Summary: Great site for a good variety of bush birds, especially in winter
Dates of visits: Several from 2020 to 2024
Hardings Paddock is an excellent birding site in the Ipswich city area. It is a little hard to make generalisations about this location, as it tends to vary quite a bit from season to season and year to year. But here’s an attempt anyway!
The site is one of the best in south-east Queensland to see some magnificent bush birds, especially in and around the winter months: Rose Robin, Jacky Winter, and Spotted Quail-Thrush being a few of the well known species. You might well also get a look at Eastern Yellow Robins, Speckled Warblers, Varied Sittellas or even Weebills.
This is a terrific site for winter birding (especially for Rose Robins), although the sun does take a long time to come up behind the hill to the east of the main picnic area and it can start off very cold. By contrast, in the summer it can get very hot very quickly.
Getting to Hardings Paddock is fairly simple: you’ll need to first get yourself to the Ipswich-Boonah Road, which is mostly highway driving if you happen to be coming from the Brisbane direction. Then, turn into Carmichaels Rd, which is unsealed (but perfectly navigable for all vehicles) for 4km until it reaches Hardings Paddock. There is a campsite with a small number of sites (that must be booked in advance), and a picnic area with some obvious car parking before you get to the campground proper (see map).
It should be noted that Hardings Paddock is just a small section of the sprawling Flinders-Goolman Conservation Estate, which features long walking trails that allow for some serious hiking/exploration, including access down to the Flinders Peak area to the south. This blog post just covers the area around Hardings Paddock and the Gamlen Circuit, arguably the part that is of most interest to birders. There are excellent trail maps available for the larger region (just Google “Flinders-Goolman Conservation Estate”).
Around the Car Park, Campground and Ponds
There are a couple of ponds in the picnic area, including a “large” one (in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t very large!)
A surprising variety of water birds can turn up on these waters, though never in big numbers; and it is not a bad spot to photograph these birds either, as they don’t really have anywhere to escape to!
A White-Necked Heron turned up here in my June 24 2022 visit, which was nice to see. Wood Ducks and Pacific Black Ducks also tend to be regulars.
Just past the ponds there is a short (220m) walking circuit called the Bush Tucker Trail with information signs about various bush tucker plants. This trail is excellent to take your time with, especially to look for the Rose Robins that are a key and utterly irresistible bird species that Hardings Paddock is almost famous for. They only turn up in winter (roughly, mid-April until the start of September).
It took me patience, persistence and luck to achieve the male Rose Robin photo I’ve posted here, which is my best Rose Robin shot by far at any site in Australia. It was the result of four hours of patient birding at Hardings Paddock, on my most recent of many visits.
On one of my first forays to Hardings Paddock in 2020 I had a long encounter with a wonderful King Parrot in the Bush Tucker Trail area. I have seen these birds three other times in my seven ebird-checklisted visits to Hardings Paddock, so I count them as semi-regulars.
In April 23 2021 I spotted a Common Bronzewing here, and over late autumn through to mid-spring, Spotted Pardalotes will be around as well.
In the gum trees around the ponds and picnic area at most times of the year there are going to be Magpies, Butcherbirds and Noisy Miners, along with Rainbow and Scaly-Breasted Lorikeets, with a pretty good chance of Little Lorikeet too.
It is also worth noting that there is a little unsigned side spur to the west of the Bush Tucker Trail, which leads to a small water hole. I think this is part of the longer Horse Trail that encircles the area. Some birders have had good success at this water hole – perhaps the shyer bird species are more comfortable getting their drinks here than elsewhere – but I didn’t find much when I walked it.
Gamlen Circuit
The 3km Gamlen Circuit is usually touted as the best part of Hardings Paddock to spot various bird species. There are flat parts and steeper parts to this trail loop, and apart from the uphills it is generally easy to walk, with the main danger being potentially wet grass and slightly muddier sections after rain (it is all unsealed, dirt track).
It should be noted that there’s actually no real need to walk the whole circuit – it depends what birds you’re looking for and how thorough you want to be. I’ve spent a good four or five hours just in the picnic area/campground and around the first 100 metres or so of the Gamlen Circuit and had a great time – this was my 7 Jun 2024 visit, which yielded 48 species; not a bad count for the middle of winter.
Jacky Winters are a reliable sight here for a lot of the year (they seem to be absent in Dec/Jan, according to eBird). In fact I would say Hardings Paddock is one of the best places to see and photograph this bird in south-east Queensland. I had mainly photographed them in the lower sections (near the track entry) of the Gamlen Circuit, but another time I also saw several on fence lines around the camp sites, so I suppose they are all over.
Another reliable bird is the Eastern Yellow Robin, also residing in similar areas to the Jacky Winters. In fact, on my June 2024 visit I saw multiple individuals of both these species all hunting in the same area around the fringes of the camp sites. I can’t think off the top of my head of a site in south-east Queensland that has Eastern Yellow Robins and Jacky Winters in such close proximity.
Throughout Hardings Paddock there are many different honeyeater species, such as Scarlet, Blue-Faced and White-Throated Honeyeaters, though getting a good look at them can be difficult as they are often high up in the gum trees. There are various spots on the Gamlen Circuit (e.g. along ridges) where you might get a little luckier.
Like the Rose Robin, Grey Fantails are an altitudinal migrant bird that is mostly seen around the winter months. Silvereyes too are more prevalent around these months, though their migration is much longer, to southern latitudes including as far as Tasmania.
On the southern edge of the Gamlen Circuit in April 28 2021 I saw both Fan-Tailed Cuckoo and Brush Cuckoo, which was pretty cool.
You’re almost certain to see Rufous Whistlers somewhere around Hardings Paddock, and perhaps Golden Whistlers too (except in summer).
There is a steep-ish ridge at the northern tip of the Gamlen Circuit which is higher and drier than the lower sections, so you might expect to see less birds here…
…but in my experience it is just as good as the rest of the circuit! In June 24 2022 I saw a Painted Buttonquail here along the wire fence line and even managed a half-decent photo.
And in May 5 2023 I saw several Varied Sittella, a Speckled Warbler, and a Jacky Winter quite high on the ridge. The Varied Sittella are truly a special sight and it is always fun to watch them roving as a group and foraging thoroughly along branches. The eBird distribution suggests they are quite common here.
Another bird seen only mid-autumn to mid-spring is the Buff-Rumped Thornbill; I have seen these a couple of times at Hardings Paddock, with the best encounter being on the Gamlen Circuit ridge.
Dusky Woodswallow is a lot more unusual for south-east Queensland and was another of the species I saw on May 5 2023. It was the same day I saw a Spotted Quail-Thrush in the ridge area; I had scoured for this bird mightily the year before as several birders were posting great photos of it from Hardings Paddock on Facebook.
Along the eastern edge of the Gamlen Circuit there are two ephemeral lagoons; these can vary greatly in water level and surface algae profusion. The presence of these ponds no doubt contributes to making Hardings Paddock an attractive area for birds.
Summary
Hardings Paddock definitely has some big possible “wow” moments as a birding site. While it’s often the case (isn’t it always…) that the birds you most want to see will be flitting high up in some half-obscured clump of gum leaves, the times when you do get to see something lower down and close up will linger long in the memory. These moments might be with Rose Robins, Eastern Yellow Robins, Jacky Winters or King-Parrots; equally good encounters can be had with Superb Fairywrens, Spotted Pardalotes, Varied Sittella and many others. It is a place that can very handsomely reward the patient and observant birder.
eBird:
Hotspot: Flinders Conservation Estate–Hardings Paddock (175 species)
Checklists for some of these visits: 7 Jun 2024 (48 species), 5 May 2023 (45 species), 24 Jun 2022 (39 species), 23 Apr 2021 (35 species)
BirdSpots videos from this site: Varied Sittellas
Pluses and minuses:
+ Great selection of bush birds to find
+ Reliable-ish spot for winter species like Rose Robins
+ Extensive hiking trails if you feel like doing lots of walking/exploring
– Gets very hot in summer
– Can be a bit hit-and-miss for photography
– Unsealed 4km access road
AUTHOR: ANDY GEE
BIRDERS: ANDY GEE, K-A, LUKE S
Bird Spots 