The Lyrebird Walking Track is probably the quietest trail in New England National Park. With tracks that take you into the Antarctic beech forest like the Eagles Nest and Cascades Track it tends to get overlooked. That means it will likely be just you and the lyrebirds on this trail, which is never a bad thing in our books!
You’ll walk through both eucalypt forest and cool temperate rainforest, with lots of little waterfalls and even some of that magnificent moss that this park is famous for. There are also fantastic rainforest and mountain views.
Here’s exactly what to expect on the trail.
The Lyrebird Walking Track
The stats
Distance: 5.8km
Elevation: 285m
Difficulty: Moderate
The Lyrebird Track is a moderate trail, primarily for the steep uphill climb at the end and the sections of path which have some issues with debris. It took us almost two hours to complete the track, which was a lot longer than we were expecting!
Clockwise or anticlockwise
We walked the circuit anticlockwise from the Banksia Point picnic area. It does mean you finish on quite a hefty climb, but I also think it’s probably easier to come up that section of track - which has some damage - than it would be to go down it.
Signposting on the trail
The Lyrebird Track is very poorly signposted, it’s a good idea to have a photo of the map with you so that you don’t stray onto another trail by mistake. There are many signposts along the way, but they rarely mention the Lyrebird Track itself so you do have to have a rough idea of which direction you want to go in.
What to expect on the trail
Starting the trail
Starting anticlockwise, you’ll head straight into the bush on a well formed path before you come to a junction 400m later. You want to carry on straight here. You’ll walk through a pretty stretch of forest with lots of narrow boardwalk surrounded by ferns.
Watch out for webs here, as this trail is seldom walked you will likely have to de-web some of it, it’s worth grabbing a stick early on to avoid a face full of web.
That aside, it’s a lovely section of track and after roughly 1.5km in the forest you will head out into the heathland. The views here are gorgeous, with layers of mountains in every direction.
You’ll be able to see the incredibly picturesque Wrights Lookout in the distance, which is well worth a visit and sunrise there is very special if you can stomach the early alarm call.
Into the rainforest
You’ll soon head back into the forest where you’ll descend for around 350m before the trail flattens again. Everything becomes so much more lush and green as you enter the rainforest.
Although we never actually saw one, from this point on, until almost the end of the walk we were serenaded by lyrebirds. It was an absolutely beautiful backdrop to the trail.
After 3km you will come to a junction with the Robinsons Knob Track and if you wanted a longer walk you could do both Wrights Lookout and the Cascades Track from here before re-joining the Lyrebird circuit.
If you want to continue on the Lyrebird Track, you’ll want to take a sharp left, marked as Banksia Point via Tree fern valley.
The walk gets even more beautiful from here as you descend further into the rainforest and are surrounded by tree ferns and mossy logs.
The golden light shining through the trees gave it an almost fairytale like quality and the sound of the lyrebirds only added to that.
The trail does get a little overgrown at points, with the odd tree down here and there, which may or may not be cleared over time.
You’ll pass lots of pretty little waterfalls which cascade down the cliffside and whilst it isn’t on the scale of some of the other tracks, you do get some of those fabulous moss covered trees too.
The climb
You do have a fairly big climb out of the forest to come, and at points the trail is a bit washed out. None of the obstacles are too difficult to manoeuvre around, but it might be a bit harder in very wet weather. The climb begins by heading up a rocky path for a few hundred metres before flattening again.
The flat section doesn’t last long though and the path gets quite a bit steeper and rougher. There are a couple of sections where it isn’t 100% obvious which route to take due to debris, but we just picked the one that looked easiest at the time.
Again it’s not difficult as such but it does slow you down a bit and is less straightforward than it would have been in the past.
At the 5km mark you can choose whether to make a detour to Weeping Rock or keep left for Banksia Point. We were already planning to visit Weeping Rock on the Eagles Nest Track, so headed for Banksia Point, but from memory it added on 600m each way.
The climb up through the forest continues and the scenery is just beautiful, it’s also nicely shaded which was great on a hot day. After 400m you reach another trail junction where you could connect to the Tea Tree Falls Track, which is an additional 4km return, and a lovely easy trail, as long as it isn’t too flooded like it was for us!
To finish the Lyrebird Circuit you continue the climb and the forest begins to get drier before you arrive back at the original junction you came to 400m into the trail.
Overall it’s a lovely walk which offers a diverse range of scenery in a really quiet part of the park.
Essential information about the Lyrebird Walking Track
Getting there
The car park for this trail is the Banksia Point Car Park (it’s just before the Point Lookout Car Park). It is a 15 minute drive off the Waterfall Way (B53 Highway) and the closest town is Ebor, which is 25 minutes away.
Alternatively, Dorrigo is 1 hour away, Armidale is just over 1 hour away and Bellingen is 1.5 hours away from the start of the trail.
The access road
The last 10km of the road into the park is unsealed. For the most part it’s ok but there are quite a few potholes and some corrugations.
It was probably in a worse state than usual when we visited though, as there had been such a long period of heavy rain. You don’t need a 4WD but you will want to take it slow in parts.
The webs
Like a lot of trails in New England National Park, this trail can have A LOT of webs! You will want to bring a hiking pole or grab a stick and wave it ahead of you, otherwise you’ll find yourself walking through a web a minute - especially if few people have done the trail that day.
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