Fitzroy Falls in Morton National Park, New South Wales

The Morton National Park in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales is a great place to see goannas and kookaburras. The walks to the Fitzroy Falls lookout offer interpretative signs, forested valley views and an imposing sandstone escarpment.

The Southern Highlands is a genteel, charming region that’s easily threaded into a drive from Sydney to Albury or Canberra to Sydney. Many visitors come to decompress from the big city in pretty towns such as Berrima and Bowral. The latter is home to the International Cricket Hall of Fame.

But the general loveliness of the Southern Highlands doesn’t just come from the towns. Nature plays a big part too, and the region sits at the edge of the Morton National Park.

There are several sections to this park, and it can be accessed from various entry points. There are several excellent waterfalls, too, including Belmore Falls. But the star attraction is Fitzroy Falls.

Fitzroy Falls walks in Morton National Park

From the Fitzroy Falls Visitor Centre, there are a few choices. The viewing platform for the falls themselves is a stroll away along a metal walkway, but there are two walking tracks either side. These take between one-and-a-half and three hours as return journeys and head round either side of the valley rim created over millions of years by the river cascading down the falls.

Along those walks are interpretive signs that delve into the wildlife that can be found along the way. One, for example, tells of Australia’s most loveable bird – the laughing kookaburra.

It’s not a glossed-over portrait of the largest in the kingfisher family, though. Some facts are not so cute. It’ll sometimes rob other birds’ nests and steal their chicks; it’ll wait patiently for prey then crush it with its beak and slap it against rocks until it’s dead; the laugh is to warn other birds off its territory.

5 great Southern Highlands experiences to boost your visit

Personalised private Southern Highlands wine and attractions tours – tailored to your tastes.
Tutored wine-tasting and canapes experience.
Beekeeping experience – learn how honey is made.
Guided wine-tasting at the Mill – with tasting notes procided.
Behind the scenes tour of a sustainable winery in Berrima.

But the first encounter is not with a kookaburra – it’s with a giant goanna scuttling up a tree. These miniature dinosaurs are fabulously scary-looking, and once you’ve seen one, the mind tricks you into thinking every brushing sound in the bushes will be another one.

Fitzroy Falls Lookout over the Morton National Park

But once you emerge at the Fitzroy Falls lookout, the Morton National Park offers a tremendous scene. The big, chunky, chiselled sandstone wall on the other side gives way to a thick green valley. And the falls themselves? Well, it depends on what time of year you arrive. After the rains, they can pour over the edge, bouncing down in two stages. But in the summer they’re little more than a trickle and a spray; suitably gentle.