I grew up walking the South West Coast Path. Dorset cliffs, muddy fields, the occasional stile that was held together by optimism and rust. It was beautiful in that understated English way — grey skies, green hills, a pub at the end. I loved it. But Lamington National Park is a different planet.
Lamington sits in the Gold Coast hinterland, about ninety minutes south of Brisbane. It is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, which means the trees here have been growing in various forms for something like 200 million years. Walking through it feels ancient. Not in a curated, museum-exhibit kind of way. In a raw, damp, overgrown kind of way that reminds you that humans are relatively new here.
The Trail
I chose the Toolona Creek Circuit — a 17.4-kilometre loop that threads through Antarctic beech forest, past waterfalls, along ridgelines, and through some of the densest subtropical rainforest I have ever seen. The track starts at the Green Mountains section and immediately drops you into canopy so thick that the light turns green. Literally green. The air tastes different in there.
The Humidity
Nobody warned me about the humidity. Or rather, people warned me and I nodded politely and assumed my English tolerance for damp conditions would translate. It does not. By kilometre three I was soaked through — not from rain, just from existing. My pack was drenched, my shirt was a second skin, and I was drinking water at a rate that made me worry about running out.
The trick, I learned later, is electrolytes. Lots of them. Water alone is not enough when you are sweating that heavily. I now carry rehydration sachets on every hike, which is the kind of boring, unglamorous adjustment that actually makes a difference.
The Payoff
Around kilometre twelve, the trail breaks onto a ridgeline that looks west over the Scenic Rim. I stood there for ten minutes, sweat dripping, legs aching, and just stared. The landscape stretched out in overlapping layers of green and blue, fading into a haze that made it impossible to tell where the land ended and the sky began. I have seen beautiful views before. This one made me stop thinking.
Hiking in Southeast Queensland is not quaint. It is physical, demanding, and occasionally confronting — the wildlife alone requires a level of awareness that English walking never did. But the payoff is proportional. The harder the trail, the better the view. The further you walk, the quieter it gets. And the quieter it gets, the more you hear.
The best hikes are not the ones that look good on camera. They are the ones that change how you breathe.
