Holiday houses in Boonah

A small country town surrounded by rolling farmland, Boonah sits in a wide valley in the Scenic Rim mountains of South East Queensland. It’s on a major junction of the Scenic Rim Way, which cuts east to west through the region, making it a great base for exploring this spectacular corner of the state. Check out High Street, the main shopping strip in Boonah, before exploring the back streets for classic examples of Queenslander houses — raised timber homes with deep wrap-around verandahs and tin roofs.

From Boonah you’ll find heavily wooded mountains, lakes, creeks, and cute villages in every direction. The Scenic Rim is best known as a bushwalking destination, with hikes in the region’s six national parks ranging from long treks through rugged bushland and UNESCO World Heritage-listed rainforest to the wheelchair-friendly Centenary track in Lamington National Park. Rock-climbing is big here, too, as are fishing and water sports in the nearby lakes. If you’re not feeling particularly active, you can tour the mountain roads by car.

If you come to the Scenic Rim to bushwalk, the cooler, relatively dry months from mid-autumn to early spring are the most pleasant for hiking, with the added bonus of fewer leeches waiting for you on shaded tracks. In winter the overnight temperatures can drop below freezing in the mountains, although it’ll be much milder in Boonah itself. The Boonah Show, an agricultural show and fair day first held in 1898, takes over the showgrounds in town in late May, while in the nearby town of Aratula the Scenic Rim Winter Harvest Festival celebrates the region’s food and wine in July. Even though the Scenic Rim is elevated, you’re still in a subtropical zone and summers here can be steamy, especially if a thunderstorm is brewing. Make an early start to a hike to beat the heat, or devote the day to water sports if it gets too humid.

Rock climbing at Frog Buttress

One of the most popular spots for rock climbing in the Scenic Rim, Frog Buttress is just a 15-minute drive from Boonah. This imposing column of volcanic rock at Moogerah Peaks National Park’s Mount French offers some ascents suitable for beginners, along with more technical routes such as Clockwork Orange Corner and Satan's Smokestack.

Main Range National Park

A series of dramatic mountains circling the western side of the Scenic Rim, Main Range National Park has it all: subtropical rainforest filled with strangler figs and ferns, dry eucalyptus bush, and mountain heath. From Boonah it’s a 30-minute drive to Cunninghams Gap; from here you can head out on short strolls or full-day hikes in the park.

Wyaralong Dam

A 20-minute drive from Boonah, the sprawling Wyaralong Dam sits at the base of Mount Joyce. Take a kayak out on the dam or follow the network of walking and horseback riding trails around the water’s edge. Or bring a mountain bike to ride the Mount Joyce Mountain Bike Trails at the northeastern end of the dam.