Where

Brimbin Nature Reserve in North Coast

Accessibility

Medium

Distance

1.5km loop

Time suggested

45min - 1hr 15min

Grade

Grade 3

What to
bring

Drinking water, hat, sunscreen

Please note

• The weather in the area can be extreme and unpredictable, so please ensure you’re well-prepared for your visit.
• Remember to take your binoculars if you want to birdwatch

Dawson River walking track is a great hike that starts at Brimbin picnic area. Before or after your picnic lunch, take a stroll on this picturesque walking track that follows the line of Dawson River before joining up with the historic bullock route of Old Port Macquarie Road. This road is an important part of New South Wales’ colonial heritage.

While walking this track, see if you can find a narrow-leaved red gum, which rarely grows this far north. If you’re very lucky, you may even see a koala, as this gum provides important food and habitat to this animal. You’ll also pass grey myrtle, swamp oak, water gum and two types of mangrove: grey and river. Take along binoculars and see if you can spot birds as well as nests in the mangroves. Brimbin is home to raptors, waterbirds and woodland birds. Overhead, you may also see seabirds. This walking track provides a great opportunity for birdwatching.

For directions, safety and practical information, see visitor info

Visitor info

Maps and downloads

Learn more

Biripi Aboriginal Nation

When Europeans settled in Manning Valley, the area was occupied by Aboriginal people: the Biripi Nation. This Aboriginal nation is made up of small groups of mostly one or two families, who travelled their country as availability to food sources changed with the seasons. The Biripi harvested native plants, each for a specific use. Identify their food plants, medicinal plants, arts/crafts plants and cultural plants when you visit Brimbin with the help of the Biripi Nation website.

Feathering the nest

Manning Valley has over 260 different species of bird, many of which inhabit Brimbin, making it an ideal spot for bird watching. Nests can be seen along waterways. Due to the range of plant communities within the reserve and its proximity to the coast, waterbirds, raptors, woodland and seabirds can be seen at Brimbin. This includes the largest owl on the Australian continent: the powerful owl.

Shady grove

The name 'Brimbin' comes from a local Aboriginal word for 'stringybark', which are common to the reserve, as are white mahogany, tallowwood and turpentine. Narrow-leaved red gums provide important food and habitat for koalas. Grey myrtle, swamp oak and water gum can be found along the waterways, with mangroves lining the banks below the tidal limit. River mangrove is usually a bushy shrub, with elongated fruit and clustered white flowers that smell like banana. Its main identifying feature is salt encrustation on its spoon-shaped leaves. Grey mangroves grow, in this area, to around 10m, and have oval pointed leaves, pale green flattened fruit and spongy pencil-like aerial roots spreading from the base of the trunk.

The Long Paddock

The Travelling Stock Route (TSR) in Australia is an authorised thoroughfare for walking domestic lifestock between locations, and these routes are collectively known as 'The Long Paddock'. Parts of Brimbin were originally the TSR of a stock camp sold in the 1960s. Old Port Macquarie Road, now part of Ms Kellys walking track, follows a section of track established in the 1820s linking Port Macquarie to the Australian Agricultural Co. lands at Stroud and Gloucester. The route allowed bullock-drawn carts to cross Dawson River.