Wollumbin National Park

Wollumbin National Park covers 4,117 hectares on the NSW Far North Coast around the 1,157m plug of the Tweed Volcano, which stood here about 20 million years ago and reached from Mount Tamborine to Lismore. It is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, listed in 1986, and one of the most biodiverse areas in Australia, with more than 200 rare and endangered plant and animal species — Albert's lyrebird, rose-crowned fruit dove, koala and powerful owl among them. The Tweed Caldera that erosion cut around the plug is counted among the world's largest and best examples of an erosion caldera. It is Bundjalung Country. Wollumbin, pronounced Wool-oom-bin and understood by some Aboriginal people to mean 'cloud catcher', was declared an Aboriginal Place in 2014 and is of the highest significance to the Bundjalung nation, with connections also to the Githabul nation and to Aboriginal communities across north-east NSW and south-east Queensland.

That is why the summit is closed: the track has been shut since 30 June 2023, and NPWS says any decision on its future will follow the wishes of Aboriginal custodians. The Lyrebird track and the picnic areas stay open.

What to expect

Reviewed 9 November 2026

You come in off Kyogle Road on Mount Warning Road — about 12km south-west of Murwillumbah, then 3.5km along the winding sealed road to the Breakfast Creek carpark at the end. The road is the first thing to respect: narrow in places, single-lane bridges over Korrumbyn Creek, and floodwaters that rise across it quickly even in localised storms, so you never push through water. At the carpark you find toilets and little else — no bins, no fuel, no shops, and mobile reception that is limited at best. Parking is limited and the carpark is a known theft risk, so take valuables with you; coaches, caravans and camper trailers cannot use it at all. There is also a gate across the entrance that may close at 5pm in winter and 6pm in summer, daylight saving, and does not reopen until 7am. Only the designated disabled parking spots are provided for visitors who need them, and adventure activities such as rock climbing and abseiling are prohibited in the park.

From the top of the carpark the Lyrebird track branches right toward Breakfast Creek, and it is the whole of the open walking in the park: 0.3km return, 15 to 30 minutes, graded 3, clearly signposted, a formed track with some obstacles, many steps and short steep hills that need no experience but do ask for reasonable knees. It drops you into subtropical rainforest under a closed canopy, which is the point — this is the Gondwana Rainforests, the same World Heritage listing that runs from Dorrigo to the Scenic Rim. On the way back up the steps you get the sound of the valley before you see it: whipbirds, catbirds, the scratch of lyrebirds turning leaf litter, and the odd pademelon freezing on the edge of the track.

The wildlife is what people remember once the summit is off the table. Albert's lyrebird works the forest floor here, alongside wompoo and rose-crowned fruit doves, green catbirds, noisy pittas, riflebirds, white-eared monarchs and the rare rufous scrub-bird; grey-headed and black flying-foxes and common blossom-bats do the pollinating at night. Red-legged pademelons are around all year and show most often at dawn and dusk near the lower track. Coastal carpet pythons bask on branches on warmer mornings. Threatened species recorded in the park include the koala, the powerful owl, the little bentwing-bat and southern myotis. Spring is when the canopy flowers and fruits and birds are in breeding plumage; autumn is when you see macropods with young at heel. Bring binoculars and a slow eye rather than a stopwatch.

What you cannot do is stand on top. The summit track — 8.8km return, 5 to 6 hours, Grade 5, from this same carpark — has been closed since 30 June 2023, NPWS says penalties apply for entering the closed area, and the authority states that the track's future will be decided in accordance with the wishes of Aboriginal custodians. The Bundjalung ask visitors not to climb at all: the summit is tied to traditional law, ceremony and initiation. So you look at Wollumbin instead of standing on it, and NPWS points to the places that do it best — the Pinnacle and Blackbutts lookouts in Border Ranges National Park on the caldera rim, Best of All Lookout in Springbrook, Cape Byron Lighthouse on the coast, and Cudgen Nature Reserve near the Tweed. From there the mountain reads clearly: the hard central plug of a volcano that 20 million years ago reached from Mount Tamborine to Lismore, standing inside one of the largest erosion calderas in the world. Treat every barrier on Mount Warning Road as absolute.

Then take the weather as it comes. Summer averages 19 to 28°C and has hit 43°C here; winter runs 9 to 21.5°C and has dropped to minus 0.3°C, and the mountain makes its own weather, so a warm valley morning can be a cold ridge at any time of year. February is the wettest month and 321mm has fallen in a single day; September is the driest. Summer brings spectacular afternoon storms and the floodwaters across Mount Warning Road that come with them, and leeches and ticks work the lower tracks from December to March. Whenever you go, download the Emergency Plus app before you lose reception, and tell someone where you are heading.