Beaudesert
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Beaudesert

Beaudesert

Rural Scenic Rim town in the Logan River valley, used as a gateway to Lamington National Park.

Beaudesert is a small rural town in the Scenic Rim, the arc of mountain country south-west of Brisbane that traces the New South Wales border. It sits in the Logan River valley with a working cattle-and-dairy hinterland on one side and the basalt walls of the McPherson Range on the other — a landscape of green pastures, fig-lined creeks and old timber farmhouses.

For travellers it is mainly a base or a turn-off. The town is the obvious gateway to Lamington National Park at Binna Burra and O'Reilly's, where ancient Antarctic beech and Gondwanan rainforest cover the rim of an extinct volcano, and to the lakes and waterfalls of Mount Barney National Park further south. The town itself is a single main street with the usual country-town mix of pubs, a heritage museum, the Saturday morning farmers' market, and not much else. Stay if you want a quiet base for hiking the Scenic Rim; otherwise drive on up into the hills.

Guide

Day Trips

The best of the Scenic Rim is within an hour's drive of Beaudesert. Lamington National Park (Binna Burra and O'Reilly's), Mount Barney, Tamborine Mountain, the Gondwana Rainforests at Springbrook and the small wine and food country around Boonah all make rewarding day trips. The cool, high road to Mount Lindesay is a fine drive in its own right, and the New South Wales border country south of Rathdowney is wild and lightly travelled.

Guide

Getting There

Beaudesert is about 65 km south of Brisbane, an hour's drive on the Mount Lindesay Highway (the State Route 13). There is no passenger rail to Beaudesert — the old branch line closed years ago — but Translink bus 547 runs daily from the Park Ride at Browns Plains, which is reachable from central Brisbane on the rapid bus or by car.

From the Gold Coast the drive is about 45 minutes via Tamborine Mountain on the Beaudesert–Beenleigh Road. From the New South Wales side, the inland route via Kyogle and Murwillumbah is slow, narrow and very scenic.

There is no airport at Beaudesert. Brisbane Airport is the most convenient gateway; the Gold Coast (Coolangatta) is similarly close to the south.

Guide

Things to Do in Beaudesert

Beaudesert itself has only a handful of small sights. The real reason to be in this part of Queensland is the surrounding Scenic Rim — Lamington, Mount Barney, and the rolling cattle-and-rainforest country along the New South Wales border. Plan on day trips in two or three directions.