Firetail Walk

Moderate

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A 4.2 km return track along the Toowoomba escarpment near Picnic Point offering views north and east across the valley including Table Top Mountain.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

3.78 km

Est. time

1 hr 46 min

Elevation gain

318 m

Route type

Out & back

Steepest stretch: +43m over ~300m (around the 0.7km mark)

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Picnic Point / Tabletop Range, Toowoomba. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

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In-depth guide

Firetail Walk: Complete Guide (Picnic Point, Toowoomba)

An escarpment climb near Picnic Point with views to Table Top Mountain — real distance, terrain and ancient rainforest species.

Species to look for on this trail

Ancient trees and rare flora confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Blakely's Red Gum

Eucalyptus blakelyi

ACT grassy woodland species▾

ACT grassy woodland species

A medium eucalypt of the NSW and ACT tablelands that pairs with Yellow Box to form the critically endangered Yellow Box-Blakely's Red Gum Grassy Woodland, present on Mount Majura's lower slopes and through Black Mountain Nature Reserve.

How to spot it

Grows 20-25m tall with smooth, pale grey, cream and white patchy bark that sheds to reveal a mottled trunk. Bluish-green lance-shaped adult leaves, white flowers in groups of seven, and square-stemmed young growth.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: ACT Parks and Conservation Service; Wikipedia: Eucalyptus blakelyi

Photo: Thennicke (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Queensland Kauri

Agathis robusta

Ancient Araucariaceae conifer▾

Ancient Araucariaceae conifer

A rainforest giant of an ancient Gondwanan conifer family, growing 30-40m (occasionally to 50m) tall with a straight trunk and distinctive flaking bark. One of three disjunct Australian/New Guinea populations occurs around Gympie, Maryborough and K'gari (Fraser Island).

How to spot it

Orange-brown to grey-brown smooth bark that sheds in large flakes. Linear-elliptic leaves up to 13cm long arranged in opposite pairs, quite different from the needle-like foliage of most conifers. Look for tall, straight emergent trunks above the rainforest canopy.

Family Araucariaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Agathis robusta

Photo: Steve Fitzgerald (Junglenut) (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Hoop Pine

Araucaria cunninghamii

Ancient conifer emergent, can live 450 years▾

Ancient conifer emergent, can live 450 years

A tall emergent conifer of subtropical rainforest that can grow to 60m and live for up to 450 years. Confirmed growing at Enoggera Creek near The Gap, and recorded in the plant list for Kondalilla National Park alongside piccabeen palms and casuarinas.

How to spot it

Rough, banded bark that splits and peels naturally. Young trees have soft, awl-shaped leaves; mature trees switch to small, scale-like, incurved leaves. Easy to spot poking up above the rainforest canopy as a distinct emergent conifer, unlike the broadleaf trees around it.

Family Araucariaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Kondalilla National Park

Photo: John Robert McPherson (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons