I took this photograph in August 2015 on the Ship's Stern Circuit in Lamington National Park, starting and finishing at Binna Burra on the Gold Coast hinterland. The walk is a full-day Class 4 circuit — roughly 21 km along the rim of an ancient volcanic caldera — and this frame is from high on the plateau, looking out over layered rainforest valleys rather than from the cafe at the trailhead.
Where this was taken
After climbing through subtropical rainforest from Binna Burra, the track opens onto the Ship's Stern plateau. Along the eastern edge of the circuit there are a string of rim lookouts — Milleribah, Nyoongai, and Gorooburra — where the forest drops away and the view runs for miles. I shot this panorama from one of those lookout points, with eucalypt branches framing the right-hand side and the valley floor far below.
In the middle distance you can pick out cleared farmland and a small settlement tucked into the valley — typical of the Beechmont and Nerang hinterland — and beyond that, hazy blue ranges fading toward the coast. On a clear day the same rim gives you sightlines toward Mount Warning, the Tweed Volcano's eroded core. The caldera walls, dense green canopy, and sheer rock faces are what make this walk as much a landscape shoot as a bushwalk.
Getting there
Lamington National Park sits on the Scenic Rim, about 90 minutes south-west of Brisbane and inland from the Gold Coast. The Binna Burra section is reached via Beechmont Road; park at the Binna Burra trailhead and pick up the Ship's Stern Circuit from the cafe area. Allow a full day, carry water and lunch, and check Queensland Parks conditions before you go — sections can be steep and exposed.
I wrote up the full walk — pace, lunch on Charraboomba Rock, Kooloobano Point, and the trip back to coffee at Binna Burra — in a separate post: Lamington National Park — Ship's Stern Circuit.