Lower Portals Track

Moderate

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A grade 4 walking track to a swimming spot on Mount Barney Creek with two rocky creek crossings, documented on parks.qld.gov.au and queensland.com as a signposted official track.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

3.67 km

Est. time

1 hr 11 min

Elevation gain

153 m

Route type

Out & back

Steepest stretch: +34m over ~300m (around the 0.1km 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 Mount Barney National Park, Scenic Rim. 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.

Tracks & plans

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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.

Bertya pedicellataDocumented on this trail

Bertya pedicellata

Near Threatened — QLD: Near threatened▾

Near Threatened — QLD: Near threatened

Bertya pedicellata is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae and is endemic to Queensland. It is a shrub with many branches, linear leaves, separate male and female flowers, male flowers with 55 to 70 stamens, female flowers with a sparsely hairy ovary, and narrowly elliptic capsules usually with a single seed.

How to spot it

Bertya pedicellata is a shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 6 m (20 ft) and has many branches covered with white, star-shaped hairs, and most parts of the plant sticky. The leaves are linear to elliptic or egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 40–92 mm (1.6–3.6 in) long and 3–10 mm (0.12–0.39 in) wide, the edges of the leaves curved downwards or sometimes rolled under. The flowers are more or less sessile or on a peduncle up to 6 mm (0.24 in) long. The male flowers are 5

Family Euphorbiaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Bertya pedicellata

Maroon Wattle

Acacia saxicola

Endangered - Mount Maroon Endemic▾

Endangered - Mount Maroon Endemic

Endemic exclusively to Mount Maroon within Mount Barney National Park, this diffuse shrub clings to rocky slopes and crevices in thin sandy-loam soil around 900m elevation.

How to spot it

Multi-branched shrub to 1.5m, glossy dark green phyllodes 7.5-14mm tapering to reddish spine tips, spherical pale golden-yellow flower heads about 13mm, dark brown seed pods to 3cm.

Family Fabaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Acacia saxicola

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

Bell-fruited Mallee Ash

Eucalyptus codonocarpa

Rare Mallee Eucalypt▾

Rare Mallee Eucalypt

A rare slender mallee growing on Mount Maroon within Mount Barney National Park's mallee eucalypt shrublands, named for its distinctive bell-shaped woody fruit.

How to spot it

Slender mallee to 6m, smooth grey/yellow/brownish bark, glossy green lance-shaped to curved leaves, white flowers March-June, bell-shaped woody capsule fruit 5-8mm.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Mount Barney National Park / Eucalyptus codonocarpa

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

Mount Barney Bush-pea

Pultenaea whiteana

Rare - Mount Barney/Maroon Endemic▾

Rare - Mount Barney/Maroon Endemic

Endemic to Mount Barney and Mount Maroon, this erect pea shrub was first collected from heath-like vegetation on Mount Maroon's upper rocky slopes and occurs at 900-1,200m altitude.

How to spot it

Erect shrub 0.5-1m with sparsely hairy linear leaves 6.2-10mm, yellow-to-orange pea flowers August-January, found in heath, forest understorey and on cliffs.

Family Fabaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Pultenaea whiteana

Photo: Murray Fagg (CC BY 3.0 AU) via Wikimedia Commons

Hillgrove Gum

Eucalyptus michaeliana

Rare (Qld Nature Conservation Act)▾

Rare (Qld Nature Conservation Act)

A rare woodland gum recorded in Mount Barney National Park's southeastern Queensland populations, part of a fragmented distribution shared with the New South Wales tablelands.

How to spot it

Grows to 30m, smooth mottled grey/white/cream bark shed in plates or flakes, lance-shaped to curved leaves 90-180mm, white flowers in March, cup or barrel-shaped woody fruit capsules.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Mount Barney National Park / Eucalyptus michaeliana

Photo: Cgoodwin (CC BY 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Marbled Frogmouth

Podargus ocellatus plumiferus

Vulnerable (Qld, plumiferus subspecies)▾

Vulnerable (Qld, plumiferus subspecies)

The south-east Queensland plumiferus subspecies of this nocturnal bird is rare and listed as vulnerable in Queensland, restricted to subtropical rainforest and vineforest between 50-800m elevation. Mount Barney's rainforest gullies provide critical habitat for the subspecies.

How to spot it

Extremely cryptic - sleeps by day on a tree branch with its beak pointed upward, mimicking a broken branch stub. Told apart from the common tawny frogmouth by smaller size, orange-red eyes and a more mottled, marbled plumage pattern. Listen for its deep, accelerating gobbling call at night.

Family Podargidae · Source: Wikipedia - Marbled frogmouth; Wikipedia - Mount Barney National Park

Jasmine Zeleny, CC BY-SA 4.0

Albert's Lyrebird

Menura alberti

Restricted-range rainforest endemic (Least Concern)▾

Restricted-range rainforest endemic (Least Concern)

A ground-dwelling songbird endemic to a small pocket of subtropical rainforest straddling the Queensland-New South Wales border, with its largest population on the Lamington Plateau. Wikipedia's account of the species confirms populations at Tamborine Mountain, Springbrook, Mount Barney and Main Range National Parks, all part of the McPherson Range refuge that is the species' entire world range.

How to spot it

Large, chestnut-brown ground bird with a rufous throat and rump. Males display an elaborate tail of ribbon-like plumes during courtship, though the tail is far less showy than the famous Superb Lyrebird's. Best detected by its extraordinary mimicry of other rainforest birds, delivered from a mound of scratched-up leaf litter at dawn.

Family Menuridae · Source: Wikipedia - Albert's lyrebird

gwynmwilliams, CC BY 4.0

Mount Ballow Mountain Frog

Philoria knowlesi

Endangered — AUS: Endangered, QLD: Endangered▾

Endangered — AUS: Endangered, QLD: Endangered

The Mount Ballow mountain frog is a species of frog in the family Limnodynastidae. It is endemic to eastern Australia, straddling the border of Queensland and New South Wales. It is known only from the central and western McPherson Ranges, in the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Site.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Mount Barney National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, date unrecorded) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Limnodynastidae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Philoria knowlesi