Location
Northbrook Gorge, via Mt Glorious or Fernvale. It is equivalent road travel time-wise from Indooroopilly, so you may prefer either path depending on whether you are to the north or south of Indooroopilly, Ref: RoadsToNorthbrookParkway
Mostly open eucalypt forest with small areas of thicker forest aside the creek line. Lantana in some areas, but not along the recon walking lines. The creek line includes a number of steep-walled cuttings that require a waist to chest deep wade or a swim in a few cases.
It's very scenic and photo-worthy, but if you bring camera gear please heed the fact that it's a full-immersion walk as noted in the Hazards section. See the location photos here: Northbrook Gorge public photos
Location-Specific Hazards
There is at least one small shimmy up a wet rock feature, about 2 metres in total, over a rough slab above deep water. This requires a very low amount of rock climbing skill, and non-climbers might find it a little unnatural and need coaching. No rope use is intended.
We will be swimming ravine ponds with packs. Everything must be bagged and/or waterproofed. No responsibility will be transferred from you for any damage to your equipment. It is a wet activity.
Date/Time
Sunday, 19 January 2020. Meet at 7:45am for a 8:00am start (nominally to finish around 2:00 pm, negotiable to 4:00pm if agreed convenient by all on the day).
Meet
Northbrook Parkway (Lat/Long (decimal degrees): -27.3073842°, 152.7117103°), at the dirt parking lot next to the bee hives on the prow inside the big switch-back hairpin. Refer: Car park location map.
If you prefer a lift, or want to combine transport, ask in your nomination email or phone 0408004208 prior to 6am Sunday at the latest to arrange.
Bring
- Pack for an easy day walk, bring water and lunch. The creek water is not recommended drinkable without sterilisation.
- The exercise will involve track and limited off track walking, rock-hopping, numerous wades and an unavoidable swim through ravine ponds. Therefore:
- Boots or trail-shoes/sand-shoes can be suitable depending on your personal success in the foot-wear area. Some local children were observed to be succeeding in reef-shoes last week during recon. Most were in sand-shoes. I wore boots for ankle support in rocky wades.
- Quickdry clothes were comfortable. The temperature in the gorge was about 5 to 10 degrees less than the forest above. The water was cold to cool, but not icy. Pleasant in the gorge, with the area temp at the road well above 30 degrees.
- Bag and/or waterproof all your kit. Prepare your pack with liner bags and/or put all wet-damageables in zip-lock bags/cases. Double-bagging is a handy tip.
- A full change of clothes and a towel are essential, left at the cars to change into on return to avoid wetting your/someone else's car on the trip home.
- Navigation equipment is almost redundant due to the unmistakable location, however if you wish to bring any satnav or mapping please bring do. Navigation materials will be brought by the trip leader.
Aim
This familiarisation is aimed at bushwalkers who wish to trial their capability to wade and swim creeks with packs in a non-critical context, and update their familiarity with the Northbrook area.
The essential element is rock-hopping, water wading and swimming with light packs (or pack weight of your choice, add ballast if desired - if so, I recommend to bring bladders to add water-weight rather than rocks).
To Nominate
Please send an email to fmrqld@gmail.com with subject Northbrook Familiarisation to nominate for this activity.
Maps
Northbrook Gorge QTopo
Northbrook Mtn QTopo
Strava heat-map of hikers walking in the Gorge area:
