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When all 100 miles of Queensland’s
Brisbane Valley Rail Trail are linked by the
end of 2012, it will be the country’s longest
rail-trail. The 21-mile gravel stretch between
the towns of Blackbutt and Moore takes you
across the Blackbutt Range and through the
town of Linville, whose rail station was once
a major loading point for cattle and timber.
You’ll likely encounter equestrians on the
trail as well as livestock—be prepared to
open and close cattle gates along the way.
This leg also passes through Benarkin State
Forest, home to species such as the platypus
and the collared delma, a legless lizard.
The seaside Fernleigh Track trail in New
SouthWales traces a line that carried
passengers and coal between Lake Macquarie-
area mines and Newcastle. Restored stations
and stretches of original track ornament the
10-mile paved route, which takes you through
a late-1800s brick tunnel into coastal rainforest
and scrub “bushland”—the Australian term
for land filled with native flora and fauna. Stop
at the seaside town of Redhead to take in the
beach, then continue through marshland to
Lake Macquarie’s Belmont Bay.
Melanie Doheny