The September field trip of Native Plants Queensland was to the Mount Zero area, between Paluma village and Hidden Valley. We added it into the beginning of our trip to Bladensburg National Park by camping overnight at Paluma Dam and taking the back roads from there to Charters Towers – not because it saved any travelling time but because we hadn’t been to Hidden Valley for five years or Running River for twenty.
Downhill all the way
Paluma Village straddles the crest of the range, and the road to Hidden Valley drops about 400 m in 30 km. Annual rainfall drops, too, from 1200 mm to about 600, so the vegetation changes quickly from rainforest through tall eucalypt forest to arid-inland scrub. It’s no wonder native plant enthusiasts like the area: there’s a different plant community every couple of kilometres.
Paluma Dam is to the north of the road, back towards Paluma. I will let this earlier trip stand in for this visit so that photos here are downhill all the way.
Paluma Village
Mount Zero
Our first stop was in the ‘Tall Trees’ area (aka ‘Valley of the Giants’) near the Taravale turn-off.
At this altitude the rainforest has given way to open eucalypt forest but there is still enough rainfall to support such big trees.
Eucalyptus grandis, the Flooded Gum or Rose Gum, dominates.
Our lunch stop was only about 10 km down the road from the Tall Trees but the difference in the landscape is dramatic.
Running River
The road forks at Hidden Valley – right for Mount Fox, left for Hervey’s Range via Zig Zag Station. The left fork follows Running River for some distance and there are informal camping grounds (an internet search finds quite a few) along the river. One of the best-signed is where the road crosses the river, and that’s the one in my second photo.
The bitumen stops about 15 km out of Paluma but the gravel road from there to the Running River bridge was in excellent condition, fine for conventional vehicles. It might not be so good after heavy rain; ask the locals if in doubt.
The road to the Towers
The bitumen starts again near the Running River camping ground so the rest of the trip is all easy driving on good roads. The Hidden Valley road meets Hervey’s Range Road near the Star River. Turn left and you end up in Townsville but turn right, as we did, and you meet the road from The Lynd to Charters Towers.
• Introduction and index to Bladensburg (Paluma – White Mountains) blog posts late 2022.