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Side trip 2 - Kiama hinterland and Minnamurra rainforest

Having hired a car for our canoeing side trip, we decide to be car tourists the next day and explore the country behind Kiama. This is postcard land, with rolling hills covered by the lush green pastures of dairy farms and darker green pockets of remnant forest, with the heavily timbered slopes of the Illawarra escarpment as a backdrop.

The Kiama coastline viewed from Saddleback Mountain

The small village of Jamberoo, settled by the original European settlers in the mid-19th century, proved a good choice for our lunch stop.

Jamberoo Hotel

Presbyterian Church

The main focus for the day was to visit the Minnamurra rainforest in Budderoo National Park. Rainforest is part of the rich diversity of the South Coast, and this remnant patch of sub-tropical rainforest is a reminder of the much more extensive forests that formed part of the landscape of this northern end of the region. Most of these forests have long since vanished to clearing for the dairy herds and to the hunt for red gold – the timber of red cedar, so prized by the early settlers. Perhaps when we despair at the ignorance of those who clear and log the rainforests of south east Asia and Amazonia, we should temper this with a reflection on our own history, not that long past.

Rainforests do not have the instant eye-grabbing beauty of a more open landscape, and their intrinsic aesthetic appeal is difficult to photograph; by definition their canopy is at least 70% closed and as you walk through everything seems to be various shades of green and too closed in to capture on film with justice. The images below are a poor attempt to share the quiet green beauty of the sub-tropical rainforest. As they say on the information panels, look up to see what rainforest is about - the eternal struggle for light of the diverse vegetation becomes very apparent.

Dapple-green leaves of a stinging tree

Elkhorn in a red cedar branch

Bird's nest fern and woody vines

Soft tree ferns

Enormous buttress roots are characteristic of subtropical rainforest

Lyrebird scratching for food on the forest floor

Most of the bird life of the rainforest can be heard but not seen, but if you are very patient sometimes you may be rewarded.

Minnamurra rainforest has been made extremely accessible by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, with a 2.6 km loop raised boardwalk that climbs and descends the steep gully with minimum effort and minimum impact. Walking on this packfree was a stark contrast to our previous rainforest experience on this journey - the ascent of Palm Jungle on a rough steep track with 18 kg packs on our backs. Boardwalks may not please the purists, but they gave us the opportunity to better appreciate this special habitat.

There is also a steep paved track from the loop to the Minnamurra Falls near the top of the gully. It was well worth the climb to see the beginnings of the Minnamurra rivulet, as waters collected in the Budderoo swamp above tumbled over the escarpment on their journey to the sea.


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