The Needles Walking Track

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A Grade 3, 6km return walk (2-3 hours) from Mulligans campground to granite rock formation views, forming part of the Gibraltar-Washpool World Heritage walk, with an option to extend via the Tree Fern Forest walk into a 12km loop.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

5.64 km

Est. time

1 hr 42 min

Elevation gain

153 m

Route type

Out & back

Steepest stretch: +53m over ~300m (around the 2.8km 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 Gibraltar Range National Park, Grafton / Glen Innes, 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.

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.

Soft GrevilleaDocumented on this trail

Grevillea mollis

Endangered — AUS: Endangered, NSW: Endangered▾

Endangered — AUS: Endangered, NSW: Endangered

Grevillea mollis, commonly known as soft grevillea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to a restricted area of north-eastern New South Wales. It is an open, spreading shrub with oblong to elliptic leaves and loose clusters of bright scarlet red flowers.

How to spot it

Grevillea mollis is an open, spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) and has shaggy-hairy branchlets. Its leaves are oblong to narrowly oblong or elliptic, 30–100 mm (1.2–3.9 in) long and 4–14 mm (0.16–0.55 in) wide. The upper surface is covered with soft hairs, the lower side with shaggy hairs and the edges are wavy. The flowers are arranged in loose clusters of four to eight on a peduncle up to 12 mm (0.47 in) long, the rachis 4–14 mm (0.16–0.55 in) lo

Family Proteaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Grevillea mollis

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

Christmas Bells

Blandfordia grandiflora

Endangered — a Gibraltar Range wildflower drawcard▾

Endangered — a Gibraltar Range wildflower drawcard

NPWS promotes a morning walk for the waratahs and Christmas bells as one of Gibraltar Range National Park's seasonal highlights — a tufted perennial herb whose large red-and-yellow bell flowers put on one of the park's best wildflower displays.

How to spot it

Narrow, channelled leaves to 80cm long; two to twenty large, drooping bell-shaped flowers per stem, usually red with yellow lobes (occasionally all yellow), each 35-60mm long, flowering in summer heath and swampy heathland.

Family Blandfordiaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Blandfordia grandiflora; NSW National Parks — Gibraltar Range National Park

Photo: Doug Beckers (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Gibraltar Range Waratah

Telopea aspera

Newly listed threatened species (2024), endemic to one range▾

Newly listed threatened species (2024), endemic to one range

Endemic to a single mountain range and only added to Australia's national threatened species list in September 2024, this waratah is the drier-country cousin of the famous NSW floral emblem, distinguished by its rougher, more coarsely-toothed leaves.

How to spot it

Woody shrub to 3m with dull green, coarsely-toothed alternate leaves; dome-shaped crimson flowerheads of 90-250 individual flowers in spring, found in dry sclerophyll forest rather than the damp gullies favoured by the common waratah.

Family Proteaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Telopea aspera

Photo: Geoffrey Derrin (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.

Rufous Scrub-bird

Atrichornis rufescens

Endangered (IUCN)▾

Endangered (IUCN)

A secretive, ground-dwelling songbird endemic to isolated pockets of rainforest and wet eucalypt forest in north-eastern NSW and south-eastern Queensland. Population estimated at 1,850–2,960 mature birds, with the Border Ranges/Lamington Plateau area holding the largest subpopulations.

How to spot it

Almost never seen — listen instead for its extremely loud, mimicking call from dense leaf litter above 600m elevation. Brown plumage with a rufous breast and lightly barred back; males have a white streak on the neck that females lack.

Family Atrichornithidae · Source: Wikipedia: Rufous scrub-bird; Wikipedia: Nightcap National Park; Wikipedia: Gibraltar Range National Park

Joshua Bergmark (Ornis Birding Expeditions), CC BY 4.0