Point Lookout Walking Track

Easy

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An easy, Grade 1, 0.5km sealed loop (15-30 minutes) at 1500m elevation on the edge of the Great Escarpment, giving a 180-degree World Heritage panorama to the Pacific Ocean 70km away through snow gum bushland.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

0.13 km

Est. time

2 min

Elevation gain

0 m

Route type

Loop

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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 New England National Park, Armidale, NSW. 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.

Fire danger today (New England): MODERATE

As of 28/08/2026 — check the live NSW RFS rating before you go, this may be out of date.

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.

Mt Samaria Guinea-FlowerDocumented on this trail

Hibbertia samaria

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Hibbertia samaria is a species of flowering plant in the family Dilleniaceae and is endemic to Victoria, Australia. It is a small, low-lying or mat-forming shrub with hairy foliage, linear leaves and yellow flowers with ten to fifteen stamens arranged around three hairy carpels.

How to spot it

Hibbertia samaria is a low-lying or mat-forming shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 15 cm (5.9 in) with branches up to 30 cm (12 in) long and hairy foliage. The leaves are linear, mostly 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) long and 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) wide on a petiole 0.2–0.6 mm (0.0079–0.0236 in) long. The flowers are arranged singly on the ends of the branches on a peduncle 5–12 mm (0.20–0.47 in) long with linear bracts mostly 1.5–2 mm (0.059–0.079 in) long at the base. The five sepals are

Family Dilleniaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Hibbertia samaria

Photo via National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) AVH data (CC-BY 4.0 (Int)), collected by Clarke, I.C.

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

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

Spotted-tailed quoll

Dasyurus maculatus

IUCN Near Threatened; EPBC-listed Vulnerable (Endangered in Queensland)▾

IUCN Near Threatened; EPBC-listed Vulnerable (Endangered in Queensland)

The spotted-tailed quoll (also called tiger quoll) is the world's second-largest living carnivorous marsupial after the Tasmanian devil, a nocturnal hunter of eastern Australia's wetter forests. Unlike other quoll species its white spots continue onto the tail, and its bite is the second-most powerful relative to body size of any living mammal carnivore.

How to spot it

Larger and more elongated than other quolls, with reddish-brown fur covered in white spots that run all the way down the tail — the tail-spots are the single best field mark to separate it from the eastern quoll. Found in wetter forest and rainforest, generally above 600 m in higher-rainfall country; almost entirely nocturnal and solitary.

Family Dasyuridae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: pimelea (CC BY 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons