Girraween National Park
South-east Queensland
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Girraween National Park lies on the border between Queensland and New South Wales, 3 hours’ drive south-west of Brisbane, just off the New England Highway. Part of the Granite Belt, renowned for its vineyards, Girraween boasts 12,000 hectares of mostly shrubby woodland. It’s high country, drier than on the coast. Summers can be hot and winters are cold. In an average year, rainfall is highest in summer and lowest in winter. Usual peak time for bushfires is October. However in 2019, most of the Park burned in February.
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I'm a big fan of Girraween. I’ve visited with family and friends over many years, and did my first fire ecology research project there. The Park burns quite often, and I have seen it regenerate successfully on several occasions.
But how would it cope with an intense, out-of-season fire, followed by almost a year of drought? Fortunately we chose to visit at the start of March 2020, any later and the COVID-19 shut-down would have made it impossible.
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Click below to link to photos of post-fire regeneration at Girraween.
