The Road Less Travelled

The Kyogle LGA is home to some of the most scenic and unique driving experiences in the Northern Rivers region, perfect for those who like to take the road less travelled.

Originally an unsealed track between Kyogle and Beaudesert, this link road was built by the Lions Club in 1971 to create a faster travelling route to Brisbane. Now fully sealed, this is a very scenic (and shorter) drive across the border through the exquisite Border Ranges National Park and the historically significant spiral loop railway line. You can access the Lions Road by travelling by the Summerland Way and turning right at Gradys Creek Road at The Risk (around 20 minutes north of Kyogle township). Or travel to Kyogle from Queensland through Beaudesert, by turning left into Running Creek Road off the Mount Lindesay Highway at Innesplain.

The Border Loop is a major engineering feat, which involved building the railway line over the McPherson Range on the Queensland border. The project began in 1926 and even at the height of the Great Depression it employed around 1500 people. A memorial stone indicates the site where then-Commonwealth Attorney-General JG Latham turned the first sod in 1926. This steep terrain required new engineering achieved by a series of tunnels forming a spiral loop. Upon completion it was possible to travel an unbroken journey from Brisbane to Adelaide. To get a great view of the Border Loop, turn off and stop at the viewing platform on the Lions Road, approx 47km from Kyogle. Locomotive enthusiasts can watch the trains come up one valley, pass through the mountain twice and cross the original track, thereby gaining 20m in height.

If you are tired of the traffic on the Pacific Motorway, the Summerland Way provides a more relaxing and scenic inland highway. Stretching from Grafton to Woodenbong near the Queensland border, it bills itself as a ‘shorter, scenic alternative’ to the Pacific Highway.

The Rainforest Way is an exciting series of self-drive touring routes that let you explore the spectacular Gondwana Rainforests and World Heritage-listed national parks in the unique hinterland of northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland. It can be an alternate scenic route to the Pacific Highway or it can be a time-out to touch the earth, smell the rainforests and connect with something real. With the ancient volcanic caldera of Wollumbin (Mount Warning) at its centre, the main drive of the Rainforest Way leads you through the heart of Australia’s Green Cauldron, linking the towns and villages of Casino, Kyogle, Rathdowney, Beaudesert, Gold Coast, Tamborine Mountain, Murwillumbah, Nimbin, Lismore and Byron Bay. With 14 World Heritage-listed national parks and over 650kms of scenic drives to explore, you can easily spend a week experiencing the high waterfalls, gorges and stunning escarpments with incredible vistas right across the region. There is an amazing concentration of primitive plants, including the world’s highest concentration of ancient Antarctic Beech trees, hundreds of kilometres of walking tracks and over 170 bird species to discover. Then there are the numerous art galleries, cafes and wineries, fresh local produce crafted into tantalising delicacies, as well as alternative lifestyle communities where you can spend hours exploring all these hidden cultural wonders and getting back to nature. You can even get off the beaten track and have a more back-to-basics experience with some tourism operators offering 4WD-ing, camping and extreme nature and adventure-based tourism. For a full guide to the Rainforest Way, drop into one of the local Visitor Information Centres for more information or go to www.therainforestway.com