Burliegh Heads National Park

To try and clear my head and relax I took a walk in nearby Burleigh Heads National Park yesterday just after some lovely rain showers.

From the National Parks website:

Burleigh Head National Park covers 27.6ha. The Burleigh headland was first set aside as a reserve for public purposes in 1886 and in 1947 was gazetted national park. It is now the only Gold Coast rocky headland that remains substantially in its natural state.

A variety of habitats, including lowland rainforest and pandanus grove, are conserved in the park. It also contains interesting geological forms and is of important cultural heritage significance to the Kombumerri Aboriginal people.


The park provides a popular recreational and educational venue for local and international visitors and is one of the most visited parks in the region.

Despite the glowing description of the vegetation sadly the park has been badly neglected over the years; and is being swamped by exotic weeds....however despite this it is a magical place to walk (or jog!) esp after the rain.



Yucca in flower (a weed) at the northern entrance to the headlands

 It contains some wonderful examples of the kind of vegetation that I believe would have been common on most of the headlands along the coast before it was 'improved'.

Intriguing shapes in the rock formations - reminiscent of Giants Causway in NW Ireland

Some of the trees are engaged in the kind of long term wrestling matches that defy our temporal time frames

Some of my favourite parts of this small park are a little different from the popular tourist lookout points, I'm sure I am not alone in that...

I'll put up lots of the lovely fungi I found (with hopefully some correct identification!) in another post...But here is a taste.....