Amamoor State Forrest

Sunday 24th March 2002

This was a club trip scheduled for the day after the Glastonbury QRC. Most of the participants had spent the night in Glastonbury (albeit a very late night following the finish of the rally around 12:30am). There were 2 of us that came up from Brisbane (Myself and Andrew) in a blue Outback, Graham and son (Gympie) in an L Series, John and Val (Maryborough) in a green Outback, Big John in the milk van Rodeo and of course Dave in the super brumby (with passenger Shane). Record turnout - TWO Outbacks setup for serious offroad.

The trip started for us at 6:00am (love the early morning starts on SUNDAYS!) in Brisbane. After a quick run up the highway to Gympie and breakfast at the golden arches we found our way to Glastonbury oval and the Subaru Club camp. Soon after our arrival Graham rolled in and after a few compulsory group photos we set off at approx 10am with Graham as trip leader and Dave bringing up the tail.

The first part of the trip headed south along bitumen (for a while) until Graham found a cow paddock to traverse (while avoiding the very visible mines). Then we crossed an almost wet creek and joined up with a track following the creek valley at the bottom of Mt. Gentle Annie. After some time the track proceeded to climb up a ridge and join up with the main road/track, which we followed till a cleared section of the Amamoor State Forrest. Then we found a track that led through the cleared section to a knoll with a great outlook over the Amamoor Creek valley and site of the annual country muster. This was an ideal spot for smoko except for the knee-high grass and occasional black snake seen sliming away.

After a quick break (and more photos) we proceeded back towards the main track and then through a cockle gate and further up the ridge towards Mt Wilwarrel. This track was also in very good condition with the occasional nice hill climb and descent as we followed the ridge with Amamoor to the south and Glastonbury to the north. Along the way Graham found a new sidetrack cut along the forest boundary fence which looked quite steep and loose. As I was waiting for the all clear from Graham to proceed, we saw him reversing back down. He made it all the way to the rock ledge at the top and no further. With our trip leader back in front we proceeded along the ridge to Cookes Knob fire tower. We stopped for another break and admired the wide sweeping 360o views.

It was getting close to lunchtime so we decided to head down the mountain in search of a lunch spot. We followed the track down through hoop pine plantations and the occasional palm trees avoiding several head of cattle until we reached a cleared section of forest, where Dave wanted to try an interesting looking, overgrown sidetrack. The green Outback was in quick pursuit, as John wanted to give his newly fitted low range mods a decent trial. I reversed back to the intersection and set off after the green machine. Under the overgrown (1m high) cover was a fairly rough track with occasional hidden rocks and ditches (as John found out when he drove into a sizable hole). The last part of the track, where it joined back up to the main track, was the steepest section we had come across so far on this trip. After watching John have a few goes to get up, I decided to gun it all the way and with a little bit of slippage just shot straight up. We all regrouped back in the convoy and continued down the mountain to the lunch spot at Amana picnic ground on the banks of Amamoor Creek.

After lunch Big John decided to head back to Brisbane, while John and Val needed to head back to camp to pack away their camper. They continued with the rest of us back towards Glastonbury along the main road through the muster site until we reached the cow paddock where we farewelled the green Outback and followed Graham on a track he knew to the top of Mt. Gentle Annie. He said it might have been a little overgrown; he however failed to mention it was the steepest grade of the day. We all made it to the summit, which sadly was all overgrown with trees and not much of a view. We continued down the other side of the mountain (also a fairly steep grade) and rejoined the tracks from the morning.

On reaching the main track though the forest we decided to call it a day and go our separate ways. Graham headed back to Gympie, Dave back to Brisbane, while Andrew & I decided there was still a few hours of daylight left so we took a slight detour on the way home. We headed south past Mt Kandanga and Borumba Dam onto the Black Hut track through Imbil State forest. This is an area worth revisiting on a later club trip. It combines beautiful forest scenery (ranging from rainforest palms to pine plantations) with some nice hill climbs and descents. We were nearly at the end of the track and daylight, when we came across a huge tree fallen across the track with no way around (dense rainforest). Just as we were about to turnaround and retrace our route, we noticed a small gap under the tree that looked just big enough for a Sooby (see picture). After fitting through the underpass, we had a few more semi dry creek crossings and came out at Charlie Moorlands near Kenilworth and headed back to Brisbane.

Many thanks to Graham for his local knowledge of the area that made the outing interesting, challenging in parts and most importantly safe for all that took part. No damage done to man or machine - to the best of my knowledge.

It was a great day out.

Andrew Gantimuroff
Mighty Outback - Blue