Places to visit in Queensland, Australia
28 places to visit in Queensland, Australia, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Daintree Rainforest, Great Barrier Reef, K'gari and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Queensland volume.
6 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 8 Famous places to visit · 14 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Queensland (6)
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Daintree Rainforest
Rainforest that runs from the Daintree River north to Cooktown and inland to the Great Dividing Range, about 105 kilometres by road north of Cairns. A cable ferry carries cars across the river into it, and the forest comes right down to the beaches of the coast.
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Great Barrier Reef
The world's largest coral reef system, over 2,900 reefs and 900 islands stretching more than 2,300 kilometres along the Queensland coast. It is the biggest single structure made by living things, and boats leave from Cairns for snorkelling and diving on the outer reef.
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K'gari
The largest sand island in the world, about 250 kilometres north of Brisbane and listed as a World Heritage site. Rainforest grows out of its sand, freshwater lakes such as Lake McKenzie sit in its dunes, and four-wheel drives use its long eastern beach as a road.
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Lamington National Park
Rainforest on the McPherson Range along the Queensland and New South Wales border, about 85 kilometres from Southport. Known for its birdlife, ancient trees and waterfalls, it is reached at O'Reilly's and Binna Burra, where walking tracks start.
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Springbrook National Park
Rainforest on the McPherson Range in the Gold Coast hinterland, part of the World Heritage Gondwana Rainforests. Its Natural Bridge is a rock arch over a creek and waterfall, with glow worms lighting the cave behind it at night.
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Wet Tropics of Queensland
Some 8,940 square kilometres of very wet tropical forest along the coast and ranges of north Queensland, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1988. It meets all four natural criteria for World Heritage, and takes in the Daintree, Barron Gorge and Mossman Gorge.
Famous places to visit in Queensland (8)
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Australia Zoo
A zoo in Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast, opened in 1970 by Bob and Lyn Irwin as a reptile park and made famous by their son, the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin. It now keeps more than 1,200 animals and stages daily crocodile shows.
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Hamilton Island
The largest inhabited island of the Whitsundays, about 512 kilometres south of Cairns, with its own airport, marina and resorts. Most people here are on holiday, and boats leave from its harbour for Whitehaven Beach and the outer Great Barrier Reef.
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Magnetic Island
A mountainous island 8 kilometres off Townsville, reached by ferry to Nelly Bay, that has become almost a suburb of the city. Most of it is national park and bird sanctuary, with walking tracks between the bays and up to forts built in the Second World War.
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Sea World
A marine park and theme park on the Spit at Main Beach, combining rides with dolphin, sea lion and shark exhibits. It also rescues and cares for sick and injured wildlife, and is not connected to the American parks of a similar name.
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Story Bridge
A heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge over the Brisbane River, the longest bridge of its kind in Australia. It carries cars, cyclists and walkers between the northern and southern suburbs, and lit up at night it marks the city skyline.
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Warner Bros. Movie World
A film-themed park at Oxenford on the Gold Coast, opened in 1991 and the oldest of the Warner Bros. parks in the world. Its rides and shows are built around Warner films and characters, beside working film studios.
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Whitehaven Beach
Seven kilometres of white silica sand on Whitsunday Island, washed by turquoise water and reached only by boat, seaplane or helicopter from Airlie Beach or Hamilton Island. The sand is so fine and pure that it stays cool underfoot even in the midday sun.
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Whitsunday Islands
A group of 74 islands off the central Queensland coast, part of the traditional waters of the Ngaro and Gia peoples. Boats sail out from Airlie Beach to Whitehaven Beach, whose white silica sand swirls with the tide at Hill Inlet.
Hidden gems in Queensland (14)
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Cape Tribulation
A headland on the far north Queensland coast where the Daintree rainforest meets the reef, home to only about 120 people. Captain Cook gave it its name in 1770, after the Endeavour ran onto a reef offshore.
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Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
A heritage-listed sanctuary at Currumbin on the southern Gold Coast, begun in 1947. It is best known for its feeding of wild rainbow lorikeets, which arrive in huge, noisy flocks and settle on the arms of visitors holding the food.
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Green Island
A small coral cay on the Great Barrier Reef, a short ferry ride from Cairns, ringed by white sand and covered in rainforest. Snorkelling straight off the beach, glass-bottomed boats and a boardwalk through the island's forest fill most visits.
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Kuranda Scenic Railway
A heritage train that climbs from Cairns over the Great Dividing Range to the village of Kuranda on the Atherton Tableland, along a line built in 1891. The route winds through the Macalister Range, past waterfalls and through tunnels cut by hand.
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Lady Elliot Island
The southernmost coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, about 45 hectares of sand and reef with an airstrip and a small eco resort. Small planes fly in from Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and the reef begins at the water's edge.
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Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
An 18 hectare koala sanctuary in the Brisbane suburb of Fig Tree Pocket, beside the Brisbane River. Alongside its many koalas there are kangaroos to feed and other native animals, and it can be reached by boat from the city.
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Mossman Gorge
A gorge of the Mossman River at the southern edge of the Daintree, where clear water runs over granite boulders under the rainforest canopy. It lies on the country of the Kuku Yalanji people, and walking tracks lead from the visitor centre into the forest.
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Mount Coot-tha
A forested mountain on Brisbane's western edge, visible from much of the city and crowned by its television towers. The summit lookout looks over the city and river to Moreton Bay, and the Brisbane Botanic Gardens and a planetarium sit on its lower slopes.
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Noosa National Park
Coastal headland and bush beside the town of Noosa Heads, between the Pacific and the Sunshine Coast's northern suburbs. Its coastal track runs past small surf beaches and rocky points, and koalas are often seen in the trees along the way.
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Paronella Park
A Spanish-style castle, grounds and gardens built beside the waterfall at Mena Creek by José Paronella in the 1930s, as a place for locals to swim, dance and picnic. It fell derelict for decades and has since been restored, its mossy stone stairs and towers half taken over by the rainforest.
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Queensland Art Gallery
A public art gallery in South Bank, part of QAGOMA with the Gallery of Modern Art just 150 metres away. The building is arranged around a long indoor water mall, with collections of Australian, Indigenous, Asian and European art.
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Skyrail Rainforest Cableway
A gondola cableway running 7.5 kilometres above the rainforest canopy of Barron Gorge National Park, from Smithfield in Cairns up to Kuranda. When it opened in 1995 it was the longest gondola cableway in the world, and it stops at stations with boardwalks through the forest.
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South Bank Parklands
Riverside parkland in South Brisbane, laid out on the site of World Expo 88 and opened in 1992. A man-made swimming lagoon with a sandy beach sits across the river from the city centre, along with gardens and a bougainvillea arbour.
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Surfers Paradise
The high-rise heart of the Gold Coast, where a wall of towers stands right behind a long surf beach. It is the place for nightlife and the esplanade, and the observation deck of the Q1 tower looks down the whole coast.
Collecting in Queensland
What are the best places to visit in Queensland?
LOQAH lists 28 places in Queensland. The best known include Daintree Rainforest, Great Barrier Reef, K'gari, Lamington National Park and Springbrook National Park. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Queensland?
28, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Queensland?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Queensland before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Queensland and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
More in Australia
Collect your first stamp.
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