Last weekend, we took a trip out to Blackbraes National Park. We were accompanied by my big brother and sister in law (Terry and Kim).
Blackbraes is situated about 170km North of Hughenden in the Basalt country of Lyndhurst, Q.
We went out via Hervey Range and up the Gregory Development Road and down the Kennedy Development Road (towards Hughenden). Stopped at the Greenvale Roadhouse for smoko along the way. Can recommend the hot chips. Roads were pleasingly quite good all the way.
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| Aerial view of the road southward from Moonstone Campground |
Surprised to see sealed roads all the way with the exception of the last 2-3 km to the entrance of the National Park. However the road surface was compacted and quite a smooth surface.
We decided to camp at Moonstone Campsite - just open area amongst the local population of Ironbark woodlands. We arrived to an uninhabited campground so had first choice of sites. By nightfall, about half dozen other overnight campers had pulled in and left the next day.
Weather was heavily overcast for most of our 3 night stay with a little misty rainfall if you could call it that.
We took the opportunity to check out the surrounds of the National Park. Drove out to the campground within the park - Emu Swamp. The road is advised as 4WD only and I wouldn't take a caravan in there. Two creek crossings to get to it - one is very rocky bottom of Copperfield River but if you take it easy with high clearance, it's fine but the other crossing is a short/sharp ditch which I'd be hesitant to tow a van through.
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| Smoko - cuppa and shortbreads |
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| Emu Swamp |
We ventured out along Dulthara Road past Blackbraes Station homestead which, these days, is the NP Ranger Station I believe. Out along this road you can walk to the edge of an extinct volcanic crater.
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| Volcanic Crater - would have liked to go a bit higher but the winds were too strong! |
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| Ironbark scrub |
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| Dulthara Rd to the craters |
Moonstone Campground, where we parked up, is only about 150m off the main road. The majority of the traffic along the road consisted of motorhome, caravans and trucks. It didn't bother us as there wasn't all that much of it.
I have only been past the turnoff to Blackbraes, but I do know it is much colder than Hughenden and Prairie. Just a tad envious, but I’ll get there one day!
ReplyDeleteIt was cool there over that weekend. Cool for us (from Townsville). Breeze blowing most of the weekend and quite gusty at times! Had a min of 12 degrees during our stay. But a nice place to check out.
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