A Hiker’s Paradise: Discover 12 of Australia’s Great Walks

Australia has twelve trails carrying the official “Great Walk” designation, self-guided multi-day routes through national parks and wilderness areas, recognised for the quality of the experience rather than just their length. They cover ground that gets a lot less attention than the household names, from the towering dunes of K’gari to the ancient rainforest of the Gold Coast Hinterland.

While iconic hikes like the Larapinta Trail, Overland Track, Bibbulmun Track, and Heysen Trail top most bucket lists, these twelve Great Walks are a distinct category, recognised for exceptional experiences within National Parks and Wilderness Areas. Unlike the guided luxury experiences marketed around some of these same parks, these are self-guided: you carry your own gear and make your own calls on pace and timing, but you also get the park largely on its own terms.

Here’s a rundown of all twelve, plus a thirteenth long-distance walk that isn’t an official Great Walk but is worth knowing about anyway.

12 Great Walks of Australia

1. K’gari (Fraser Island) Great Walk (Queensland)

Length: 90km
Days: 6-8
Grade: 4
Style: One Way

K’gari Great Walk covers 90 kilometres across K’gari (Fraser Island), the world’s largest sand island. The track runs through rainforest growing straight out of the dunes, past towering trees, ferns, and wildflowers, with a good chance of spotting native birds and reptiles along the way. Lake McKenzie, a perched lake with pure white silica sand, is a good spot to cool off partway through.

The coastline has its own cliffs and heathland, and dolphins or migrating whales sometimes show up offshore. Dingoes are the island’s best-known residents, sharing it with wallabies, echidnas, and plenty of birdlife and reptiles. You camp at designated sites along the way, over six to eight days depending on your pace, in genuinely varied country for a single island.

2. Carnarvon Great Walk (Queensland)

Length: 87km
Days: 6-7
Grade: 5
Style: Circuit

The Carnarvon Great Walk links the Carnarvon Gorge and Mount Moffatt sections of Carnarvon National Park, in the Central Queensland Sandstone Belt, an area with both natural and human history worth taking your time over. You can walk short sections or take on the full six- or seven-day circuit, which covers 87km. The route runs through the shaded side-gorges of Carnarvon Creek and up onto the dry woodland plateaus above the gorge, some of the highest country in central Queensland.

3. The Great Ocean Walk (Victoria)

Length: 100km
Days: 8
Grade: 4
Style: One Way

Victoria’s Great Ocean Road is well known from the car, but the Great Ocean Walk (GOW) covers the same stretch of coast on foot. This challenging 100km, one-way trek runs from Apollo Bay to Glenample Homestead near the Twelve Apostles, through the Great Otway National Park, over eight days.

The walking is as much the point as the destination. There are hidden coves and dramatic rock formations along the way, koalas in the trees, and whales offshore during winter. Rainforest gives way to rugged cliffs and pristine beaches, and the terrain gets harder as you go, gentler at the start and more demanding on the coastal sections later. Some parts are impassable at high tide, so planning around the tides matters more here than on most walks.

4. Cooloola Great Walk (Queensland)

Length: 102km
Days: 5
Grade: 4
Style: One Way

Queensland’s Cooloola Great Walk is a 102km, one-way trek through Great Sandy National Park, rated grade 4 and best suited to experienced hikers over five days. The landscape shifts constantly: rainforest gives way to eucalypt forest, then coastal woodland and heath plains, before the trail climbs the massive sand dunes that give Cooloola its character. Perched lakes sit among the dunes, and the walk finishes with long stretches of beach along the Cooloola coastline.

5. Wet Tropics Great Walk (Queensland)

Length: 70km
Days: 4-6
Grade: 5
Style: One Way

The Wet Tropics Great Walk is a genuine wilderness trek for experienced hikers: 70km, one-way, grade 5, through Queensland’s Girringun National Park, in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. It runs from Wallaman Falls to Henrietta Gate over 4 to 6 days.

The Wallaman Falls section is the gentler introduction, through rainforest and past dramatic gorges. From there, the wilderness trails of Juwun and Jambal push into the Herbert River Gorge, a genuinely demanding stretch. The Traditional Aboriginal Custodians have an ongoing connection to this country, and that history is as much a part of the walk as the terrain.

6. Conondale Range Great Walk (Queensland)

Length: 56km
Days: 3
Grade: 4
Style: Circuit

Queensland’s Conondale National Park is covered by the Conondale Range Great Walk, a 56km circuit rated grade 4 over three days. The route runs through rainforest, past waterfalls, and past creeks worth stopping at for a swim, with tall open forest giving views along the way. You can walk short sections or the full circuit, depending on how much time you’ve got.

7. Great Walhalla Alpine Trail (Victoria)

Length: 42km
Days: 3
Grade: 4
Style: One Way

Victoria’s Great Walhalla Alpine Trail doesn’t officially carry the “Great Walk” name, but it earns a place on this list anyway. It’s a 42km, one-way, grade 4 trek over three days, following the first section of the 650km Australian Alps Walking Track and linking the old gold mining town of Walhalla to Baw Baw National Park.

The trail runs through alpine country with wildflowers in the meadows, twisted snowgums, mountain ash, and pockets of myrtle beech. Along the way you’ll pass the geological formation known as Mushroom Rocks and the remains of the Talbot Peak hut, a leftover from the area’s mining history. Mountain streams and fern-filled gullies fill in the rest of the walk as it climbs onto the Baw Baw plateau, mixing that historical thread with genuinely good alpine scenery.

8. Great South West Walk (Victoria)

Length: 250km
Days: 12-14
Grade: 4
Style: Circuit

Victoria’s Great South West Walk is a 250km circuit over 12 to 14 days, taking in the eucalypt forests of Cobboboonee National Park, the rugged coastline of the Southern Ocean, and the Glenelg River, which offers plenty of spots for a swim along the way. The scenery keeps changing: forest gives way to river gorge, then to coastal cliffs above Discovery Bay. Kangaroos, emus, and koalas are common along the trail, and with some luck you might spot an echidna, a platypus, or a seal.

9. Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk (Queensland)

Length: 58km
Days: 4
Grade: 4
Style: One Way

Queensland’s Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk runs 58km, one way, through the Blackall Range over four days. The route moves through waterfalls tucked into pockets of subtropical rainforest and out onto scenic ridges with wide views over the range. Designated campsites give you somewhere safe to stop and a clear night sky to look at, and multiple access points mean you can walk a short section as a day hike or take on the whole route over several days.

10. Mackay Highlands Great Walk (Queensland)

Length: 58km
Days: 3-5
Grade: 5
Style: One Way

The Mackay Highlands Great Walk is a 58km, one-way, grade 5 trek through Eungella and Homevale National Parks, taking 3 to 5 days. Walking it north to south is the smoother option, since it avoids the steeper climbs in the drier sections and follows the established markers more easily. Relatively flat sections along the Great Dividing Range give views over the Pioneer Valley and Mackay’s sugar cane plantations below.

Further in, the trail moves through cool rainforest with towering trees, palm groves, and dramatic peaks, crossing Homevale National Park and Crediton State Forest and picking up several different ecosystems along the way. It’s a genuine multi-day undertaking, so pack properly and tell others your plans before you head out.

11. The Great North Walk (New South Wales)

Length: 250km
Days: 15
Grade: 5
Style: One Way

The Great North Walk runs 250km, one way, from Sydney to Newcastle in New South Wales, a genuine test of endurance over 15 days. It moves from the outskirts of Sydney to the harbour city of Newcastle, crossing coastal cliffs and national parks with plenty of wildlife along the way. A network of side tracks connects the main route to nearby towns and cities, useful for resupply or a rest day, which makes it a more flexible undertaking than most walks of this length in New South Wales.

12. Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk (Queensland)

Length: 54km
Days: 3
Grade: 4
Style: One Way

Queensland’s Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk is a 54km, one-way, grade 4 trek over three days across the old volcanic slopes of the Tweed Volcano. Rainforest full of Gondwana relics, plant lineages tracing back to the ancient supercontinent, lines the path, along with waterfalls and streams cutting through the weathered landscape.

The ecosystems are the real drawcard here: the world’s most extensive stretch of subtropical rainforest, sitting alongside warm temperate rainforest and pockets of cool temperate Antarctic beech forest. The Lamington and Springbrook plateaus, connected by the Numinbah Valley, hold an enormous range of plant and animal life across a relatively short walk, shaped by millions of years of geological change.

13. Great South Coast Walk (NSW to Victoria)

Length: 660km
Days: 35-40
Grade: 4
Style: One Way

This post covers twelve official Great Walks, but there’s a thirteenth worth knowing about. It’s not on official maps or in guidebooks yet, but it exists and people walk it. First completed in 2004, the Great South Coast Walk has since attracted hikers who take on the whole route or just sections of it.

At 660 kilometres, it runs along a long stretch of the east coast, taking in golden sand beaches, rocky headlands, sandstone cliffs, coastal forest, and quiet inlets and lakes. The Great South Coast Walk stretches from the outskirts of Sydney all the way to Mallacoota, crossing twelve national parks and a string of coastal villages along the way.

That’s thirteen walks in total, twelve official Great Walks plus the unofficial thirteenth, covering sand islands, rainforest, alpine trail, and long stretches of coast. Whichever one you pick, they’re all self-guided, so make sure you’re genuinely prepared for multiple days without support before you commit to one.