Falls Drive
Falls Drive
Not every adventure starts at a trailhead. Sometimes it starts with a decision to take the long drive around. Waterfalls, farmland, basalt cliffs, and a rock that may or may not belong to someone named Pud — this week we swapped hiking boots for car keys and followed the Falls Drive through Southern Queensland.
Quick Details
Total Length: Approx. 70km (depending on detours)
Elevation: Varies at each stop
Grade: Easy to Moderate
Best Season: After rain
Suitable for kids: Yes (mostly)
Starting the Road
We love a good tourist drive. There’s something about them that turns an otherwise boring point A to point B drive into a proper old-school road trip. The Falls Drive in the Southern Downs is known as one of South Queensland’s most popular tourist drives — and since I was already on the road nearby, I wasn’t about to skip the detour.
I turned off onto Spring Creek Road, just south of Killarney — the narrow road winding between forest and farmland. I’d put the first stop, Browns Falls, into my car's navigation to make sure I didn’t miss it. Naturally, it tried to take me up somebody’s driveway… Google, fix yourself. Turns out the carpark is well signed, so I didn’t even need the navigation in the end.
Browns Falls Track
This is a short hike up the creek. It wouldn’t be suitable for young children, or anyone who’s not sure-footed. You have to cross the creek a couple of times, and it’s pretty rough and rocky. From the carpark, the track first takes you through a large tunnel under the road — which looks creepy as hell from the entrance.
It’s not so bad once you’re in there though — and someone has added handprints to the corrugated iron wall. Kind of like it’s a modern-day cave or rock wall.
The concrete path disappears as you enter the trees — giving way to a worn footpad next to the creek. The trail from here is marked by red tags on trees, and they’re attached on both sides of the trees so you can find your way back.
I didn’t see the need for the tags at first, the track was fairly obvious, and you just have to follow the creek upstream for about 500–600m. But the track jumps across the creek a couple of times for different reasons, so in the end I found them pretty handy.
The creek crossings are a little tricky because you need to pick your way across by stepping on rocks. It wouldn’t be a good idea to visit this track if the creek was flooded because you do need to cross the water three or four times.
The forest is beautiful, and you get this great sense of just being out in nature even though you’re still not that far from the car. The creek babbling beside you, the sounds of the birds in the canopy above, and a gentle breeze that’s just enough to break up that humid rainforest air.
Of course not everything in the forest is friendly. I nearly ran into a tall gympie-gympie plant. I’ve been stung by them before, and honestly, once was enough. Known commonly as “stinging trees” or “suicide trees”, they’re covered in tiny silica hairs that burrow into your skin, where they release a painful neurotoxin that can last for weeks — like I said, once is enough.
Browns Falls
A pile of large boulders covers the creek in front of one of the prettiest waterfalls I’ve seen — but not because of the water. The rock wall behind it had this incredible organ piping effect. Dark basalt stacked in neat, geometric columns, like someone had carved it that way on purpose. It always blows my mind to see rock shapes like this, and I love the way they’re kind of hanging from the top of the wall — like Minecraft stalactites.
Visiting these falls is absolutely worth the effort it takes to get here. I had the whole place to myself the entire time I was there — well, except for the large water dragon who kept spying on me from the rocks.
On to Daggs Falls
I made my way back to the car, and drove no more than a kilometre up the road before pulling over again. This time at Daggs Falls. This one is really easy, because it’s a lookout right from the carpark — no hiking involved. A wooden platform rests on top of the cliff, and you get this uninterrupted view down at the falls.
People come and go quite quickly from this one — at least they did while I was there. Just a quick stop of the car, wander over to the platform, snap a picture, and back into the car. I ended up staying for a while — happy to just take in the view for a while.
On to Queen Mary Falls
A whopping 3.5km up the road and I was pulling over again, this time to the Queen Mary Falls carpark. Unlike the first two falls, this one had a lot of people. The trail starts from the park and picnic area and loops back to the same place. You could take the shorter side of the loop for a quick out and back if you wanted to, but I decided to walk around the full 2km loop.
A lot of the track is paved and all the steep downhill sections are covered by stairs. The trail is really beginner friendly, so it’s definitely worth doing the full loop. Also if you’ve got little adventurers with you the extra walk is a good way to burn up some of that stored energy from the car ride.
As you reach the very bottom of the hill, and the forest opens up, the track brings you right across the base of Queen Mary Falls. A cute little bridge is in place to stand on and look up at the falls. Even though it’s only made of concrete, I’m like 80% sure that the bridge is why this is so popular.
I’d really love to see the falls with more water in them but even still, what was there on the day as it plunged over the 40m—high cliff looked so pretty. I was lucky to catch it for about ten seconds without any people in the way.
I slowly made my way up the hill to complete the circuit. There was a great lookout as I reached the top of the hill that gave uninterrupted views of the falls. I could also see people down below walking over the bridge — including one guy, who suspiciously looked around to make sure he was alone (but clearly forgot about the lookouts above), then whipped off his shirt to take a selfie in front of the falls… Weird…
The trail took me over another little bridge, and then I just followed my feet back to the car. The caravan park across the road runs a cafe and I got a fantastic burger from there. I would definitely recommend them as a breakfast or lunch stop.
On to Carrs Lookout
Back into the car, and this time I’m travelling about 8.5km before pulling over to a wide shoulder of the road. Then it’s a short (like less than 100m) walk down to the lookout platform.
Now, there’s no waterfall here, but it’s still absolutely worth a stop. This was one of the rare times my jaw has actually dropped for a view. Far-off are dark green mountains. Trees and pockets of forest scattered between rolling emerald hills so pretty they’d make Julie Andrews pop on her apron and burst into song.
I took a moment to check the weather forecast and realised that I needed to get going, otherwise I’d be setting up my tent that night in a thunderstorm.
Back to the Road
The road winds tightly down the hill through thick forest and it’s just one of those great roads that’s so much fun to drive. With the windows down, singing along to your music at the top of your lungs, without a care in the world.
The forest opens up and you spend the next fair chunk of the drive through open farmland — and I do mean open. Often there weren’t any fences, and I had to stop for cattle on the road. The views were incredible though. I couldn’t believe how green everything was.
I had planned on stopping at Teviot Falls Lookout on my way to Boonah, marking the end of the Falls Drive. Instead, I somehow managed to see it without realising I’d seen it. I pulled over on a wide shoulder where two cars were parked, but there were no signs — and I think that’s what threw me. I was waiting to see a sign.
A road sign… Not a sign from the universe or anything. I could see a faint waterfall in the distance, assumed whoever was parked there had wandered off on a hike somewhere, and kept driving. It wasn’t until later, when I didn’t see any signs for Teviot Falls, that I realised the waterfall I’d seen in the distance was probably it. It didn't look like I missed out on much though.
(If you look really closely in that photo you'll see a thin ribbon of water on the distant cliff — which is what I think is Teviot Falls)
I drove down another tight winding downhill section of road, following the signs of “Pud’s Rock”. I pulled over (this time there was a sign), got out and found “Pud’s Rock” next to the creek…
I’m presuming this isn’t an official stop on the tourist drive because there’s no information anywhere — and after visiting this place, I need information. Who is Pud? Why is this their rock? Is this Pud’s Rock, or is this just an unofficial trail sign and the actual Pud’s Rock is somewhere beyond the creek? I need answers.
The rest of the drive is peaceful and pretty, much like what I've already travelled through. I didn’t make any more stops though, because I could see dark storm clouds rolling in as forecast, and needed to get to my next campground before it hit. But I’ll definitely be doing this tourist drive again one day.
Getting There
The Falls Drive runs between Killarney and Boonah in Southern Queensland, roughly 2–2.5 hours from Brisbane depending on your starting point. Most roads are sealed, though sections can be narrow and winding. After heavy rain, check local conditions before heading out.
Tips and Tricks
The waterfalls would be best to visit after some decent rain, however if the creek at the Browns Falls trailhead is high or fast flowing, don’t attempt that hike.
Give yourself half a day for this drive, even though it’s not that long, there are many stops along the way, and they’re worth taking your time for.
Teviot Falls doesn’t have a sign telling you when to pull over… or maybe it does and I missed it…
If you’re using your car's navigation system, remember to search for the carparks of the next stop, because otherwise it might send you up someone’s driveway.