Flat bucklet-list walks

Travelling with all ages? Short on time or just looking to take it easy? You’ll find gaps, ancient rainforest, cascading falls, and towering granite outcrops within reach on these fabulous flat path walks.

Some have wheel-chair access, others are suitable for prams. All are a mix of Grade 1 or Grade A and a “family-friendly” Grade 2.

VENUS BATHS, HALLS GAP, VIC 

Not up for the Pinnacles? The kids can stills clamber rocks adjacent this leisurely flat well-trodden track within Halls Gaps’ heart. Accessible next door to the Halls Gap Caravan Park or a pleasant stroll among sculptures within the Halls Gap Botanical Gardens via a pram-friendly path. Tannin-stained water pooling within the red rocky plateau truly rewards. Once your done, drop into Halls Gap proper for a cuppa or hearty meal. It’s that close to town.

Or for a Grade 1 track within the Grampians, check out The Wetland Loop trail within Brambuk National Park. It’s on fine, hard-packed gravel that’s suitable for people of all abilities, with awesome native damper at the Brambuk restaurant.

Reach the Venus Baths via a flat track in the Grampians

 

POINT NEPEAN QUARANTINE STATION WALK, VIC

Only recently redeveloped, the Quarantine Station within Point Nepean National Park is within relatively easy reach via the Quarantine Station Walk. Enjoy bay views out to Queenscliff and uncover the intriguing history of Australia’s first remaining quarantine facility on this Grade 1 track. Keen to kick on? You’ll find the Gunners Cottage dating back the 19th Century on a Grade 2 track, a further 1.6km away. 

To step it up a notch you can push on all the way to Fort Nepean. Here, watch the remarkable ‘Rip’ with crashing ocean meets the gentle bay. Or, simply enjoy the highlights stopping at point to point via the ticketed shuttle bus. 

Walk on a flat track to Quarantine station then catch the shuttle bus to Fort Nepean

EMILY AND JESSIE GAPS (YEPERENYE), EAST MACDONNELL RANGES, NT 

Experience East Macdonnell Ranges splendour, just a 15 minute drive from Alice Springs at the Emily and Jessie Gap Nature Park (Yeperenye). Short, level walks lead to water pools and fossils at the spiritually-significant sites. Here, learn the ancient Caterpillar Dreaming of the Eastern Arrernte people.

Visitors exploring Jessie Gap in the East MacDonnell Ranges. Yeperenye / Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park is the first noticeable feature of the East MacDonnell Ranges as you drive out of Alice Springs. Pack a picnic, watch the local wildlife, or follow a short walking track into both gaps. At Emily Gap you can see a large rock painting depicting the caterpillar dreaming. The two small gaps in the Heavitree Range are important spiritual sites to the Eastern Arrernte Aboriginal people.

Pic: Tourism NT/Shaana McNaught

MONTEZUMA FALLS, ROSEBERY, TAS

It’ll take you a few hours but this flat Grade 2 walk to the base of Montezuma Fall is an absolute bucket-lister within Tassie’s West heart. Tarkine forest towers over railway sleepers of the old DUNDAS Railway Line to the base of Montezuma falls, Tasmania’s tallest waterfalls.
Or, take the shorter walk still through abandoned mining relics closer in to Rosebery to the top of the falls. 

There’s also a sweet Grade 1 track to Stitt Falls next door to the caravan park in Rosebery.

epic flat track at montezuma falls. a shorter track takes you to the top of the falls

BEST OF ALL LOOKOUT TRACK, SPRINGBROOK NP, QLD

Admire towering Antarctic beech trees on a short stroll through dense rainforest on this gorgeous Grade 2 track within the divided Springbrook National Park. Then, lose your breath gazing across to Mount Warning, an ancient extinct volcano. This paved walkway is a heritage-listed link to the ancient rainforests of the supercontinent Gondwana.

Navigating Springbrook is a bit of warren but you’ll find a Grade 1 track out to the Canyon Lookout.

Springbrook National Park