Walking on Ancient Land

Lamington's rugged landscapes are the result of tremendous changes to the Earth's surface—changes that are still occurring. The waterfalls, cliff lines and mountain peaks we see today are remnants of an ancient landscape that reaches back into the Earth's history, some 300 million years.

The geological story of the Lamington area started during the Palaeozoic Era (more than 225 million years ago) when the single land mass called 'Pangea' separated into two super continents: Laurasia and Gondwana. The present-day continents of South America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica, along with India, New Zealand, New Guinea, Madagascar, Arabia and other parts of the present Middle East made up Gondwana. (The name ‘Gondwana’ or ‘Forest of the Gonds’ came from an area in Northern India, which in ancient times was home to a people called ‘Gonds’.)

Some 180 million years ago, Gondwana began to break up.

Later, several large volcanoes were formed as the Australian land mass drifted northwards over a stationary ‘hot spot’ in the mantle deep below the Earth’s crust. Two of these were in the Lamington region, erupting about 20 to 23 million years ago. The Focal Peak shield volcano near Mount Barney was the first but its lavas were later overlapped by flows from a huge volcano centred over present-day Wollumbin (Mount Warning). This Tweed shield volcano erupted numerous times, spewing masses of molten lava onto the surrounding landscape from what is now Lismore in the south, to Tamborine in the north. Most lavas were basalt, which gives deep fertile soils. There were also some flows of rhyolite with layers of ash and boulders, particularly around Binna Burra, which give poorer soils.

When the volcanoes became dormant, water took over. Over time, spectacular waterfalls, deep gorges, distinctive peaks and rugged cliffs were gouged out of the volcanic rock.

Today, the turmoil of this area’s volcanic origins is largely hidden under the spreading greenery. Tamborine, Springbrook, Beechmont and Lamington are remnants of the Tweed shield volcano’s northern flank. The old volcano's core remains at Mount Warning. The Tweed Valley, formed by massive erosion, is a large erosion caldera carved from the eastern flank of the old volcano, and is best seen from vantage points along the Ships Stern circuit and south-facing lookouts on the Border Track.

Lamington’s southern cliffs continue into New South Wales in a great circle marking the caldera’s edge. The erosion caldera is the largest and best example of its age in the world and an example of an ongoing geological process significant to the Earth’s history.

The remnant plateaux of Springbrook, Lamington, Beechmont and Tamborine give some idea of the original level of the volcano's northern flank. It is hard to visualize, but nevertheless true, that the deep valleys between these plateaux have actually been carved down into a much larger regional volcanic landscape by the simple effects of streams active over millions of years.