It seems as hiking in the great outdoors becomes more popular, more walking trails are opening up across the country.
And this one planned for Tropical North Queensland looks amazing.
For the first time, bushwalkers will have access to the little known and hidden Macalister Range NP, providing a wet tropics haven high in the mountains for threatened bird life.
The Wangetti Trail will be Queensland’s first purpose-built multi-use walking and mountain biking track in a national park.
The trail will be around 94km (6 days/5 nights on foot) from Palm Cove to Port Douglas in Tropical North Queensland. The trail will showcase the stunning coastal, hinterland and wet tropics scenery of Djabugay Nation country from Palm Cove to Mowbray River.
Once completed, the trail will span a World Heritage area, three national parks (including Macalister Range NP), two local government areas, three separate registered native title claims, and also numerous freehold and reserves held in trust landholdings.
The Wangetti Trail is expected to be ‘Grade 3’ (medium difficulty) for walkers and ‘More Difficult’ for mountain bikers, providing an accessible but challenging offering for visitors.
The Trail will be delivered in three sections:
- Wangetti South: 33km walking and mountain biking trail from Palm Cove to Wangetti
- Wangetti North: 54km walking and mountain biking trail from Wangetti to Mowbray River
- Mowbray North: 7km walking and mountain biking trail from Mowbray River to Port Douglas
- Last year Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe tld the ABC that the trail were expected to be completed in the second half of 2024 however the completion date for the entire trail has now been pushed back to 2026.
Mr Hinchliffe said the project's $47.1 million budget had not changed.
"The reality is that the Three Capes Track in Tasmania is a project that's half the length of the Wangetti Trail," Mr Hinchliffe told the ABC. "It took 10 years to plan and four years to construct."
Mr Hinchliffe said the trail would generate an estimated $300 million a year for the region's visitor economy.
Hikers would be separated from cyclists along some sections of the trail, he said, although most of the route would be dual-use.