei cool temperate rainforest.

• Read more about the nature, culture and history of Lamington National Park.

Looking after the park

The natural beauty of Lamington National Park attracts hundreds of thousands of people to the area, but high visitor numbers create many pressures. Litter, erosion caused by shortcutting tracks, damage to vegetation and disturbance to wildlife all threaten nature's delicate existence.

You can help protect the park by:

• observing guidelines below
• using fuel stoves only
• stopping the spread of pathogens
• being frog friendly.

Guidelines

• please leave all plants and animals undisturbed.
• follow directions on all safety and regulatory signs—this protects you and the numerous threatened and endangered species in the park.
• please do not feed the wildlife. Feeding native animals may cause poor health and sometimes death.
• use toilets if available. Away from toilets, take care with sanitation and hygiene and don't pollute natural water supplies. Ensure all faecal matter and toilet paper is properly buried (15cm deep) well away from tracks, camp sites and 100m from all watercourses and drainage channels (carry a small trowel for this purpose). Bag and carry out disposable nappies and sanitary products.
• wash away from streams, gullies and watercourses, as all detergents, soaps, sunscreens and toothpastes pollute water and damage aquatic life.
• take your rubbish home. Minimal impact bushwalkers take great care to avoid leaving any rubbish. Remember—pack it in, pack it out. This includes all food scraps, scraps of foil, sweet’s wrappers and cigarette butts.
• keep to the walking tracks where provided, don't shortcut, and take care near cliff edges.

Fuel stoves only

No open fires are allowed in the park; fuel stoves must be used. This is because;

• there is a possibility of pathogens, fire ants and cane toadlets being bought into the park with introduced firewood
• the importance of fallen and dead timber (as homes for insects, reptiles and small mammals and in returning nutrients to the soil)
• the danger of starting wildfires
• the damage caused by people trampling as they gather wood.

Pathogens

Stop the spread of pathogens (disease producing organisms such as phytophthora, myrtle rust and amphibian chytrid fungus). Soil and detritus can contain pathogens such as fungal spores that are harmful to the forest and frogs.

• Keep to designated roads and walking tracks at all times.
• Start and finish your bushwalk with clean footwear and camping gear by removing soil from footwear, camping spade or trowel, and tent pegs before leaving an area, and keep all gear as clean and free from soil as possible during the walk.
• Please clean and disinfect your footwear and camping equipment using a disinfectant either at home or before visiting the park. Use pathogen control stations located at track entrances in the park.
• Watch the Stop the spread of weeds and pathogens web clip for more information.

Please refer to the Green Mountains and Binna Burra section maps for locations of these pathogen control stations.

Be frog friendly

Lamington's waterways provide important habitats for several endangered or vulnerable species, particularly frogs and the Lamington spiny crayfish. Please help protect these sensitive habitats by following the guidelines below.

• Please avoid swimming where possible to minimise your impact on the waterways.
• Please do not disturb, handle or remove frogs, their eggs or tadpoles.
• Do not use or discard, soap, detergent, shampoo, sunscreen, insect repellent or any other potential pollutant in creeks or along the banks.
• Keep to walking tracks and cross directly where the track crosses the creek.
• Please do not disturb or remove rocks or trample vegetation in or directly adjacent to creeks.

See the guidelines on caring for parks for more information about protecting our environment and heritage in parks.

Park management

Lamington National Park is a reserve of international significance and is managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) under the Nature Conservation Act 1992, to preserve and present its remarkable natural and cultural values in perpetuity.

Lamington's outstanding geological history, evolutionary significance and role in nature conservation are recognised through its inclusion in the World Heritage listed Gondwana Rainforests of Australia. Management is in accordance with internationally recognised obligations under the World Heritage Convention.

For more information about the management of Lamington National Park, refer to the Lamington National Park Management Plan (PDF, 1.0MB) . Future planning for Lamington National Park will be developed under the Values Based Management Framework.

Tourism information links

Beaudesert Community Arts and Information Centre
Westerman Park
Cnr Mt Lindesay Highway and Enterprise Drive
BEAUDESERT QLD 4285
Ph: (07) 5541 4495
Email: bdstarts@bigpond.net.au
www.visitscenicrim.com.au

Canungra Information Centre
www.visitscenicrim.com.au
12–14 Kidston Street,
CANUNGRA QLD 4275
Phone: (07) 5543 5156
Email: canungrainformation@bigpond.com

For more tourist information about the Gold Coast see Destination Gold Coast.

For tourism information for all regions in Queensland see Queensland Holidays.