Best Conondale National Park walks: Booloumba Falls or Strangler Cairn?
The best walks in Conondale National Park on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast include the Booloumba Falls Walk, the Peters Creek Walk, and the Strangler Cairn section of the Conondale Range Great Walk.
Conondale National Park is one of the lesser-visited national parks on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. This is partly because you need a high clearance 4WD vehicle to get there. If you’ve got a conventional hire car, try the Kondalilla National Park near Montville instead.
If you have got a 4WD and are prepared to cross several creeks on the Booloumba Creek Road, then you’re in luck. There are some beautiful walking trails in Conondale National Park.
Conondale National Park walks: Booloumba Falls Walk
The classic Conondale National Park walk is the Booloumba Falls Walk. This is no back-breaker, although you should allow two hours for the 3km return journey. The Booloumba Falls Walk passes through tall forest, and takes in the pretty cascades and rock pools of Booloumba Creek. You can also see the Breadknife rock formation from the confluence of Peters Creek and Booloumba Creek.
If you just want a short stroll, the Peters Creek Walk is just 500 metres return and takes 15 minutes. The Peters Creek Walk heads through rainforest to a photogenic creek dotted with boulders and rock pools.
12 fantastic Sunshine Coast experiences to book now
- Taste coffee and ginger, do rainforest walks, and visit the best lookouts on a highlight-packed hinterland tour.
- Take a serene Noosa Everglades cruise along the mirror-like waterways – or canoe through the Everglades.
- Learn to surf at a Sunshine Coast surf school – or try paddleboarding instead.
- Combine sight-seeing and thrills on a fast boat tour.
- Go e-mountain biking on the downhill trails of Tewantin National Park.
- Kayak with dolphins as part of a beach 4WD tour.
- Explore the Sunshine Coast from above on a seaplane flight.
- Take an indigenous cultural tour – with bush tucker tasting.
- Visit the region’s best craft breweries and distilleries on a drinks tasting tour.
- Go jetskiing through the gorgeous Pumicestone Passage.
- Taste wines, cheeses and chocolates on a hinterland food tour.
- Watch migrating humpbacks on a whale-watching cruise.
Conondale National Park walks: Strangler Cairn
For something more artistic, try the 6.5km return walk to the Strangler Cairn. This walk from the Booloumba Creek day-use area is part of the longer Conondale Range Great Walk, and finishes up at the Strangler Cairn. This is a sculpture by artist Andy Goldsworthy, made from a series of hand-cut granite and metamorphic rock blocks. Growing out of the top is a single strangler fig sapling, which will eventually outgrow the cairn and cover it in strangler fig roots. This Conondale National Park walk should take around two-and-a-half hours.
Conondale National Park is on the Sunshine Coast. The Booloumba Creek Road is off the Maleny-Kenilworth Road. It might not be exactly what people come to the Sunshine Coast for, but it makes a nice contrast to the Eumundi Markets, the Maleny Botanic Gardens, hitting the beach in Mooloolaba and shopping on Hastings Street in Noosa.
More under-the-radar national parks
See wildlife on Ulupna Island in the Barmah National Park near Echuca, Victoria.
Find a platypus at Broken River in the Eungella National Park, Queensland.
Take the Maria Island ferry to see wombat-heavy Maria Island in Tasmania.
Go fishing at Almonta Beach in the Coffin Bay National Park on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.
Swim in Greens Pool in the William Bay National Park near Albany, Western Australia.