Queensland

Lockyer Valley Area

Farmland, wetlands, and a garden hiding inside a railway station

Less than an hour from Brisbane, this valley trades the city for open farmland, real wetlands and quiet country roads almost as soon as you leave the highway. Lake Clarendon and Lake Atkinson draw birdwatchers for some of the best sightings in the region, and the national parks nearby make for proper bushwalking country. Saddle up for a horse ride through the paddocks, or hunt down Spring Bluff Railway Station, heritage platforms wrapped in gardens that most people driving past never know exist. It's an easy day trip from the city that rewards a longer one. Even the train stations here bother with the flowers.