Palm Forest walking track

Easy

Family Friendly Rainforest Summit Waterfall

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An easy NPWS rainforest track from Sheepstation Creek campground toward Brushbox Falls lookout, confirmed on the official NSW National Parks site.

☰ Trail details

Hide panel — map only✕

Distance

0.77 km

Est. time

16 min

Elevation gain

39 m

Route type

Out & back

Steepest stretch: +28m over ~300m (around the 0.4km 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 Border Ranges National Park, Northern Rivers. 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

+ Add to tracks / plans

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.

Coachwood

Ceratopetalum apetalum

Defines Washpool's Gondwana rainforest canopy▾

Defines Washpool's Gondwana rainforest canopy

Washpool National Park protects the world's largest stand of coachwood trees, a defining feature of the coachwood-sassafras rainforest community that characterises NSW's Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage reserves.

How to spot it

Smooth, greyish, fragrant bark marked with distinctive horizontal scars encircling the trunk; grows to around 25m (exceptional specimens to 40m) with pale pink to pinkish-brown timber that carries a caramel-like scent when cut. Common canopy associate of sassafras in cool, moist rainforest gullies.

Family Cunoniaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Ceratopetalum apetalum; NSW National Parks — Washpool National Park

Photo: Poyt448 (Peter Woodard) (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Sassafras

Doryphora sassafras

Coachwood's rainforest partner species▾

Coachwood's rainforest partner species

A common mid-to-upper storey tree of NSW's Gondwana Rainforests, pairing with coachwood to form the coachwood-sassafras rainforest community found across the state's northern escarpment reserves. All parts of the tree carry a spicy smell but contain a poisonous alkaloid, so it's for smelling, not chewing.

How to spot it

Opposite, glossy, toothed leaves 30-110mm long; white six-tepalled flowers from May to October. Grows on basalt and sedimentary soils in temperate rainforest gullies, typically found growing alongside coachwood.

Family Atherospermataceae · Source: Wikipedia: Doryphora sassafras

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

Red Cedar

Toona ciliata

"Red gold" — logged to commercial extinction▾

"Red gold" — logged to commercial extinction

Colonial timber-getters called it "red gold" for its prized cabinet timber, and 19th-century logging was so intensive that large wild red cedars are now essentially commercially extinct. Surviving specimens are landmark trees — Washpool NP protects extraordinary specimens of giant red cedar, and both Border Ranges and Dorrigo name walking tracks after the species.

How to spot it

One of Australia's few native deciduous trees, dropping leaves in autumn and flushing reddish-pink new growth in spring. Long compound leaves to 90cm with 10-14 pairs of leaflets; small white tubular flowers give way to star-shaped brown seed capsules.

Family Meliaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Toona ciliata; NSW National Parks — Washpool, Border Ranges & Dorrigo National Parks

Photo: Forest & Kim Starr (CC BY 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Rosewood

Didymocheton fraserianus

Fragrant Timber Tree▾

Fragrant Timber Tree

Predominates the upper elevations of Lamington National Park's Green Mountains section and is documented within Border Ranges National Park, prized historically for its fragrant deep pink-to-red timber.

How to spot it

Evergreen to 30m+ (exceptional trees over 56m), light brown scale-like bark with reddish-brown underbark, glossy spirally arranged leaves 120-250mm, strong fragrance from freshly cut bark.

Family Meliaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Lamington National Park / Didymocheton (Dysoxylum) fraserianus

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

Giant Water Gum (Rose Satinash)

Syzygium francisii

Fruit-Rafting Rainforest Giant▾

Fruit-Rafting Rainforest Giant

In Border Ranges National Park's Sawpit Creek area, this giant tree drops such prodigious quantities of fruit that they collect downstream in beautiful pink floating rafts.

How to spot it

Medium to large tree occasionally over 30m, scaly reddish-brown bark with prominent buttresses, opposite pointed leaves 4-8cm with wavy margins and pinkish new growth, pale blue-lilac-purple flattened berries.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Border Ranges National Park / Syzygium francisii

Photo: Peter Woodard (Public Domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Wildlife you might see on this trail

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

Koala

Phascolarctos cinereus

IUCN Vulnerable; EPBC-listed Endangered in QLD/NSW/ACT▾

IUCN Vulnerable; EPBC-listed Endangered in QLD/NSW/ACT

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial endemic to Australia and the sole living member of the family Phascolarctidae, most closely related to wombats. It is recognisable by its stout, tailless body, large round-eared head, and dark leathery nose.

How to spot it

Look up into eucalypt canopies for a grey-to-chocolate-brown, tailless bundle wedged in a fork, often sleeping (koalas rest up to 20 hours a day). Body length 60-85 cm, males noticeably larger with a more curved nose and a visible chest gland. During breeding season males give a loud, deep snoring-and-belching bellow that carries a long way through the bush at night.

Family Phascolarctidae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: Diliff (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Yellow-bellied glider

Petaurus australis

IUCN Vulnerable▾

IUCN Vulnerable

A large, highly vocal gliding possum of eastern Australian eucalypt forests, able to glide up to 150 metres between trees. It lives in small family groups and is best known for its far-carrying, gurgling shriek that can be heard up to 500m away at night.

How to spot it

Grey-brown above with an off-white to orange-yellow belly, large pointed ears, body about 30cm plus a bushy tail up to 48cm. Listen at dusk for its distinctive rolling shriek/gurgle call - often the first sign it's around before you spot it gliding between widely spaced tall eucalypts. Look for characteristic V-shaped incision marks on trunks where it has sap-fed.

Family Petauridae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: Greg Schechter (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Red-necked Wallaby

Notamacropus rufogriseus

IUCN Least Concern▾

IUCN Least Concern

A medium-sized wallaby common in the temperate coastal scrub and forests of eastern Australia and Tasmania, also known as Bennett's wallaby in its Tasmanian form.

How to spot it

Identify it by its grizzled medium-grey coat with a reddish wash across the shoulders, black nose and paws, and a white stripe on the upper lip; unlike some similar species it lacks a dark stripe down the back. Commonly seen alone at dawn and dusk along forest edges and grassy clearings in coastal and highland eastern Australia and Tasmania.

Family Macropodidae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: JJ Harrison (Noodle snacks) (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Macropus giganteus

IUCN Least Concern - Australia's most-seen kangaroo▾

IUCN Least Concern - Australia's most-seen kangaroo

Australia's most commonly encountered kangaroo, with an estimated population above 11 million, ranging across the eastern third of the continent in open grassland, woodland and forest.

How to spot it

Look for a soft grey to brownish-grey coat with a lighter belly, standing over a metre tall in males with long, thick tails. Mainly grazing at dawn, dusk and night in small mobs on grassy verges, clearings and paddocks adjoining bushland; less wary of people than other roo species.

Family Macropodidae · Source: Wikipedia

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

Glossy Black-Cockatoo

Calyptorhynchus lathami

IUCN Vulnerable; EPBC-listed Vulnerable (nominate subspecies)▾

IUCN Vulnerable; EPBC-listed Vulnerable (nominate subspecies)

The glossy black-cockatoo is the smallest of Australia's black-cockatoos, found in open forest and woodland along the east coast from south-eastern Queensland to Mallacoota in Victoria. It feeds almost exclusively on the seeds of casuarina (she-oak) trees, leaving distinctive chewed cones scattered beneath feed trees.

How to spot it

Smaller and more compact than other black-cockatoos (46-50cm), with a large bulbous grey-brown bill. Males are chocolate-brown/black with red panels in the tail; females are duller brown with yellow flecking on the head/neck and yellow-barred tails. The call is a soft, wheezy creak, quieter than other black-cockatoos. Look for piles of chewed she-oak (Casuarina/Allocasuarina) cones on the ground under feed trees - a reliable sign they've been feeding nearby.

Family Cacatuidae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

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

Powerful owl

Ninox strenua

Vulnerable (NSW & Vic); IUCN Least Concern▾

Vulnerable (NSW & Vic); IUCN Least Concern

The powerful owl is Australia's largest owl, an apex forest predator of south-eastern Australia that feeds mostly on tree-dwelling possums and gliders. Though secure globally, it's listed as vulnerable in New South Wales and Victoria because it depends on large, hollow-bearing old-growth trees for nesting, which logging and land clearing keep removing.

How to spot it

A big owl, 45-65cm long with a wingspan over a metre, dark grey-brown above with bold white V-shaped barring below and a hawk-like long-tailed silhouette in flight. Listen at dusk for the male's slow, far-carrying double hoot ('whoo-hooo'); by day it roosts quietly in tall forest trees, sometimes with the remains of a possum cached on a branch below.

Family Strigidae · Source: Wikipedia

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

Lace monitor

Varanus varius

IUCN Least Concern — common eastern forest goanna▾

IUCN Least Concern — common eastern forest goanna

The lace monitor is one of Australia's largest and most familiar goannas, a highly arboreal predator and scavenger found throughout the forests of eastern Australia from Cape York to south-eastern South Australia.

How to spot it

A big goanna (up to 2m, occasionally more) — most commonly dark grey-black with cream spots and a banded tail, though some individuals ('Bell's phase') show broad yellow-and-black bands instead. Confident and inquisitive around campsites and picnic areas, where it will readily investigate food; often seen climbing tree trunks head-first when approached, active mainly between September and May.

Family Varanidae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: Bidgee (CC BY-SA 3.0 Australia) via Wikimedia Commons