Piper Comanche Wreck

GPS Tracks

A walk to the remnants of an aeroplane wreck.

Bird Watching

Scrambling or Climbing

Navigation Required

Rainforest

746m

Maximum Elevation

258m

Total Climb

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Getting there

Start at the Lepidozamia Track, 5.5km north of the Maiala picnic ground.

Maps

D'Aguilar National Park, South D'Aguilar section

Route/Trail notes

Just after the Lepidozamia track gate take the smaller trail to the east. Follow this old logging trail for approx. 3km until you see a small cairn of stones. Follow the faint trail northeast down a rocky and steep hillside for approx. 500 meters. The wreck is on the northern side of a small stream.

Take care when returning to the top of the ridge after visiting the plane wreck. Many walkers come unstuck here missing the turn right back along the main ridge route towards the carpark. This section of the forest has lots of tree roots and rocks on the ground, so the route is not well defined in this location. This combined with decoys of pink tape often lead walkers to the South (veering left at the ridge top) towards Love Creek. Careful navigation is required on this section of the route to avoid becoming lost and spending the night out in the forest. Multiple search and rescues happen in this area on a regular basis.

Permits/Costs

Nil

Other References

This walk was listed in the Bushpeople's Guide to Bushwalking in South-East Queensland.

GPS Tracks

Comments

Nice walk through the rain forest but not an 'easy' walk as there are many fallen trees across parts of the path you have to scramble over or go under. Descent to the plane wreck is very steep and was slippery in parts, coming back up was easier than going down. Navigation was fairly straightforward by following an overgrown but noticeable path and the pink ribbons, however, we downloaded the gpx track and cross navigated with that to ensure we were on track. I clocked this walk as just over 9kms return from the car park on gps - the stated 7.5km must be from a turnoff on the track. Take salt if you are worried about leeches, we saw plenty of them - mostly at the lower altitude around the plane wreck itself. Took us about 3hrs to complete this walk.
scruffy on 25 Apr, 2018

Piper Comanche Plane Wreck bush-walk in the D-Aguilar national park
Queensland Australia January 2018
I went in search of the Piper Comanche Plane Wreck .which crashed in 1977 sadly killing its pilot Paul Pavletich.
I followed a well marked ,though very overgrown trail following pink ribbons all the way.
The start of the trail is hard to pick as its very overgrown .less than 100 meters from the gate. if you lose site of gate you've gone too far.
This trip is interesting and worthwhile ;)
I've posted it on my u tube channel
gizmobazz on 20 Jan, 2018

I have done this walk a few times now - great walk
LizMcD on 15 Jan, 2018

Great walk, superb rainforest. Just be careful of leeches around times of good rain, we were swamped by them.
I will add a few comments on the directions as we almost took the wrong path and couldn’t find the wreck. The entrance to the track is less than 100m from the gate, look for pink tape on your right. The small rock cairn is indeed small, only about as high as your ankle, but easy enough to spot. And once you go down the steep rocky section and hit the gully, following the path along it (on left hand bank heading down) the track loops back a bit and the wreck is above your head.
Easy walk, easy pink tape navigation. Thanks for the info!!
Muzbags on 2 Dec, 2017