Noosa National Park

Noosa National Park runs from the end of Hastings Street to the long sand of Sunshine Beach, on the lands of the Kabi Kabi People. The headland is built from Quaternary sand and sandstone cut by dykes of basalt, granite and andesite — harder rock that resists the sea and forms the rocky points, leaving sheltered beaches in the gaps. The section most people walk is the Noosa Headland, a rugged rocky spine with beaches between the points. The park also takes in Lake Weyba, the Emu Mountain and Peregian sections and the coastal lowlands toward Coolum Beach. Hoop and kauri pines tower over small rainforest pockets on sheltered sand while wallum heath, open woodland and eucalypt forest cover the rest; the Noosa and Coolum heath is second in size and diversity on the Sunshine Coast after Cooloola and is core habitat for the eastern ground parrot. More than one million people visit the headland each year.

For a visitor it is simple: more than 15km of marked tracks, a clifftop walk to Sunshine Beach 5.4km away, and koalas above the path. There is no camping — you sleep in Noosa Heads.

What to expect

Reviewed 6 November 2026

You start at the Noosa Headland day-use area at the end of Park Road, or walk in from Hastings Street along the 1km seaside boardwalk, which takes about 30 minutes and uses steps, so it is not suitable for wheelchairs. The car park fills early and Noosa Council limits it to 4 hours. From the picnic area — flush toilets, barbecues, picnic tables, bins and drinking water — four walks set out: Palm Grove, Tanglewood, Noosa Hill and the Coastal Walk. Take the Coastal Walk and the first 300m to the Boiling Pot is sealed and barrier-free, a Grade 1 stroll to a lookout where the swell piles into rock. Another 900m on, at 1.2km, you reach Dolphin Point; the path is still sealed but the gradients run steeper than 1:10 for short sections, averaging about 1:7. Just beyond sits Tea Tree Bay, framed by pandanus above a pebbly beach and low surf, and this is the stretch where koalas are most often looked for in the eucalypts.

Past Dolphin Point the surface changes. The track is unsealed from here, with steps and steep sections, and it is not suitable for wheelchairs or prams — the 2.4km stretch from the Boiling Pot to Hell's Gates is Class 3 walking. Hell's Gates is 2.7km one way from the day-use area, and the headland drops straight to the sea there, with the tide running hard through a narrow gap in the cliffs. Between July and October humpback whales migrate past this coast, and these cliffs are the park's land-based whale-watching platform. Queensland Parks grades the whole Coastal Walk Grade 4 and allows 4 hours for the 10.8km return. Some guided operators also visit the Fairy Pools at low tide, but the park asks everyone to stay on the formed tracks and not cut corners, so treat the pools as something to see from the path rather than a scramble destination.

The wildlife is the reason a lot of people come. Koalas live on the Noosa Headland and the surrounding forest, and more than 243 bird species are recorded in the park and its adjacent intertidal areas; the headland alone holds 44 birds of conservation significance, including 26 migratory species covered by agreements with Japan, China and Korea. The vulnerable and endangered species listed for the park include the glossy black-cockatoo, ground parrot, koala, red goshawk, wallum froglet, swamp orchid and Christmas bells. Eastern water dragons work the rock platforms, wallum sedge frogs live in the coastal heath, and eastern grey kangaroos turn up around Lake Weyba. Keep your distance, never feed wildlife, and report injured, sick or dead turtles, dolphins or whales to the Queensland Government Wildlife Hotline. Everything in the park, living or dead, is protected, so nothing comes home with you.

Beyond Hell's Gates the track keeps south over the headland toward Granite Bay, where the aged granite that gives the bay its name forms the rocky shore and the deep water that holds the surf. The bay sits between high rocky points, and the same pattern repeats along this coast: hard dykes of basalt, granite and andesite cut through the Quaternary sandstone, resist the sea, and leave sheltered beaches in the gaps. The walking is up and down over these points, with steps and rough surfaces, and the rock is unforgiving when it is wet. On the way you pass Winch Cove, where the remains of a large mechanical winch sit on the shore — evidence of the hoop pine logging of the early twentieth century, when sawn timber was hauled to the beach for shipment to Brisbane. Watch your footing on the rock platforms, keep back from the cliff edges, and remember that the swell can come over the ledges without warning. If you are in light shoes on the granite shore, this is the terrain that justifies grippy soles.

South of Granite Bay the Coastal Walk crosses the end of Alexandria Bay — 3.3km to its northern end, 4.4km to the southern end — a wide crescent of sand backed by heath and a fenced dune area that erodes easily, so stay out of the fence. The beach is unpatrolled, and the separate Alexandria Bay Walk returns 4.2km in about an hour. Behind the coast, the Tanglewood and Noosa Hill walks run inland through open eucalypt forest and the rainforest pockets where hoop and kauri pines tower over the canopy; on Noosa Hill the dips and stone piles of World War II trenches are still visible, dug when the Sunshine Coast was fortified. For a view from the car, Laguna Lookout at the end of Viewland Drive looks over the Noosa River, Main Beach and the North Shore.