O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat

Guests step onto a suspension bridge 15 metres above the forest floor and walk 180 metres through the canopy on O'Reilly's Tree Top Walk, one of the first structures of its kind. The retreat sits at 930 metres in Lamington National Park, part of the Gondwana rainforest listed as World Heritage. Bernard O'Reilly began hosting visitors here in 1915 and started charging for it in 1926; his family still runs the place three generations on. Accommodation ranges from 66 retreat rooms under the canopy to 48 hillside villas with views over the McPherson Ranges, sleeping up to seven. Pat's Farm offers six off-grid chalets on a working cattle farm, each with a heated plunge pool and fire pit. Stockyard Creek keeps two restored O'Reilly farmhouses, Luke's Farmhouse and Marie's Old Dairy, for larger groups. Safari tents and campsites sit closer to the trailheads. At night, a guided walk leads to a grotto where glow worms mark the cliff face like scattered light. By day, rangers fly eagles and owls at the Birds of Prey Show, and a flying fox line runs 180 metres across Morans Creek from a platform 25 metres up. The property covers 10 hectares of retreat and villa grounds within land the family holds beyond 300 hectares, ringed by national park. It is cooler here than the coast below, often by several degrees.