If you’re up for an adventure with the kids, Binna Burra (part of Lamington National Park) is a great place to stay. This world class heritage-listed place is home to beautiful rainforests with an abundance of wildlife, waterfalls, and great walks!
Binna Burra is home to beautiful rainforests with an abundance of wildlife, waterfalls, and great walks!
Getting There
The drive from Brisbane to Binna Burra takes approximately 1.5 hours. We took the back route through Jimboomba and Canungra. The Outpost Café at Canungra – famous for its pies – is a great place to stop to grab food before heading uphill (for over 800m!) towards Binna Burra. There are also nice parks at Canungra for the kids to play.
If you’re up for an adventure with the kids, Binna Burra is a great place to stay!
Our Camping/Glamping Setup
When visiting Binna Burra, the Binna Burra Lodge is the place to stay. They offer a range of options from tent and RV sites, to Safari Tents and cabins. We stayed in a Safari Tent and would highly recommend this option with young children (ours are 2.5 years and 7 months old). It’s beautiful, and a much easier option when you have your hands full with the little ones!
Binna Burra offer a range of accommodation options, from tent and RV sites to Safari Tents and cabins.
Binna Burra Lodge has been rebuilt and renovated after the 2019 bushfires, and all amenities and facilities are both clean and in great condition. There are also EV stations available to charge your car. For all visitors (including day visitors), there is a café called the Teahouse which serves a range of delicious food. There is also another building called the Groom’s Cottage which offers drinks and snacks, overlooking the beautiful Hinze dam and Gold Coast.
Binna Burra Lodge has been rebuilt and renovated after the 2019 bushfires.
Our Safari Tent had beautiful views overlooking this too; at night, you could see the lights from the Gold Coast. We could cook outside our tent with our cooker, and there was a firepit close by too. All amenities were easily accessible from our tent. The toilets were flush toilets, the showers had both good pressure and adequate heat, and the clean communal kitchen area had two BBQ areas, firepits, seating, and a fridge to store your food (remember to label it!). Everything was in close walking distance – including the Teahouse Café, the Groom’s Cottage, and camping areas – yet still very quiet and peaceful. There were also wheelchair accessible amenities and a First Aid room.
The clean communal kitchen area has two BBQ areas, firepits, seating, and a fridge to store your food.
When staying at Binna Burra, it can get chilly so I would recommend bringing warm clothes. We were pleasantly surprised by the nice, fresh, crisp temperatures when we came over from 30-plus degree heat in Brisbane! You will also need to bring a padlock if you stay in the Safari Tents, and your own linen (including the fitted sheet). You can drink the water at Binna Burra, but if you prefer the taste of your own you can always bring extra from home.
We were pleasantly surprised by the crisp temperatures coming over from 30-plus degree heat in Brisbane!
Food
We decided to do a combination of eating at the Teahouse Café and cooking ourselves. When camping with kids, I find that it’s best to be well prepared with food as it can be hard to juggle cooking while watching the kids! I ended up pre-cooking all the dinners at home and storing them in the fridge. All we needed to do then was heat them up. For our first night we had spaghetti Bolognaise (a favourite with our 2.5-year-old!) and on the second night we had a hearty beef and vegetable stew (which was devoured by all! Even our 7-month-old had a little taste of the sauce, and we could mash the potato and carrot for her).
For our breakfasts, we decided to eat at the Teahouse Café; this was a very good decision, as the food was to die for! The café also sells a lot of locally sourced food like Canungra mushrooms, cheese, and jam. There is a nice ambience, with a fire burning on the cooler mornings and evenings.
The Teahouse Café has a nice ambience, with a fire burning on the cooler mornings and evenings.
Hiking
There are 13 hiking tracks at Binna Burra ranging from 1.2km (Rainforest Circuit) all the way to 21.4km (Border Track). For all hikes, it is best to check the Queensland National Parks website, as well as the board at the top of the track, to check for updates. Sometimes, due to severe weather, tracks can close.
There are 13 hiking tracks ranging from 1.2km to 21.4km (Border Track).
We arrived at Binna Burra in the mid-afternoon, so opted to do a small hike. We ended up doing the Rainforest Circuit and saw a range of wildlife, including King Parrots (featured on the logo of Binna Burra Lodge)! The King Parrots were eating pink berries, close to the entrance of the track. We also saw pademelons and heard a catbird (which has a very distinct sound)! I would recommend hiking Rainforest Circuit in an anticlockwise direction, as the track on the way back is a lot smoother and wider (therefore a little easier).
With kids, we are used to getting up early – so early the next day we went on a longer hike, Tullawallal Circuit (5km). This is an extension from the Rainforest Circuit. Our 2-year-old had lots of fun walking along the track. At Tullawallal, we saw lots of Antarctic Beech Trees – these can reach over thousands of years old.
Our 2-year-old had lots of fun!
After the kids had their midday sleep (we were lucky that day!), we decided to do the Caves Track (7km). There are a couple options with this, as part of the track requires you to walk along the road (if you decide to do it as a loop). One option is to park at the lower part of the track, walk to Kweebani Cave from there, and go back the same way – this is the quickest and easiest way. The other option is to start from the upper trail head and walk downwards to the cave, which involves lots of switchbacks. We took the second option, and regretted not walking from the other direction; we ran out of time to get to the cave, so had to turn around.
I also recommend keeping your kids close, as this place is known for snakes sunning themselves along the path. Yes – we saw a red-bellied black snake! The path can also be fairly steep, so best to keep your kids in their carriers. The forest here is different to that of the Rainforest Circuit and Tullawallal, as it’s drier with eucalypt. You can also see remnants of the 2019 bushfire along the track and, if you’re lucky, a koala!
Keep your kids close, as this place is known for snakes sunning themselves along the path!
If you have older children and/or are up for more of an adventure, another favourite of mine is Dave’s Creek Circuit (12km). We did this one a while back with our first born in the Ergopouch, and it was great – she slept for a good portion of it! I also hiked this while pregnant with my second child, which was also manageable! For an even longer hike, and perhaps with older children, I would recommend the Coomera Circuit (17.4km). For those who want to have a bigger adventure still, there is always the Border Track (21.4km one way) where you can walk to O’Reilly’s, camp there overnight, then walk back (or, there’s the option to organise pick-up through Binna Burra Lodge).
One take away from Binna Burra is from a sign I saw outside the Teahouse:
‘Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.’
(Lao Tzu)
What a great camping and hiking experience!
What a great camping and hiking experience!