Thirty per cent of Skroo and Jude Turner’s property, on which the Scenic Rim Trail is found, has been set aside as a nature reserve that forms part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area. 

The nature reserve helps protect 10 endangered ecosystems, and 27 at-risk animal species, including bush-tailed rock-wallabies, koalas and eastern bristlebirds. 

Relaxing in the comfort of Spicers Canopy, a luxury safari camp that is your first stop on the Scenic Rim Trail four-day experience. A keen mountain biker and hiker, property owner Jude Turner says she loves exercise and getting out into the bush, but “we want to be able to have a comfortable bed and good food and hot shower at the end of the day”. 

Along the Scenic Rim are a series of rugged mountain ranges extending into New South Wales as far south as Barrington Tops National Park. The Scenic Rim Trail is the opening gambit of the longer Scenic Rim Walk project, which will run along ancient volcanic spines from Main Range National Park in the north-west of the rim, to bushwalking meccas in Lamington National Park.

The Scenic Rim Trail, a four-day, guided, 33km walking experience is the latest trek to be admitted to the Great Walks of Australia group, alongside the likes of such classics as the Larapinta Trail (NT), Overland Track and Bay of Fires (Tasmania). It is the first walk from Queensland to join the national group.

According to Spicers Group Operations Manager Luke Neale, one of the biggest attractions of the walk is that the trail goes through Queensland high country that most people don’t even know is there. “Eighty per cent of the walk is actually on private land,” he says. “So it’s not a walk anyone can do – it has to be done through us.” 

World Heritage-listed forests boasting 500-year-old trees covered in lichens, moss, elkhorns and birdsnest ferns are some of the many natural treasures found on the walk. 

The new Scenic Rim Trail goes through a private nature reserve, but also through parts of Main Range National Park. 

At $1899 a person, the Scenic Rim Trail is the least expensive of the Great Walks of Australia. Includes transfers from Brisbane, gourmet meals and drinks, three nights’ accommodation and the guided walk. 

Day three is the hardest of the walks ­– an 11km hike uphill from Canopy, at about 600m above sea level, up to Spicers Peak Lodge at 1200m. The walk doesn’t go in a straight line, however, but first climbs Spicers Peak, initially through open ironbark and stringybark woodland, where brown quail and wallabies can be seen darting through the grass. The track passes thick, gorgeous groves of xanthorrhoeas, and then up some tricky basalt escarpment to gain glorious views over the Maryvale Valley and across the range to the coast.