Over 85% of Australia’s population lives within 50KM of the coast. The area beyond is called hinterland. In the three months since landing in Queensland, Australia, we’ve driven into the hinterlands and explored a few times. These are our highlights of the hinterlands.
Driving to the Hinterlands
Getting to the hinterlands has been easy, as they aren’t far from the big cities and the coast, and on well traveled roads. By now, we’re used to driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car. Australia has plenty of highways leading between cities and into the hinterlands. The main concern is driving at night because kangaroos come out of nowhere.
Because the hinterlands are less urban and removed from the big population centers, a lot of the area is parkland and nature. So, a visit to the hinterlands generally means getting outdoors and seeing wildlife. Good enough reason for me!
Gold Coast Hinterlands
Our first experience visiting the Queensland hinterlands was in the Gold Coast. This part of the hinterlands gets very crowded on weekends, so try to plan a visit during the week. We’re hoping to go back and explore more.
Glass House Mountains
The Glass House Mountains is one of our highlights of the hinterlands. Volcanic peaks formed over 26 million years ago, these craggy mountains have long been important to the First Nations people. Now, they are protected within Glass House Mountains National Park.
To get there, we rented a car in Mooloolaba, in the Sunshine Coast, and drove the 35 minutes. From Brisbane, the drive is just under an hour. Not only do the Glass House Mountains hold spiritual significance, they are part of the Queensland and National historic registers.
This is one of the most beautiful parts of Australia we’ve seen, making it understandably popular. We hiked up Mount Ngungun alongside many others taking in the scenic views of the other mountains, and to the coast.
We haven’t been hiking much in Australia, partly because with all the deadly animals here, we prefer to stick to busy hiking sites. Compared to New Zealand, where most everything is hikeable, and there are no deadly animals, Australia is more worrisome. Locals don’t seem afraid of spiders and snakes, but the spider webs are huge and daunting, and snakes could be hiding under the nearest pile of leaves. Yes, I am hesitant, but I’ve gotten more relaxed. Not complacent, but more comfortable. We’ve come too far to get killed by an insect! So we’re sticking to parks with popular hiking trails full of other people. In this case, we chose well, as the Glass House Mountains are a beautiful place to hike and a highlight of the hinterlands.
Eungella
One of the main reasons we rented a car from MacKay marina was to see real live platypus. Platypus are a distinctly Australian animal and only live in a few places in eastern Australia and Tasmania. One of those places is only an hour drive from MacKay (pronounced muh-kay) to Eungella.
Eungella, pronounced YUNG-gel-eh, means Land of the Clouds, and the road climbed high into the hills. It was also very beautiful and despite being so close to the city, rural.
broken river
The place to see platypus is in Eungella National Park, specifically on the Broken River.
We walked for about 30 minutes down the Broken River looking for platypus, spotting a couple of shy ones very briefly. It wasn’t until we returned to the road with the bridge and viewing platform where we found a crowd watching a pair of platypus (platypi?) swimming around energetically. It is the main reason people visit Eungella. While weird looking, platypus are extremely cute.
Also known as duck-billed platypus, they reminded us of beavers with huge eyes and even bigger bills. Everyone we know who went to Eungella to see platypus succeeded, which is good news. Broken River was one of our highlights of the hinterlands.
Finch Hatton Gorge waterfalls
On the return drive from Eungella to MacKay, we detoured to see some waterfalls. We had a nice little hike, but the water was way too cold for us to swim.
At all of these beautiful outdoor sites, similar to New Zealand, there is no fee to enter or to park.
In our remaining months in Australia, we hope to add to our highlights of the hinterlands. Do you have any recommendations or would you like to see any of these places? Share in the comments.
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These pictures are stunning! I loved the video of the platypus swimming, so cute!
Seeing platypus was really special, we couldn’t believe how cute they were!
Glad you guys are enjoying Oz. We love Eungella. As you go further north you could visit Cape Hillsborourgh Beach National Park where the kangaroos laze on the beach. In the Whitsundays the Whitehaven beach area is a must but also plenty of other island anchorages. If you get the chance and have the time you could visit the Carnarvon Gorge NP which is great but a little remote. When you are in the Townsville area try to get up to the Wallaman Falls NP – highest single drop waterfall in the southern hemisphere at 267 meters drop. There is a hiking trail to the bottom of the falls with platypus in the creek above the falls and you would normally see cassowaries on the drive to/from the falls. There are soooo many places to see!
Great tips, Barbie and Wayne. We have already been to some of these places and are adding others to the list. Wallaman Falls for sure!
As a fellow Queenslander, I loved this post.