Lava Tubes and Hiking: A Guide to Undara Volcanic National Park

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend gear I’ve actually used out on the trails and really loved! Read my full disclaimer.

Undara Volcanic National Park is on Ewamian Country. I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this area and their deep and ongoing connection to Country, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

---

We’d vaguely heard of being able to visit some lava tubes ‘up north’.

And so once we’d decided to explore Tropical North Queensland on our winter Gulf Savannah road trip, Undara Volcanic National Park became an obvious stop along the Savannah Way.

Most people associate Queensland’s national parks with coastal rainforests or rugged sandstone gorges, but Undara is completely different. Here, a massive volcanic eruption many, many years ago left behind a hollowed-out system of subterranean lava tunnels hidden beneath the flat outback woodland.

Because the site is highly protected, visiting the lava tubes requires a bit of forward planning and a mandatory guided tour.

---

UNDARA VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK: KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

Undara Volcanic National Park is in the Gulf Savannah, a region that stretches from Cairns all the way across to Broome in Western Australia. If you’re travelling the Savannah Way, Undara is generally the first major drawcard.

For us, it was the starting point on our Gulf Savannah road trip loop.

BEST TIME TO VISIT UNDARA

The Gulf Savannah gets very hot over the summer wet season so it’s best to visit during the cooler months between April and September.

If you want to stay overnight, the resort at Undara only operates in the dry season, typically from late March to September/October.

Even in June, it wasn’t particularly cool for us, with temperatures in the high 20°C or 30°C+ every day. It hardly dropped below 17°C overnight but it can get colder.

HOW TO GET TO UNDARA

In Queensland terms, it’s relatively close to Cairns, being about 250km southwest of the city.

From Brisbane, you’re looking at a 1,700km or roughly 18-hour drive. It’s a long way, which happily coincides with the Aboriginal meaning of Undara—long way—though that more likely refers to the length of the lava tubes themselves.

Once you leave the Savannah Way, it’s about 6km to the national park boundary with a further 9km to the resort.

The main road to Undara Discovery Resort is completely sealed. If you want to head to the Kalkani day-use area for the crater hike, that section of the road is unsealed but easily manageable in a 2WD.

HOW MUCH TIME TO PLAN

You don’t need much time to explore Undara. One to two days will do for most people unless you want to relax for a while or explore every single walking track across the property.

While the national park itself isn’t that small, you can access only a very small portion of it.

---

EXPLORING UNDARA VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK

While the ancient lava tubes are the main reason people make the trek out here, the national park also has a couple of walking tracks and a bit of pastoral history to explore.

The actual lava tubes (or what’s left of them) run in different flows and cover 90km to the north and 160km to the north-west, making it Australia’s longest lava system. Scientists estimate that the lava rivers flowed at a temperature of 1,200°C and slowly bubbled over, thereby creating crusted over and solidified tunnels that were left empty when the lava flow eventually cooled and stopped. Tunnels that couldn’t hold collapsed, leaving caves and depressions behind.

Most of the lava tube system is covered by semi-evergreen vine thickets, a type of dry rainforest, now.

TOUR THE UNDARA LAVA TUBES

To see any of the lava tubes, you’ll need to join a tour.

You can’t come all the way to Undara and not do one of the tours—even if, like the husband and I, you would much prefer to explore the tubes on your own. All tours are led by field guides and leave from the Undara Discovery Resort.

ARCHWAY TOUR VS WIND TUNNEL TOUR

The resort currently runs two main tours: the Archway Explorer Lava Tube and the Wind Tunnel Explorer Tour. They also offer a sunset wildlife tour, though for the price tag, I would have very high expectations I must say.

The Archway Explorer Lava Tube Tour mostly follows boardwalks and is best for families with small(er) children and those with mobility considerations.

The Wind Tunnel Explorer Tour is more ‘adventurous’ (not really) and requires walking across uneven ground (true) as you head down into the tunnels. The main tunnel is a completely dark lava tube inhabited by plenty of microbats.

THE WIND TUNNEL EXPLORER TOUR: OUR EXPERIENCE

Given our inclination for hiking and exploring, we naturally chose the Wind Tunnel Explorer Tour.

While we loved walking through the dark lava tube, the pacing was far too slow. I actually had trouble not drifting off in my thoughts, which is fairly unusual for me for these sorts of tours.

Enjoyment always depends on your tour guide, and ours relied just a bit too heavily on ‘dad jokes’ and slow explanations. There just wasn’t enough interesting stuff to look at while he was meandering on.

The entire tour is about two hours but a good part of that is spent on the bus getting to/from the site, walking through the first short tube and looking at info panels before finally getting to the Wind Tunnel.

The best part was definitely the utterly dark Wind Tunnel, illuminated only by phone torches and the guide’s larger torch.

You could hear the bats communicating and flying above, feeling clearly disturbed by these 20 odd people walking through their bedroom.

You are asked to keep quiet and not to shine your light only on the ground, but it is somewhat inevitable that you disturb the bats as you try and find a path through the rocky dark tube.

I’d still recommend doing a tour because it is the only way to see these incredible tunnels but keep your expectations low.

2. GO ON A HIKE IN UNDARA VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK

Apart from taking a closer look at the lava tubes, we really enjoyed hiking at Undara.

There are several trails starting directly from the Undara Discovery Resort property, ranging from 2km to 8km walks.

We were a bit time-pressed so we only had time to do the Bluff Circuit Walk (2.3km) one evening, which turned out to be quite nice.

The Bluff offers decent views over the resort, the lava plains and the open eucalyptus savannah country—though the sunset views I’d hoped for didn’t quite eventuate that night.

Beyond the resort bushwalks, there are two formed tracks in the national park itself. One takes you around the rim of an extinct crater, while the other cuts across granite country with some splendid views of the surrounding countryside.

KALKANI CRATER RIM WALK (2.5KM)

The crater rim trail sounded far more exciting than it turned out to be.

Following a steepish 600m climb up, it’s a quick and flat enough walk around the crater rim. You get intermittent views but don’t hold your breath for anything spectacular.

While you can make out the bowl, it is completely covered in semi-evergreen vine thicket vegetation. But there are plenty of interpretive signs along this loop to make it a little more educational and interesting.

ROSELLA PLAINS LOOKOUT TRACK (12KM)

Of the two hikes in the national park, the Rosella Plains Lookout Track is the one actually worth doing. It is a much longer loop but we found it far more interesting and scenic than the crater rim walk.

QPWS suggests walking the circuit track clockwise. But in true “us” fashion, we didn’t realise that until later and hiked it anti-clockwise.

The sign at Atkinson’s Lookout totally confused us so in the end we just ignored it and kept going. It all worked out fine.

Having done it anti-clockwise, that’s actually the direction I would recommend—this way you avoid the short but very steep ‘cardiac climb’. You’ll be coming down the hill rather than puffing up.

There’s a few lookouts along the way, the best being the Rosella Plains Lookout at about the halfway mark.

If you don’t have the energy or time for the full 12km, you could just hike to Atkinson’s Lookout (3.8km return). Judging by the stone cairn left, plenty of people do exactly that.

The views there are ok but they’re nowhere near as expansive as what you see from Rosella Plains Lookout.

The last two or so kilometres (or first, if you go clockwise) are less interesting as you traipse through open woodland. But poke your head into the pioneer hut to learn a bit more about the area’s early settler history.

The entire loop is very exposed with almost no shade except for the open woodland stretch at the end. We left around 6:30am, and by the end, I was done as it was getting increasingly hot.

Remember to take a hat and plenty of water.

3. LEARN ABOUT THE PASTORAL HISTORY OF THE AREA

While this has always been Aboriginal land, much of the current national park was also once part of large pastoral leases. Places like the Rosella Plains Lookout are actually named after these former cattle stations.

If you’re keen on learning a bit more about the area’s history, it’s worth taking the flat 2km walk from the Undara resort to the replica Heritage Hut. Built as a traditional slab hut, it gives you a good look at typical 19th-century bush living.

But there’s also the brutal reality of what European settlement often meant for Indigenous Australians:

The expansion of pastoralism in the north had catastrophic consequences for Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal people tried to move the settlers on by frightening them and harassing or spearing stock. Many settlers reacted with brutal, indiscriminate and, often, deadly force. Killing escalated on both sides. It’s estimated that 400 Europeans, and probably ten times as many Aboriginal people, lost their lives in the fighting between 1860 and 1897.

Queensland Parks & Wildlife Service

It’s confronting every time I read accounts like that.

Having seen a fair few huts, woodsheds and other pastoral remnants on our national park adventures over the years, the hut itself wasn’t really all that unusual.

However, I was really surprised to learn that a telegraph line was built right through here in the early 1870s to connect the town of Cardwell on the east coast with Normanton on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

In 1866, explorer Frederick Walker set off with his party to map a route from Cardwell to the Gulf. I cannot fathom how tough those early explorers had to be, just setting off into the unknown, hoping to find a route. In fact, Walker didn’t actually make it and died of ‘gulf fever’ along the way.

At the time, South Australia and Queensland were racing to build Australia’s first overland telegraph line to connect the colonies to Java, Indonesia (and from there, back to the motherland).

Ultimately, the South Australian line (Port Augusta, Alice Springs, Darwin) won the race by connecting Java to Port Darwin instead of Normanton. But the remnants of Queensland’s attempt are still standing out here in the bush.

---

WHERE TO STAY AT UNDARA

If you want to stay in or near the national park, your accommodation options out here are limited.

There is no camping allowed within the national park; your only camping option is staying at the Undara Discovery Resort. Otherwise, you could stay in Mount Surprise (50km away) or Mount Garnet (94km away), both of which offer caravan parks.

CAMPING AT UNDARA DISCOVERY RESORT

We stayed at Undara Discovery Resort for two nights in an unpowered campsite—something we find is becoming rarer in commercial tourist parks these days.

I was quite happy with our campsite in the tent-only section. The ground was a bit slopey but we had no immediate neighbours and despite being at Undara in peak season, the resort felt fairly quiet. If it was fully booked, the camping experience might be less enjoyable.

The amenities were clean though the washing machines were on the pricey side ($6 a load), which seems to be increasingly common. If you’re in the unpowered van section, expect little to no shade.

OTHER ACCOMMODATION OPTIONS

If you don’t want to camp, the resort also has cabins or safari tents on offer. The standout option is the repurposed railway carriages; they look fabulous and are likely worth the extra expense if you want a solid roof over your head.

We have a quick peek into the safari tents but I can’t say that we were overly impressed. There’s little privacy between them and the tents were very utilitarian—basically just a metal-frame bed. You could even see some mould on the tent walls. While it’s understandable in this region, it isn’t somewhere where I would like to stay given my health issues and previous mould exposure.

Undara Central—the main hub with the reception, bistro and bar area—is very cool and built around those refurbished railway carriages. This gives the space a historic pioneer vibe.

The Saloon Car Bar was a super popular spot for watching the State of Origin on one of our nights. You could hear people hollering right across the resort—until Queensland started losing, that is.

---

SO, IS IT WORTH IT?

Undara is an unusual national park for Tropical North Queensland. You’re staying in a commercial tourist resort and you have to join a guided tour to see the lava tubes. While this may not be sound unusual in other parts of the world, across Queensland and the rest of Australia, it definitely is.

But if you’re travelling along the Savannah Way or heading out into the Gulf Savannah region, it’s definitely worth planning a couple of days out here to explore the national park and learn more about the area’s volcanic past.

Happy exploring,

---

SAVE THIS POST TO PINTEREST