Discover Southern Downs Regional

Southern Downs Regional offers a range of reasons to plan a trip: art collections and heritage walks sit alongside driving routes, granite landscapes and activities on the water. Consider which themes matter most to you. You could focus your time on galleries and cultural heritage, a drive with named stops, or nature experiences.

Art, galleries and heritage trails

The collection at Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery has grown to almost 900 works. The media represented include fibre and textile works, paintings, ceramics, works on paper and sculptures. Warwick Art Gallery brings touring exhibitions to Warwick. This gives the two towns different perspectives on art: Stanthorpe is centred on an established collection, while touring exhibitions are part of the program in Warwick.

The heritage walks also offer different points of interest. The Warwick Heritage Trail passes some of Warwick’s most significant historic buildings. In Stanthorpe, the Heritage Trail is a self-guided walk, mapped and described in the official Southern Downs & Granite Belt Visitor App. The Yangan-to-Mount Colliery Heritage Trail is also self-guided; it runs through Yangan, Emu Vale, Swanfels, Tannymorel and Mount Colliery. When comparing these trails, their respective locations and areas of focus can help you choose.

Driving routes with different focuses

For a drive with named stops, the historic Settlers’ Route provides a clear guide to its course: it is 72 kilometres long and runs from Warwick via Swan Creek, Yangan, the Swanfels Valley and Tannymorel to Killarney. The Southern Downs Stone Sculpture Trail, by contrast, is designed as a touring route through larger towns and smaller settlements. The two routes therefore have different focuses: the Settlers’ Route has a specified length and named stops, while the Sculpture Trail takes you through larger and smaller places.

These driving routes also differ from the self-guided Heritage Trails, which each focus on particular buildings or communities. If you would like to plan your trip around a drive, you can consider the routes mentioned as a theme of their own; if you would like to explore historic places on foot, the Heritage Trails offer a different approach. This distinction reflects the forms of the experiences described, without combining the different routes into a single course.

Granite landscapes, walking trails and water

In Girraween National Park, large granite boulders rise above open forests. The park also has almost 30 kilometres of walking trails. The landscape and the length of the trail network give the park two distinct features: striking granite formations and room for walks. The figure refers to the trails as a whole; it does not indicate the length or difficulty of any individual trail.

Sundown National Park features steep-sided gorges, tree-lined ridges and peaks. This landscape differs from the large granite boulders and open forests of Girraween National Park. Storm King Dam is suited to picnics, water sports and fishing. Nature and water experiences can therefore be included in your plans as different travel interests.

Wine and regional produce

The wider Granite Belt region has more than 40 wineries with tasting rooms. Culinary and wine-related experiences in Southern Downs and the Granite Belt also include seasonal produce, cheese tastings and immersive wine experiences. These regional themes complement the cultural and nature offerings with another way to tailor your trip to your personal interests.

Discover more destinations: The Summit, Dalveen, Cairns Regional, Gympie Regional, Mareeba Shire, Ipswich City, Southern Downs Regional, South Burnett Regional.

See the overview of the wider travel region: Queensland.