Yuddamun and White Rock Walk, White Rock Conservation Park - January 2022

White Rock.

Back over Christmas Covid was doing some of it's best work around Australia as the Omicron variant surged through the country. So far in our numerous outbreaks I'd managed to avoid picking up the spicy cough, so when the booster dose became available I was pretty keen to get the jab and hopefully keep my run of good luck going. Anyway, with Sam and I being in Brisbane it made sense to get the jab up there and that all went as planned...kind of! After getting the jab I was crook as a dog for a week and had no voice for another week, now the doc did say that I could be crook for a couple of days, however two weeks was pretty full on... which got me thinking.


You see we went to the GP clinic in Brisbane and I was very suspect about the Covid safety of the place at the time, we were placed into a tiny waiting room with at least 6 other people, there was no social distancing or QR check ins and there was no ventilation that I could see or feel. Sam got her jab first and I remember telling her to wait for me outside as if we were ever going to get Covid it would be in here! Now not being able to get a Covid test for love or money back then I will probably never know if it was Covid or it was just a very severe reaction to the booster, however I've definitely got my suspicions - and it would be cruelly ironic to live through two years of Melbourne out breaks and lockdowns while working as a permitted worker without so much as a runny nose, only to pick it up in a GP clinic in QLD! What's this got to do with this White Rock Walk, well it was during this walk, a day after getting the jab that I started to feel pretty crook.

I was suffering a bit and I hadn't even left the car park yet!

There is a massive car park at the Yuddamun Trail Car Park. 

This little park came onto my radar after reading about it on post from the Mildly Extreme blog, Jane is a Brisbane local and her blog offers a wealth of good information on this area. I was heading towards White Rock by a fairly unusual route on this walk as I started off by following the Yuddamun Trail before cutting across an old fire track to arrive at White Rock from the north east. This bit of the walk was a little ordinary really, especially the Yuddamun Trail section which was basically a rough firetrack running beneath some large high tension powerlines with nothing really in the way of shade. Once off the Yuddamun Trail the section along the old overgrown track across to White Rock was a little better, although the going was still a little scrappy. 

The Yuddamun Trail section of the walk was well signposted. 

Yuddamun Trail.

Yuddamun Trail runs beneath these high tension power lines. 

I was struggling with my photos a bit as I shuffled along the Yuddamun Trail. 

I left the Yuddamun Trail and picked up this old 4wd track across to White Rock. 

White Rock was quite a surprise though, looming out of the trees as I climbed the last few metres up the old fire track. It's easy to see why the rock is sacred to the local Jagera indigenous people, although in my limited Feral observation it appeared as though the local non indigenous people were a little less respectful - a special shout out goes to old mate with the headphones on his head, who could not only bring himself to acknowledge my friendly greeting but also walked straight past the signpost asking punters not to climb the rock as he headed for the top - what a fucken' hero! Now I'm no saint when it comes to bending rules, however when it comes to respecting our indigenous peoples wishes, or for environmental reasons I normally play by the rules. So with the final easy scramble off the agenda today I enjoyed taking in the views of the wind scoured rock from the bottom.

White Rock loomed impressively out of the trees as I climbed the last few metres up the old 4wd track.

White Rock.

White Rock.

White Rock.

Old mate at the top of the chute has just walked straight past the (vandalised ) information sign asking people respect the wishes of the traditional owners and not to climb the rock. 

Time to head back to the ute I think. 

The park features a lot of this open savannah type of forest.

I was starting to feel pretty crook by now so I figured that I'd better start making a move back to the ute as even accounting for the fact that I was walking in the middle of a typically hot and humid Queensland summer I was sweating bullets. Leaving White Rock I dropped down a long series of steps to meet a firetrack running west down a gentle gully (although what I should of done - in hindsight - was to stay on the walking track and follow the ridge). Arriving down in the gully I started shuffling along a long section of 4wd tracks as I headed back to the ute. My walk finished off with a view down over the sprawling Redbank Plains before I made my final descent to the ute. 

I dropped down a lot of stairs to meet a 4wd track in a shallow gully. 

Nice and easy walking in the White Rock Conservation Park.

I've pretty well done zero research into this park, however I'll venture a guess and say that this was old agricultural land.

Bunyip Hole (err, that maybe a Feral fact). 

The sprawling Redbank Plains.

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 8.7 kilometres and climbed about 256 metres on what I'd call an easy-medium grade stroll. Now I'm thinking that I didn't see the best of this little park and now that I have a little local knowledge I'm thinking that I'll knock out a much more interesting walk next time I visit this place. There is no water on this stroll and summer in particular can be very hot and humid, combine that with some tracks that have bugger all shade then it's pretty important to bring enough water - especially if you walk as slow as me and will be outside for a fair while. I used my Alltrails App and my GPS topos on this stroll.

Relevant Posts.

Mt Cordeaux & Bare Rock, Main Range National Park, 2008.

Dropping back down to the ute...

... I took a small variant which was a little overgrown.

My Alltrails stats were pretty close to my GPS figures.