Planting Bunya Trees on Bunya Trail

Serpentine Ridge

Grandmother Serpentine

Serpentine Ridge Bunya Trail

Bringing back Gondwana creating Wildlife Corridors

The Bunya Trail starts at the Welcome Centre Car Park where walking trails begin to wind around in a snake like dreaming pathways, with plenty to see & experience along the paths. Planted with Bush Floristry, Bush Medicine & Bush Tucker featuring a specific pathway where the Sacred Bunya Trees are planted

Winding gently through the heart of Serpentine Ridge, the Bunya Trail is a sacred invitation to slow down and walk with wonder. This peaceful path weaves among ancient bunya pines, native bushland, and cultural markers that whisper stories of Country. Along the way, you’ll encounter totem poles, medicine plants, artful rest spots, and lookouts that honour the mountain’s spirit. Every step is a chance to listen— to the land, to ancestral wisdom, and to your own inner stillness. More than a trail, it’s a living classroom and ceremony ground, calling you home to deep time, beauty, and belonging.

This is the vision

The Bunya trail gardens & pathways are still under construction where every visitor can help us create this vision by connecting with the soil & and planting a tree !!

Marc & Baby Bunya Tree

This is your Sacred INVITATION to come & connect to this land, to plant the Sacred Bunyi Bunyi & other Australian Native trees with us

BUSH FLORISTRY BUSH TUCKER BUSH MEDICINE

Places for Culture - Caring for Country

Baby Bunyas ready to plant

Bunyi Bunyi

Place of Bunya Tree

Bunyi or Bonyi in Kabi Kabi Language

Place of Bunya Tree

Bunyi or Bonyi Cultural Name in Kabi Kabi launguage for Bunya Nut Tree

Sacred Bunya Tree

(Araucaria bidwillii)

is more than a botanical marvel—it’s a living ancestor, a ceremonial beacon, and a keeper of ancient gatherings.

Botanical Majesty

  • Species: Araucaria bidwillii, part of the ancient Araucariaceae family (think dinosaur-era lineage!)

  • Height: Up to 40–50 metres tall, with a dome-shaped crown and thick, straight trunk

  • Cones: Massive, football-sized seed cones weighing up to 10 kg, dropping seasonally with a thud that echoes through the forest

  • Seeds: Known as bunya nuts, rich in nutrients and flavor—often likened to chestnuts

Cultural Significance

  • Sacred to Indigenous Peoples: Especially the Wakka Wakka, Kabi Kabi, Jinibara Nations

  • Ceremonial Gatherings: Every 3–4 years, bumper nut harvests sparked vast intertribal festivals in the Bunya Mountains. Thousands would gather to feast, trade, settle disputes, arrange marriages, and share stories

  • Custodianship: Specific trees and groves were under tribal care, passed down through generations as living inheritance

Ecological Role

  • Habitat Provider: Its towering branches shelter birds, possums, and insects

  • Seed Dispersal: Cockatoos and other animals help spread the nuts, continuing the tree’s lineage

  • Longevity: Some trees live over 600 years, standing as sentinels of time

Spiritual Resonance

  • The Bunya is seen as a portal between worlds—earth and sky, past and future. Its cones fall like offerings, its roots reach deep into dreaming.

This brings us closer to the Places for Culture - Caring for Country ethos we are with the listening deeply to the land