Conondale
Forested areas, important wildlife species
Access
There are two park areas that make up Conondale National Park and both are accessible by road. Several access routes are available. The smaller park area is accessible by a series of second class graded roads off the main Maleny-Kenilworth road between Conondale and Kenilworth. The larger park area can be reached from Kenilworth to the north-west via Little Yabba-Sunday Creek road or via the road that passes through the Booloumba Creek valley which links up with the Mt Gerald-Sunday Creek road. The parks are also accessible from Kilcoy and Jimna. All access roads are gravel and therefore subject to weather conditions.
Activities
These parks are areas of unspoilt beauty, rugged creek scenery and rich subtropical rainforest. There are no formed walking tracks in these parks and so if you are to walk in them, it will have to be along old forestry roads. Take the time to explore this rainforest and you will see some of the unique wildlife that is found here. You may also like to go for a swim in one of the many crystal clear streams.
Wildlife
The Conondale National Parks are particularly important due to the number of rare species of animals that are found there. Two species of frog that are interesting are the pouched frog (Assa darlingtoni) and the platypus frog {Rheobatrachus silus). The platypus is the only aquatic frog to be found in Australia. It is nocturnal and lives in the mountain streams of Conondale. It hides under rocks during the day and clings to them being partly submerged at night. The platypus frog has only been found in the rainforest areas of southern Queensland. The pouched frog was thought to only occur in the McPherson Ranges of south-eastern Queensland. Recent fauna surveys though have found that there are other areas where this frog occurs. The male pouched frog has brood pouches on its stomach in which the young tadpoles hatch.
You may also see the freshwater cray (Eustacus hystricosus) in the Conondale streams. This freshwater cray is only found in the Cdnondale/ Blackall Range area and is believed to be the largest of its kind found in Australia.
Rainforest birds are often hard to see as they spend much of their time high up in the canopy of the trees. There are more than 175 different types of birds found at Conondale National Parks and some of these are very rare. The red goshawk [Erythriotriorchis radiatus) is a rare bird of prey that has been sighted in these parks. It grows to a length of 50 centimetres and feeds on small animals, often the young of other birds.
The white-eared flycatcher (Monarcha leucotis), although common in northern Queensland, tends to be migratory in its southern limit and so is seldom seen. It catches its insect meal on the wing, hovering and fluttering above the canopy of the forest. During October through January the white-eared flycatcher usually lays two eggs in its fibre-lined nest. Some other birds that are found at Conondale and that are considered rare may not be so indeed. The black-breasted quail (Turnix melanogaster) is thought to be rare but because of its shy habits it has probably escaped the notice of most untrained eyes. It lives on the ground and seldom flies and if it does it will only be for a short distance.
The mammals of the Conondale Ranges include possums, bats, bandicoots, pademelons and even platypus. The platypus is very shy and hard to approach, but if you sit quietly by the side of one of the deep pools in Conondale you may be lucky enough to spot one. They’re not easily approached and you’re more likely to hear a characteristic splash or see a dark form disappear amid a circle of ripples than actually see one.
Vegetation
The rainforest that is found in Conondale was once found over a large part of Southern Queensland but this has largely disappeared. Conondale conserves one of the last remaining large areas of this type of rainforest north of Brisbane. The main vegetation type found on the range is open forest with such eucalypts as grey gum (Eucalyptuspropinqua), Queensland grey ironbark (E. dr’epanophylla) and forest red gum (E. tereticornis). Moving from the ridges into the gullies you will find that these species are replaced by flooded gum (E. grandis), tallowwood (E. microcorys), and brush box ( Tristania conjerta). Growing under these tall eucalypts in the steep gullies are many rainforest species. There are several different varieties of rainforest found in the park, each with its own characteristics.