July Outing Report - Muntapa Tunnel and the Palms National Park, Cooyar, Sunday 06 July 2025.

  Adapted from the TFNC newsletter report of M.Simmons

Rhyolite blocks and tuff
Photo: K. Stephenson

Our day was designed to drive the Oakey-Cooyar Road through the localities of Wilthorn, Sabine, Sugarloaf, Beith, Acland, Muldu, Balgowan, Plainview, Rosalie Plains, Kulpi, Peranga and Narko before reaching the Muntapa Tunnel – all were sidings along the Oakey-Cooyar railway line built in 1911 to carry timber and other primary produce to the coast. A brief roadside pull-over atop a hill enabled a view over the current workings of the Acland coal mine.

In the Muntapa picnic area we were given interesting little stories and information on the geological formation of the surrounding rocks and topography. ‘About 18 million years ago [this area] was subject to complex and violent volcanism where rising rhyolitic magmas superheated groundwater resulting in huge phreatic explosions. Craters between 100 and 200 metres deep were infilled with masses of material fallen from the sky. Both portals [of the tunnel] will show us the variety of this material – through which those who had constructed the tunnel had worked with hand tools.’ 

The tunnel has now been fenced giving a Gothic-like appearance through to the roosting and breeding colony of several thousand Bent-wing Bats, Miniopterus schreibersii. These bats cluster tightly together (up to 1,500 per square metre) on the ceilings of caves, mines, disused railway tunnels, storm water drains and old cement buildings. (‘Bats of Eastern Australia’ Qld Museum booklet No.12).  The historical markers and information recording the  history of the tunnel, the workers campsite and associated memories of long-term residents all added to making this a worthy revisit for the Nats.                                                                        

Black Bean
Castanospermum australe 
pods at The Palms N.P.
Photo: D. Pagel

Further north beyond Cooyar in the Palms National Park we walked the short track through Piccabeen Palms, Strangler Figs, Bunya and Hoop Pines and an ancient Grey Gum – over 300 years old through which flows a spring fed gully in the headwaters of the Brisbane River. 

Bird list for July outing.  (Muntapa Tunnel and Palms Nat. Park compiled by L. Moodie.)

Oakey Rotary Park: Pacific Black Duck, Australian Pelican, Australian White Ibis, Little Corella, Noisy Miner, Grey Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Magpie-lark. 

Muntapa Tunnel:  Red-backed Fairy-wren, Lewin’s Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Spotted Pardalote, Speckled Warbler, Brown Thornbill, Varied Sittella, Grey Shrike-thrush, Pied Currawong, Australian Magpie, Grey Butcherbird, Grey Fantail, Torresian Crow, Silvereye, Red-browed Finch.

Palms National Park: Australian Brush-turkey, Brown Quail, Laughing Kookaburra, White-throated Treecreeper, Lewin’s Honeyeater, Spotted Pardalote, Brown Gerygone, White-browed Scrubwren, Golden Whistler, Eastern Whipbird, Grey Fantail, Eastern Yellow Robin.

July 2025 Activity Details - Friday meeting, and Sunday outing to Muntapa Tunnel & Palms National Park.

 CLUB MEETING: 7 pm, Friday 4 July 2025  

St. Anthony’s Community Centre, Memory Street, Toowoomba. The speakers' presentations are followed by official business and supper. 

Two speakers:

Dingo on K'gari
Photo:  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

1. Peter Jesser on 'Wild Dogs and Dingoes' (Peter has worked for the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, and is a pest management consultant.)

2. Ann Alcock on 'Puffins to Penguins' (Ann, a professional freelance photographer, photojournalist, documentary photographer, and event photographer for newspapers and magazines, is not one to shy away from adventure.)

CLUB OUTING: Sunday 6 July 2025. Muntapa Tunnel and the Palms National Park, Cooyar

Meeting Time: 8.30am

Map of railway route
from Oakey to Cooyar

Where: Rotary Park on Campbell Street, Oakey (next to the Park House Motor Inn). This route closely follows the original Oakey-Cooyar railway line.

Description: This 287 metre single bore tunnel is unique in that it goes through the Great Dividing Range from the Murray-Darling river catchment to the Brisbane Valley catchment area. The tunnel has now been fenced to protect the roosting and breeding site of several thousand Bent-wing Bats.

Activities: Historical information signage, a picnic area and amenities, make this an interesting site to revisit. After morning-tea here we will travel through Cooyar north to the Palms National Park known as a roosting site for three different species of flying-fox - black, grey-headed and little red. (On last visit early June there were no flying-foxes present.)

Level of Fitness: easy to moderate

Facilities: Muntapa - BBQ, picnic tables, shelter & toilets; Palms - picnic tables, toilets in nearby Cooyar.

What to Bring: morning tea, lunch, water, chair, sun protection and wear closed shoes.