This was once a very busy area with a large sawmill and major butter factory surrounded by market gardens worthy of a railway line from Ipswich. The rail trail is just a small taste of what is hoped to be a 74km trail from there.

The current sections are:

• Boonah-Hoya (2km): After an awkward approach, this grassed section runs past a historic church cemetery and through a moderate cutting up to Hoya, from where you can ride back or take a connecting route back to town on quiet roads
• Dugandan-Boonah (0.6km): Running downhill, this asphalt path is the route steam engines took to get water and load up at the timber mill.

Boonah is an attractive and busy town of about 2500 people with a surprising amount to see and do. It promotes itself as being “The Heart of the Scenic Rim”, that rim being the arc of spectacular mountains that stretch to the north-west from the NSW border towards Toowoomba. There’s plenty of cafes, caravan parks and shops to go around.

Boonah-Hoya (2km)

• Access: Boonah Visitor Information Centre at 20 Boonah-Fassifern Rd, where there is 18-hr free camping, toilets, picnic shelter and BBQ.
• The trail starts with a climb to a “Hollywood-style” Boonah sign that overlooks the town and information centre. This steep section of track is marked “Maintenance Access Only”. Cyclists may prefer to use Mt Carmel Rd, but that also is steep.
• From the Bicentennial Place lookout on Athol Tce, see if you can spot where the railway ran across the Salt Gully mudflats into Boonah.
• Head west via a signposted walking track and direction markers down to the rail corridor, about 150 m from Boonah-Fassifern Rd. To the south, the railway ran across Red Bridge into Boonah.
• The shared path, sometimes referred to as the Boonah Rail Trail, is mowed grass and easy to follow. A small cemetery on the left records the resting places of a number of pioneers. Alternatively, this church site can be reached using Red Bridge Rd. It provides parking and easier access to the trail.
• From halfway along, the shared path serves as a farm road, which makes for easy riding and walking to the farm gate on Pocock Rd, Hoya.
• You can head back the way you came or follow paths and roads back to town (see below)

Boonah-Dugandan (0.6km):

• Although there’s nothing left of the railway lines that ran up the main road, Yeates Ave, the corridor reappears at its southern end opposite Rotary Park as part of the Dugandan Pathway and is pedestrian friendly for 600m to Mt French Rd on the western side of Dugandan Park. This was the site of a major timber mill and was where the steam engines used to take on water.  The terminus station was conveniently placed for engine drivers, close to the Dugandan Pub

CONNECTING PATH

• To get back to town from the farm gate at Hoya, turn right on the mowed path on the southern side of Pocock Rd. At the top of the hill, about 300 m from the farm gate, is a small clump of trees where there are some great views of the Scenic Rim, including Mount French to the south-west. The shared path continues down a slope and south-east for about 400 m along an unformed section of Hoya Rd and then follows the eastern footpath for about 1.4 km to Springleigh Park, the site of the Boonah markets. It then follows the footpath on the southern side of Ipswich-Boonah Rd, crossing back to the northern side of the road at the main roundabout (all up about 700m) back to the information centre.