Gwongoorool Pool

Location: Lamington National Park (Binna Burra), South East QLD
Date: 30th November, 2014
Distance: 5.8 km (return)
Time: 2 hours 30 min

Lamington National Park Map

In all my years of visiting Lamington National Park I had never done the short walk to Gwongoorool Pool. This may be because the previous time we had planned visiting the pool as a side trip from Illinbah Circuit, an unexpected series of events meant we barely made it out of the forest before dark even without the short detour. In any case, I took Emily for a drive up to Binna Burra late one afternoon to rectify this hole in my checklist.



One of the benefits of going bushwalking late in the afternoon or early in the morning, aside from the obvious double bonus of cooler temperatures and photogenic lighting conditions, is that you don't tend to see many people on the track. Even short tracks that are popular during the middle of the day can be all yours if you wait until the right time. Today the right time was 4pm, as the last swimmers were making their way back to the carpark when we started.

Admiring the resourcefulness of nature

Gwongoorool Pool lies along the Coomera River in a valley west of Binna Burra, so the track to there is all downhill. In a few places we had to skirt around or over tree falls, indicating the McPherson range hadn't been spared from the recent storms in south east QLD.

One highlight of the first section of this walk is the towering cliffs the track passes below as it winds its way down to the valley.

Around the curve of one particular gully there is a great stand of reddish tinted eucalyptus trees, particularly impressive.

It's hard to avoid the wildlife at Lamington, and aside from several pademelons we also saw quite a few skinks scurrying around.

The track passes Barrabareen Falls, a very tall and, I assume, an impressive cascade during the wet season, but this time barely a dark trickle running down the towering rock face to indicate where the falls should be. From here the open eucalyptus forest merges into rainforest and leads down to Coomera River and the rock pools.

Rocky bed of Coomera River

During the middle of the day Gwongoorool Pool is often loaded with people (I assume), but this afternoon it was peaceful and empty.

Emily pretty keen for a swim at Gwongoorool Pool

We spent a bit of time exploring the rocks and the river before tackling the steep return to the car park, timing it so that we would be back just before dark.

Reddish eucalyptus trees gully, even more spectacular in twilight