It was a perfect winter’s day in the subtropics today, and it called me outside to play. So I did, at White Rock–Spring Mountain Conservation Estate on the outskirts of Ipswich.
Even though it’s only 40 minutes’ drive from home, I’d not visited before. I went with some local friends who know it well, and it was because of them that it was a treat.
They took us off-track to explore some of the many caves that stud this sandstone country.
We started on the ridge trail, a narrow and very popular path that diverts from the main track that leaves the carpark at Redbank Plains. The trails were busy. It’s good to see people out enjoying the bush, but I’m (selfishly) always glad when I can get away from people for a bit and have the non-human sounds and smells and sights to myself. And soon we did.
The ridge trail takes you via an unobtrusive lookout past the White Rock the park is named for.
The rock itself is an impressive sandstone bluff at one of the higher elevations of the park. The high points offer views over the raw, bulldozed new developments around nearby Springfield to a distant Brisbane marked by a faint cluster of pointy high-rise buildings on the skyline. There are also vistas to Spring Mountain and the bushland of much of the 2,500 hectares of the park. It’s good to see some bush remains in south-east Queensland in the face of relentless urban growth and sprawl.
White Rock is important to the local Aboriginal people, who ask people not to climb it. So I stayed at the bottom and instead hung around for a bit, enjoying the colours and textures of tree barks with the rock behind, and the swirling pattern of some sandstone kept clean by overhanging rock.
Past White Rock, we left the track, and saw no one (yay) till we returned to the trails.
The caves on the trails are popular stops. For our second morning tea break, we had one to ourselves. It is only a few metres from a track but down a slope and hidden from view. With birds singing, insects buzzing, and a whisper of breeze, my companions and I quietly let it soak in. Bliss.
We probably walked no more than 7 km, if that, but it was wonderful to be away from the constant sound of traffic. And there were the double joys of being out under glorious blue skies, and in open eucalypt forest that is so picturesque with its dappled light and grassy understorey. It was a morning of pleasure and beauty, and I recommend it if you’re in the area.
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