Porongurup National Park, Tourism Western Australia
Have you heard of Kakadu? What about the Blue Mountains? Whitsundays? Wilsons Promontory? We’re going to take a guess and say that yes, you have. And for good reason – these national parks are all truly spectacular, and have the visitor numbers to prove it. But what about the national parks that don’t regularly feature in bucket lists? We’ve selected our five favourite national parks that all too often fall under the radar (sorry to all the locals who wanted to keep them secret).
Strzelecki National Park, Tasmania
The wild Strzelecki National Park is on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait, which makes this national park not so much forgotten as hard to get to. Even though Strzelecki was only gazetted in 1967, it’s so remote it remains pretty much as it was when first explored by Europeans. The park itself looks like a cross between Wilsons Promontory and Freycinet national parks, and protects a range of granite mountains stretching down towards sandy beaches strewn with lichen-covered rocks. Oh, and keep your eyes out for wildlife; along with wombats, wallabies and pademelons, you’ll also find species endemic to the park. Hike to the top of the Strzelecki Range for seriously glorious views, or swim in the waters just off the park’s only camping area at Trousers Point (yup, its actual name).
Porongurup National Park, Western Australia
This national park, just 40 minutes from Albany, looks like a giant came and threw a few boulders around, leaving them in remarkable formations rising up from the surrounding karri and jarrah forests. While walking through the towering karri trees is glorious in itself, the true fun comes when you get up onto the granite boulders. There are numerous walking tracks, but the best one has to be around Castle Rock, where a walkway is terrifyingly suspended around the summit. The park also bursts into kaleidoscopic life in spring, when the wildflowers bloom.
Gundabooka National Park, New South Wales
The old saying that ‘back o’ Bourke’ is the start of the outback was probably referencing Gundabooka National Park, an easy 90 minutes’ drive from Bourke in the far north-west of New South Wales. This is a national park on a grand scale. And while there’s plenty of the red desert and sand dunes you’d expect from a national park out here, there are also more surprising landscapes that showcase the varied environs of the outback, such as the lush land around the Darling River, the mulga woodlands and the soaring stretch of the Gunderbooka Range. This is an ancient landscape, and it has a lot of significance for local Aboriginal people; make time for the Mulgowan (Yappa) Aboriginal Art Site walking track to see some magnificent rock art.
Newland Head Conservation Park, South Australia
With wild surf, desolate beaches and sheer cliffs, Newland Head Conservation Park is the sort of place you can imagine a pirate calling home. In fact, it’s so wild that swimming is discouraged and even fishing off the rocks is given a shake of the head. That’s alright though, because the park’s two beaches are rated pretty highly as fishing spots, and keen anglers can fish for mullet, mulloway and salmon. If you don’t fancy throwing a line in, take one of the walking tracks along the beaches or up on the cliffs. More confident hikers (who don’t experience vertigo) can tackle a section of the Heysen Trail on the Newland Head Nature Hike, which meanders along the clifftops.
Crater Lakes National Park, Queensland
Okay, so this national park is more developed than the other ones on this list – it even has gas barbecues! But not many outside of the Atherton region have heard about this national park and the two massive lakes that give the park its name. What’s remarkable about the two lakes? They formed inside ancient volcanic craters and the vegetation surrounding Lake Barrine has similarities to fossilised trees more than 300 million years old. So, basically this is Australia’s version of Jurassic Park, but with slightly more civilised activities, including bushwalking and swimming.
Lake Barrine, Crater Lakes National Park, Jean-Paul Ferrero / Auscape International
