Mount Allen Circuit

Location: Conondale National Park and Imbil State Forest, South East QLD
Date: 11th October, 2014
Distance: ~15 km (circuit)
Time: 3 h 20 min

Conondale National Park and Imbil State Forest Map

Mt Allen can be reached from either Charlie Moreland or Booloumba Creek camping areas, but I decided to combine the two routes and link them together with the Booloumba Hiking Trail to create a circuit walk. A firetower at the summit providing 360 degree views across the sunshine coast hinterland is one of the highlights.

I kicked off from the Charlie Moreland entrance, through a locked gate at the south-western edge of the camping area (to the left after driving in from the highway). A sign stated that the firetower was closed for maintenance, but I had this vague idea that I'd read elsewhere it would be reopened by July, so assuming this sign was outdated and simply had not been removed, continued on ahead.

The walk from Charlie Moreland to Mt Allen follows a 4WD track that is steep and exposed, so definitely one to avoid in the middle of the day. Initially the road is flat and crosses two piddling creeks, but soon becomes a seemingly endless uphill slog over hills smothered in pine plantations. The pine trees grow in patches of varying heights, becoming readily denuded once large enough to warrant chopping down for timber use. These "renewable" trees contrast a little oddly with the neighbouring untouched eucalyptus forests.

Looking back at the steep route from Charlie Moreland 

Markers indicating the remaining distance to the firetower were placed every 500 m, but offered little moral support, always arriving (what felt like) several km further than the previous one. Because many of the pine forests to the south and east were recently re-planted, there were views aplenty (but unfortunately little shade to enjoy them from).

The track finally levels!

Colourful patchwork - lantana, the evil weed

Wherever the track leveled out briefly, the mountain seemed to redouble its efforts in dishing out an even steeper ascent. The final section of road to the summit felt like tackling an never-ending Mount Beerburrum. But that's OK, because at the top I would be rewarded...

...with a fenced off firetower, still closed for maintenance.

At least from all the noise they were making it seemed as though some progress must be getting made

In all, the 4.4 km ascent took just over an hour. From here to the Booloumba Creek camping and day use areas, the track followed the first section of the Conondale Great Walk through attractive rainforest (though without any views). Now shaded from the sun by both mountain and forest, the going became much easier and my feet devoured the 5.2 km to the day use area in an hour.

I took a break at the day use area, the starting/ending point of the Conondale Great Walk circuit. My feet had already covered around 20 km today and, with around another 5 km left, were definitely starting to feel it. I followed the road north for 20 minutes, crossing a couple of ankle-deep creeks that, after some solid rain, would dish up a fair challenge to any intrepid non-4WD'ers keen to visit the national park.

Creek meets road

This fella was just perched on the side
of the road

The walk was quite pleasant as far as road walking goes, probably helped by the nearness to sunset and the lack of cars churning up dirt all over the place.

The entrance to Booloumba Hiking Trail was not particularly obvious, and there are no signs to suggest anyone should walk this way. Dalys' Take A Walk guide tells me there used to be signage, but this must have been removed in the intervening years since publication, probably with the advent of the Great Walk route link.

Probably also because this walk isn't very interesting - more never-ending steep uphills through overgrown grass, and more wanderings through eucalyptus and pine forests (but no views! I guess this will change when the forests get the axe again, but this could be many years away). Sunset was the saviour here, the light creating interesting patterns on the trail through the trees at the top of the ridge, rescuing this walk from absolute disgrace.

Altogether, a combination of steep uphills and downhills, lots of pine trees and a closed firetower made this a fairly mediocre walk. The only real benefit being that it is a circuit and you don't have to worry about driving into Booloumba Creek across the fords. If I come back here, I would probably just do the return walk from Booloumba Creek, once they reopen the firetower.