You can walk with wild macadamias at Natural Bridge
High up in the Numinbah Valley, an ancient population of macadamias survive in Springbrook National Park at the Natural Bridge. Here Cave Creek plunges over a waterfall and under a hard basalt rock bridge and glow worms recreate the night sky under a massive rock overhang. You can find macadamias along the track, and if you get really good at recognising them, you can see some clinging on to the rock face above the glow worm cave and wonder how a nut got lodged there and found enough soil to grow.
All macadamia come from Australia
Macadamias evolved in Australia about 30 million years ago. After the last ice age, rainforests retreated and macadamia habitat became restricted to a thin strip of subtropical rainforest. Today, four macadamia species grow in south-east Queensland and Macadamia tetraphylla also grown in New South Wales.
For tens of thousands of years, Traditional Owners ate, traded and planted macadamia nuts throughout southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. They include the Gurang, Gooreng Gooreng, Butchulla, Kabi Kabi, Jinibara, Quandamooka, Yuggera, Turrbal, Danggan Balun and Bundjalung peoples.
Macadamia tetraphylla is the southernmost macadamia, growing in sub-tropical rainforest from Mt Tambourine to the Richmond River. Most of its habitat has been cleared and Springbrook National Park is an important refuge for this species.
Walk with Wild Macadamias
X marks the spot – pause and look for Bush Nuts beside the track here
Bonus tree!
If you stand at the rock wall after the covered entrance area and look towards the two amenities blocks, you can see a slender Macadamia tetraphylla, reaching up to the break in the canopy created by the visitor entrance. Look for the characteristic four leaves and new pink leaves.
The Macadamia sign is down the steps and to the right of the path.
Macadamia tetraphylla (Bush-nut)
- Macadamia tetraphylla is one of the two edible macadamia species. The flowers and fruits are food for a varity of wildlife including native bees and cockatoos.
- Tetra-phylla is Greek for four-leaves, as the leaves grow four at a time around the stem.
- Young leaves are soft and red, occasionally velvety, turning pink and then green as they mature.
- Mature leaves are prickly with no leaf stalk.
- Close to the track you might see juvenile leaves – as their name suggests, they are the leaves grown by a young tree, or on new shoots from the base of an older tree. They can be enourmous and fiercely prickly – why do you think these leaves growing close to the ground might be so big and prickly?
- In Spring, the long pink flowers are made up of hundreds of small individual flowers, each one of which may turn into a nut if pollinated.
- The nuts are covered in a tough, bumpy shell inside a protective green husk.
You can help
Wild Macadamias need your help! Sign up as a Wild Macadamia Champion to show your support and learn more about these ancient Australians.