Nature, culture and history
Hoop pine Araucaria cunninghamii is one of the more primitive of the world's conifers.
Photo credit: Robert Ashdown, Queensland Government.
The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia are possibly the last habitat for the endangered southern ochrosia Ochrosia moorei. It's estimated that only 20 species remain in Queensland.
Photo credit: Glenn Leiper
Hear many of the ancient songbirds of the park, such as the eastern yellow robin.
Photo credit: Trevor Andersen
Leaf-tailed gecko Saltuarius swaini is found only in this World Heritage area.
Photo credit: Robert Ashdown
Invertebrates, such as the Richmond birdwing butterfly and glow-worms, have origins in Gondwana. Some invertebrate species have changed little over 400 million years.
Photo credit: Robert Ashdown, Queensland Government.
Natural environment
Overview
Springbrook National Park is recognised as part of one of the world's most outstanding and valuable places. In December 1994, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee officially declared the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area over the Scenic Rim. This includes nearly all of Lamington and Springbrook national parks and most of Main Range and Mount Barney national parks, in addition to the World Heritage listed rainforests of northern and central New South Wales.
World Heritage listing is a prestigious international recognition of the important conservation values of this area, especially its unique geology, subtropical and cool temperate rainforests and rare fauna.
Although the total area of Australia's remnant rainforest is small on a global scale, its value to the world is immense. In the past 200 years, three-quarters of Australia's rainforests have been destroyed or degraded. However, Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area conserves a rich diversity of wildlife, including more than 1,700 species of flowering plants and 500 vertebrate animals. Protecting these areas in national parks or other reserves ensures this biological diversity is secure. It also allows natural processes such as evolution to continue, undisturbed by human influence.
With pride, we protect and present this heritage—the world's heritage. Help us ensure that while we enjoy this wonderful area, we do not destroy it. Please look and leave—without a trace.
Geology
The landscape of the Springbrook plateau is a remnant of the northern side of a once huge shield volcano that dominated the region about 23 million years ago. The volcano was centred on Woolumbin (Mount Warning) and spanned about 80km across. It was built up by flows of highly mobile basalt lavas from a central vent estimated to have reached about 2km high. The volcano poured lava over an area of 6,000km², flowing north to Tamborine, south past Lismore to Coraki and west to Kyogle. Some lava flows were 270m deep. Basalt, rhyolite and pyroclastic rocks were formed. Later eruptions laid down the acidic rhyolite that is responsible for the sheer cliffs of Springbrook plateau.
About 10 million years ago, the volcanic activity ceased. The numerous vents had been plugged by solidified lava, and over the millennia, weathering and water erosion relentlessly sculpted the volcano to form a bowl-shaped depression that is a classic ‘erosion caldera’ landform. The Tweed Sheild erosion caldera is possibly the best preserved erosion caldera in the world, notable for its size and age, for the presence of a prominent central mountain mass (Wollumbin/Mt Warning), and for the erosion of the caldera floor to basement rock. All three stages relating to the erosion of shield volcanoes (the planeze, residual and skeletal stages) are readily distinguishable. Visit Best of All lookout to view the grand scale of this magnificent landform—a crescent of perpendicular cliffs that extend from Springbrook to Lamington plateau and the Tweed Range above the Tweed valley.
Rainfall that feeds streams and powers waterfalls continues to shape this landscape today. Natural Bridge is an example of water's tremendous power. The hard basalt rock bridge we see today was once the lip of an old waterfall. At its base, softer, broken up basalt was gradually eroded by swirling waters, undercutting the waterfall to form a cave. Rocks in the stream bed above the waterfall swirled around to drill a pot-hole, which gradually deepened and broke through to the cave beneath. The creek fell into the cave and slowly enlarged it further. The lip of the old waterfall now forms a bridge, while the cave below has eroded further back from the base of the falls. Another pot-hole is now forming in the creek above and already leaking into the cave, suggesting another break-through could occur in the future.
Other unusual volcanic formations include Egg Rock and Pages Pinnacle in the Numinbah Valley and the distinctive rhyolite twin peaks of Mount Cougal.
Flora and fauna
A diverse environment
The forests of Springbrook National Park can be grouped into five classifications depending upon the dominant tree species, soil, location and rainfall. These forest types are subtropical, warm temperate and cool temperate rainforests, open eucalypt forest and heath. Subtropical rainforest characterised by a closed canopy, vines, palms, epiphytes and large trees, such as strangler figs, can be seen at Mount Cougal, Natural Bridge and in the sheltered gorges of Springbrook plateau. There is a small population of the endangered plant, southern ochrosia Ochrosia moorei in Springbrook's subtropical rainforests.
Flora
The forests of Springbrook National Park can be grouped into five classifications—subtropical, warm temperate and cool temperate rainforests, open eucalypt forest and heath.
Subtropical rainforest characterized by a closed canopy, vines, palms, epiphytes and large trees such as strangler figs, can be seen at Mount Cougal, Natural Bridge and in the sheltered gorges of Springbrook plateau. These rainforests that are exceptionally rich in primitive and relict species, many of which are similar to fossils from Gondwana
Warm and cool temperate rainforest thrive on the higher parts of the plateau. Warm temperate rainforest can be observed in the Canyon area, distinguished by the pink-trunked brush box Lophostemon confertus and the mottled, lichen-encrusted coachwood Ceratopetalum apetalum. Cool temperate rainforests are found on the highest parts of the plateau. Visit Best of All lookout to view Antarctic beech Nothofagus moorei—relics of an earlier cooler, wetter age, that now occur only at high altitude; some are around 3000 years old.
Two kinds of open eucalypt forest are seen on Springbrook plateau and in the Numinbah Valley. Tall white-trunked flooded gums Eucalyptus grandis tower over palms and treeferns. On poorer soils grow the uncommon and attractive Blue Mountains ash Eucalyptus oreades, with its lemon-coloured trunk, and the brown fibrous-barked New England blackbutt E. campanulata. Tall silky oaks Grevillea robusta line the Nerang River and Waterfall Creek in Numinbah section. Prickly-leaved heath plants, including the golden banksia, red bottlebrush and purple hovea, make a colourful understorey.
Fauna
Of the many mammals living in the park, pademelons (small rainforest wallabies) are most frequently seen by day visitors. Please drive slowly to avoid the pademelons that can dart across the road without warning—particularly on the way to Best of All lookout. These shy creatures may feed on grass seeds on the road edges at dusk and in the cool of the morning.
Campers are usually rewarded with sightings of nocturnal animals, especially the greyish brushtail possum and the smaller, reddish, ringtail possum that has a distinctive white tip on its tail. A glimpse of the tiny and elusive sugar glider or large greater glider is the reward for those interested enough to take a red-filtered torch and explore the tracks at night. Koalas are occasionally seen on the drier western ridges of the plateau and in the open forest areas of Numinbah section.
Springbrook’s rainforests and rocky outcrops provide the ideal habitat for the vulnerable spotted-tailed quoll, mainland Australia’s largest native marsupial carnivore. Normally nocturnal, the quoll is an efficient, opportunistic hunter taking a range of prey including echidnas, bandicoots, native birds, reptiles and even frogs. Visitors may not see these mammals but may see where they have been. Spotted-tailed quolls mark their territory with ‘latrine sites’ that are normally found on flat rocks among boulder fields and rocky cliff-faces. Latrine sites can be recognised by the accumulation of ‘corkscrew-shaped’ faeces.
Over a hundred different bird species can be seen and heard in Springbrook National Park. Noteworthy species include the raucous and distinctively plumed yellow-tailed black cockatoo, which can sometimes be seen feeding on the seeds of banksia, casuarina and wattle.
The slender brown cuckoo-dove is often heard calling a plaintive 'oop oop' throughout the park. The elusive Albert's lyrebird is another species that is more often heard than seen. In the winter months its vibrant composite call can be heard from the depths of the valleys. A true songbird, the lyrebird is part of an ancient, unique bird group that probably evolved when flowering plants began to dominate the landscape. The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia reserves provide an important refuge for this species.
Smaller bush birds that may be seen along the tracks include the yellow robin, rufous fantail and the dainty superb fairy-wren. Three species of rosella are present in the park. The most striking is the descriptively named crimson rosella with its plumage of scarlet and royal blue. The black and gold regent bowerbird and the larger midnight-blue satin bowerbird represent the bowerbird family. These are spectacular examples of the diversity of bird life that can be seen by the patient and interested observer.
The most frequently seen reptiles are prehistoric-looking lace monitors, glossy black skinks known as land mullets, and sleepy carpet pythons. These are all harmless if not provoked. Remember though, that not all snakes are harmless. Stand well away, avoid aggravating them and allow time and room for them to get out of your way. See frequently asked questions for more details on snake safety.
The abundance of water in the protected area has resulted in a diverse selection of water-dwelling animals. Frogs are the most vocal, blue spiny crayfish the most colourful, and eels the most surprising. Orange-eyed treefrogs and large beige-coloured great barred-frogs are often seen on the tracks at night.
Long-finned eels Anguilla reinhardti are common in the larger pools such as Warringa on the Springbrook plateau and in the upper reaches of Waterfall Creek and Nerang River. They are remarkable for their breeding behaviour. Adults travel enormous distances to breed in the tropical ocean and the young eels, known as elvers, return to the freshwater streams to continue the cycle.
Platypus make their home in the large waterholes of the upper reaches of the Nerang River and Currumbin Creek. Using their large bills to search for food by sifting through sand and gravel on the creek or river bed, platypus feed on shrimps, small crayfish, worms and the nymph life stages of many insects—dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies, stoneflies, caddis-flies and beetles.
Glow-worms
Natural Bridge section is known for the small, brilliant blue-green lights seen at night decorating the ceiling, rocky overhangs and steep earth banks along the one-kilometre circuit. These lights are emitted by tiny creatures that are not actually worms, but the larval stage of a small fly Arachnocampa flava.
Arachnocampa glow-worms are a primitive fly species found only in Australia and New Zealand and rely on rainforests of Gondwanan origin for their survival. These diverse, green havens provide the rainfall and dense canopy cover glow-worms require.
As Gondwana drifted north and split apart, the glow-worms survived in the humid and dark conditions of rainforests and caves. As the Australian continent dried, these rainforests gradually contracted to tiny, green islands and glow-worms became isolated.
Over millions of years of isolation, glow-worm colonies changed—the species’ physical structure and genetics modified. Today there are eight recognised glow-worm species in Australia and each of these is restricted to a region of rainforest or permanently wet caves.
The colony of thousands of glow-worms found in the cave's roof at Natural Bridge can only be seen after sunset. The ‘light’ you see is produced within the glow-worm’s body. It is the reaction of four chemicals that produce the cold light or bioluminescence—meaning ‘living light’. Glow-worms generate this bioluminescence to lure their prey. By producing long, sticky threads that work like a spider web, glow-worms entangle small invertebrates such as midges, mosquitoes and mayflies that are drawn to the blue-green bioluminescence. It is only during this larval stage that the species feeds—a period of about nine months. Adults emerge to live only three to four days, just long enough to mate and lay eggs.
The best bioluminescence displays are usually during the warmer, wetter months of the year (December to March).
If you are planning to visit the glowworms, please follow the basic cave rules to help protect these tiny creatures.
Springbrook was originally referred to as Numinbah Plateau but was also known amongst timber getters as the Land of the Tall Timber.
Photo credit: Gold Coast Image Library—circa 1906.
Track building was a high priority for the new park. Concrete ramp and handrails replaced the wooden ladders that took tourists down cliff faces to the base of falls in the Canyon area.
Photo credit: State Library of Queensland—circa 1940s.
The original stone pitching work on Twin Falls track was so well constructed that it is still maintained today.
Photo credit: Gold Coast Image Library—circa 1938
Culture and history
Wari Gwungahrelah—Springbrook
Springbrook National Park forms part of lands of the Yugambeh—the traditional Aboriginal people of this region. For generations the Yugambeh have walked this land, following pathways set down by their ancestors, to special and sacred sites. This link to country is still strong. Springbrook is an area rich in cultural stories that explain their links to the land and its plants and animals.
The Yugambeh is a group of Aboriginal clans whose ancestors spoke one or more dialects of the Yugambeh language. The Yugambeh family groups were known as the Gugingin, Mununjali, Migunburri, Wangerriburra, Bullongin, Kombumerri, Tulgingin, Cudgenburra, Murangmuburra. They shared language, ceremonies, celebrations and exchanged resources. They lived in this area and carefully managed and used its rich natural resources.
To the Yugambeh, the mulei (mountains) were sacred and spiritual—places to be nurtured and respected. Yugambeh ancestors, according to legend, created this land a long, long time ago. The mulei (mountains) and valleys, the balun (rivers) and the munan (hard baked) dry land were shaped sometimes by the forces of the wind and sun, other times by the raging torrents of the balun in flood. The stories of these events were enacted through song and dance and passed through ceremony from one generation to the next.
Living in extended family groups, the Yugambeh people chose camp sites that had easy access to food and water, and were surrounded by natural resources to craft tools and other materials as required. They understood the land had to be nurtured and carefully managed. For example, fire was used to modify vegetation and encourage preferred plant and animal species and care was taken to protect them in early growth; wind direction determined when and where fires should be lit.
A wide range of goods and utensils were produced to meet everyday needs. People living closer to Springbrook had access to special resources such as stone materials and rainforest products, which they exchanged with the Yinggerijahli (Saltwater people) for coastal fruits, dugunum (shellfish) and other foods from the borrogura (sea). Ngabul (lawyer vine) was used for tree climbing. The climber would sling the heavy vine around the tree and then around his waist. By cutting footholds as he went, he would gradually work himself up to the top of the tree or as far as he needed to go. Jahjum (children) also used the vine as a plaything to catch small fish. Ban’gan (possum skin drum) Yulany guwanah (possum skins) were used to make garments, headbands and waistbands, rugs, carry bags and even drums. In Yugambeh country, the ban’gan (possum skin drum) was played by women who stretched it across their thighs, beating it with the palm of their hand to dalga (beat time/create rhythm).
The arrival of Europeans changed the Yugambeh lifestyle forever. To the newcomers, natural resources must have seemed vast, and they did not understand the needs of Yugambeh people. Yugambeh land was divided for settlement, restricting waterhole access and making hunting and food gathering difficult. Many Yugambeh people were moved to reserves. Some stayed, found occasional work and adapted slowly to a new lifestyle.Despite the devasting impacts and early legislative control over their lives, the Yugambeh continue to live on their traditional lands, caring for the rainforest and its wildlife. Yugambeh yahnbai gulli bahn — “Yugambeh are still here.”
Springbrook plateau
The first Europeans to explore the plateau were surveyors. When Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859, an accurate map was needed to show the new border. In April 1863 Queensland's Surveyor-General August Charles Gregory instructed his surveyors, Francis Edward Roberts and Isaiah Rowland, to survey the border along the watershed of the rugged McPherson and Great Dividing Ranges to the Dumaresq River. Surveyor Isaiah Rowland was assigned by the New South Wales surveyor-general to work on this joint project with Roberts. In an early official report, the terrain of the south-east border areas was considered so rugged that 'settlement upon it will never take place until flying machines are in general use'.
Between April 1863 and May 1865, Roberts and Rowland completed the survey of this extremely rough terrain, helped greatly by Bilin Bilin and other First Nations People in their party. Despite facing extreme conditions, Roberts made detailed field notes and named many landmarks, trees and animals using Aboriginal words from the Yugambeh language.
Until the early 1900s, the plateau’s natural vegetation remained intact. Its formidable terrain was the major obstacle to settlers and timber-getters claiming Springbrook. It was referred to as ‘Numinbah Plateau’ but also known amongst timber getters as the 'Land of the Tall Timber'. It had been declared a ‘timber reserve’, but this was revoked in 1906 and it was opened for selection as agricultural land. The government offered special inducements to intending settlers to inspect the available lands in the hope of increasing the population of the newly formed state of Queensland.
The first groups of selectors became collectively known as the Springwood Group. It is uncertain how they chose the name, however it was soon dropped after mail, often containing requests for supplies, kept being sent to Springwood in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. It appears that to prevent this from continuing, a simple alteration was made. Surveyor A.H. Burbank had named the small creek that drained the central part of the plateau as Purling Brook and it seems likely they merely exchanged 'wood' for 'brook' and solved their problem. The name Springbrook came into common usage some time in 1907.
Living on the plateau proved difficult. When the first selectors arrived in November 1906, the promised access road was still under construction. Built by the Labour Bureau with assistance from Brisbane's Boggo Road Gaol prisoners, the narrow pack track was hacked out of the ridge by pick and shovel. For the first few weeks in the wilderness, the selectors had humped on their backs all the food and tools needed. It was considered prudent for the men to leave their wives and families in Mudgeeraba or Nerang until at the very least a slab house had been constructed. The one exception to the rule was Rose Nutley who, with her small daughter Clara, roughed the conditions alongside her husband Fred.
Better transport saw Springbrook become a popular tourist destination by the 1920s. The very obstacles that made life on the plateau difficult were the very things that attracted people—sheer cliffs, deep gorges and tumbling waterfalls. A guesthouse with dormitory-style accommodation, a post office and telephone exchange and a flourishing dairy industry were established and life improved on the plateau. By the 1940s seven guesthouses, three cafes and four different styles of self-contained accommodation were operating to cater for Springbrook's growing popularity.
By the 1930s parts of Springbrook were almost devoid of trees. Many of the forest areas on the plateau visible today are regrowth following the decline of the dairy industry after World War II. The growing interest in the plateau, coupled with the push for precious rainforest remnants of the McPherson Ranges to be conserved, soon saw areas of the plateau gazetted as national park.
The current national park, covering 6,558ha, has been pieced together slowly from timber reserve, crown land and private property. The first section, Warrie National Park in The Canyon area, was declared in 1937. Shortly after, in 1940, an area at Purling Brook Falls was declared Gwongorella National Park. These names persisted until 1990 when the parks were amalgamated with Wunburra, Natural Bridge and Mount Cougal national parks to become Springbrook National Park (Hall, 1991).
Natural Bridge section
The Numinbah Valley area saw the arrival of European timber-getters around the 1870s. Magnificent trees felled in the area included a giant red cedar taken in 1893 from near Natural Bridge. A huge section of this impressive tree was displayed at the 1900 Paris World Fair.
By the end of the 1920s, large areas of Numinbah Valley had been cleared and dairy farms were expanding. Remaining forests provided a venue for social outings and recreation. People began to recognise the need to protect the few remaining lowland rainforests. In 1922 Natural Bridge, named after its natural geological feature, was declared a Recreation and Scenic Reserve. It became a national park in 1959 and was incorporated in Springbrook National Park in 1990.
Mount Cougal section
It was the area's rich resources and abundant water that attracted the first Europeans. Settlement of the lower Currumbin Valley began in the late 1860s and reached the upper valley in the late 1920s forcing the First Nations People to move to reserves or become fringe dwellers on the outskirts of nearby townships. A small community of hardy settlers remained in the rugged terrain with 26 creek crossings that frequently flooded, poor roads, little capital and geographic isolation from markets and stores.
Remnants of the bush sawmill stand testimony to the park's logging history. Established in 1943, the mill produced packing crate timber for local banana farmers during the war.
In 1938 the rainforested headwaters of Currumbin and Tallebudgera creeks (142ha) were set aside for conservation. Additions over the years brought the park to 811ha before it was amalgamated with the adjoining Springbrook National Park in 1990.
Numinbah section
As early as 1879, the Numinbah area was proclaimed as timber reserve covering some 16,956ha extending to the Springbrook plateau. Most of this area was released for selection, leaving only 2,258ha in the valley as state forest—gazetted in 1915. By the end of the 1920s, large areas of Numinbah Valley had been cleared and dairy farms were expanding.
Hardwoods including turpentine Syncarpia glomulifera, flooded gum Eucalyptus grandis and pink bloodwood Corymbia intermedia were the primary supply of millable timber. In the 1950s and 1960s, small pine plantations and a few small-scale eucalypt plantations were established in the Numinbah Valley, though only on an experimental basis.
In 2002, Numinbah State Forest's conservation and recreational values were recognised through the South East Queensland Forest Agreement and the forest was transferred to Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Numinbah Forest Reserve was gazetted to become part of Springbrook National Park in 2008, with a few trails remaining for horse riding .
References:
Hall, P 1991, 'Springbrook: Where the clouds touch the earth', Watson & Ferguson, Brisbane.
- If it's flooded, forget it - even on our walking tracks! 2 December 2024 to 31 January 2025