Paluma

DCK Overnighter with Cherry - Trip Report

A small-group overnight bushwalk to DCK Hut in Paluma, exploring Wilfred’s Lookout, Torsten’s Rock Garden, Crystal Creek Falls, Gold Creek Falls, old tin mining sites, Buttercup Lookout, and Paluma's rich rainforest history.

Dates: Sat 6 – Sun 7 June
Leader: Cherry

We had a really lovely little overnighter in Paluma on Saturday 6 to Sunday 7 June. It was a small group of wonderful people, the walking was great, and the whole weekend had that perfect mix of waterfalls, old history, and good hut life.

Day one

We started our adventure at Paluma Dam and walked in via Wilfred's Lookout and Torsten's Rock Garden before dropping down to Crystal Creek Falls. Those two side trips are absolutely worth it, and Crystal Falls itself is one of the real highlights of the Paluma track network.

At Crystal Creek we met Keith Dyson, who joined us and shared plenty of local knowledge, which made the day even better. We walked down to see the main waterfall properly, then dropped lower again to look at it from below.

From there we wandered on to Gold Creek Falls. By that stage we had a few properly hangry bushwalkers in the party, so morale improved greatly once food appeared. After a good stop there, we backtracked via Johnstones/Johnson's Clearing and made our way into DCK Hut for the night.

Day two

Sunday was slower and more about exploring. Instead of pushing for more waterfall country, we spent the day around the hut area looking at the tin mines, poking around Buttercup Lookout, checked out the old Wine Cellar from the mining era and generally enjoying the history of the place before heading back to the cars.

A bit of history

One of the nicest parts of this trip was being able to slow down and actually notice the old mining country around us. The Paluma/Mt Spec area has a long mining history centred on alluvial tin, with later workings for wolfram and other minerals; Wanderstories notes alluvial tin in the area from 1875, hard-rock tin in the 1900s, and old miners' tracks and workings still scattered through the forest.

You can still see how much of the track network grew out of that history. Around Paluma there are still old workings, trenches, water races, relics and mine sites, including around Cloudy Creek, Miners Creek / Blue Gum, and the Wolfram Creek area, where wolframite was being worked by the 1890s alongside bismuth and molybdenite.