Wilson's Peak

GPS Tracks

Follow the Qld/NSW rabbit fence to a peak that straddles the border (similar to Mount Cougal)

Scrambling or Climbing

Navigation Required

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Getting there

From the Boonah-Rathdowney road, turn onto Carney's Creek Road. Follow it all the way to the rabbit fence. Where the road meets the rabbit fence there is a little area to the right where you can park your car facing East. If you hit the Boonah Border gate and cross into NSW, go back into Qld by about 1 km)

Maps

There is no real need for a map, just follow the rabbit fence to just short of the summit.

Qld Sunmap doesn't list the walk as a trail. The map shows a cliff at a steep climb halfway up the mountain, though shows just steep contours at what is really the cliff at the final section near the peak

Route/Trail notes

The navigation of the route is quite easy. Start walking with the rabbit fence on your left. The first few kilometres go undulate, sometimes rather steeply, along a fire trail. You eventually start getting views of Wilson's Peak before the track leads into thicker rainforest.

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS WHEN THE TRACK IS WET! We did, going against the warnings from my guide book, and it was a horribly hard walk. Once the rainforest has been entered the track becomes extremely steep and slippery with only unreliable loose rocks and roots to grab onto, or the barbed wire rabbit fence. We spent most of the time falling or controlled sliding.

Once you've entered the rainforest, keep following the rabbit fence up and up. Eventually the fence gets mossier and loses the barbed wire, and crows nests start growing along the trees and rocks.

The first cliff area the fence continues but you'll need to head left of the fence about 50m and through another fence and then immediately up to join back to the rabbit proof fence. Don't take the lower cliff as it's very exposed

Eventually you'll get to where the fence finishes and is anchored into the cliff face itself. Any rabbit that has gotten to this point deserves to get across the fence (in my opinion).

To the LEFT of the cliff face, there is a very small path that should be easy to follow. If not, just start walking with the cliff face constantly on your RIGHT. After approximately 10-15 minutes (it took us a while because of the rain and wind) you will see a track that leads up to the summit. Follow this up, over the well worn tracks through the tea trees to the peak. The peak is amongst the trees, but there is a survey marker and a cairn at the point. From the cairn, walk along a track 15 metres towards the Queensland side, where you can sit and enjoy the view before heading back down the steep and slippery descent.

Permits/Costs

None

Other References

We grabbed this one from "Take a Walk in South East Queensland" pg 280

GPS Tracks

Comments

Was a good walk to tick off the list. Wouldn't do it again any-time soon. There were a few fallen trees along the fence which had to be navigated around.The lookout after the final rock scramble was fairly nice but it is quite blocked off as it has overgrown a bit.

Definitely do this walk when it hasn't rained, it was an interesting slip n slide on the way down. Also would recommend if using the Take a Walk in S.E Qld book to keep driving along Carney's Creek Rd until you go past the National park sign, then when you see a service road on the right with the rabbit fence following to park there.

Otherwise drive just before the border gate and park there. Was an easy gate to jump over to get started.
Michael_G on 15 Jun, 2015

Steep, but the views are perfect, well worth the effort
Shell on 24 Apr, 2015

First time doing it in the dry and it was a tough walk but beautiful rest spot up the top.
Allan Allport on 25 Apr, 2014

Just come back from the hike. It was a little damp and was still pretty slippery even without rain.

Good up hill work out, though the final 30m scramble/climb was beyond my (non-existant) basic rock climbing skills. I was pretty sure I could pull myself up the rock fissure though half way up didn't think I could safely get down, so called it off 30m from the top.

All in all a great walk and I'll be back when I have aquired some basic rock climbing skills.
Tprindo on 7 Jul, 2012

Nice walk. I started this from the western side of the peak.
Jimmy on 7 Apr, 2012

What a great walk!, And one of the most memorable, the lichen blowing in the rainforest trees, the low cloud cover and with it threating to rain made this a mystical experience, and to see what looked like a hugh rock monolith sticking out of the ground before you,and its top shrouded in mist/cloud was sheer magic and brought a smile to my face after enduring those steep ascents along the rabbit fence...the view from the top was just cloud..and the cairn of rocks has a small tree growing out of it and is nearly covered...what a fantastic afternoon, coming back down didnt seem to take long...except for the last stretch which was completed in the dark, rain and cold
Walkinghawk on 11 Jun, 2011

Umm should have listened to the guide book, was wet and this was a hard walk, lots of slipping and scrambling up a very steep, muddy path with not much to hold on to. A few vert steep, dodgy bits. Got to the top and there were good views, the way down was actuallly alot easier using a combination of sliding and bum toboganing. Recommended if you want a challenge
luke Jackson on 27 Jul, 2010

Ascended from west along the fence then contoured north to find a suitable line to the summit. Steep bush-bash. We backed down few sections too steep and slippery to scramble safely. Returned to the fence thanks to GPS and back to the car. Nice place but not a walk I would repeat.
Anonymous on 9 Aug, 2009

Nice walk, we had beautiful cool weather. Only the last part is very strenuous (really steep!!)
peter10001 on Aug, 2009

A good hard walk that was a bit of a leg burner. View was good and went to the verandha or balcony.
Laurence Hallam on 25 Jul, 2009

It was wet. Very hard to finish, but we managed it. Too cloudy when we got to the peak.
Allan Allport on 20 Jun, 2009

We chose the wrong "border" fence to begin with which made the walk a bit toughter. The return walk showed us where the correct one was.

View was good, but only a limited angle.
Richard Mason on Sometime...