Gold Coast Hinterland
Scenic Rim & Gold Coast Hinterland
Behind the Gold Coast's skyline, a green arc of mountain ranges harbours farm stays, boutique wineries, and craft producers. The hinterland that proves Queensland is more than beaches.
Witches Falls Winery
79 Main Western Rd, Tamborine Mountain QLD 4272, Australia
Mon–Thu 10am–5pm · Fri–Sat 10am–6pm · Sun 10am–5pm
Award-winning winery on Tamborine Mountain offering a cellar door with tastings, a curated selection of wines including wild ferments, ciders and vermouth, alongside an online store with Club 79 loyalty program.
The Mouses House
2807 Springbrook Road
Mon–Thu 8am–6pm · Fri–Sat 9am–5pm · Sun 8am–6pm
Fourteen timber chalets spread across World Heritage-listed rainforest on the Springbrook Plateau, 1,010 metres up. Each has a hardwood fireplace, double spa bath and private balcony; some add outdoor hot tubs. Wayne and Christine Randall have run the property for 20 years. A Canadian lodge-inspired two-storey addition is mid-construction, with completion expected mid-2026.
The Art Exchange | Art Classes & Paint and Sip
Via Roma &, Verona Ave, Surfers Paradise QLD 4217, Australia
Mon–Sun 12am–11:59pm
Paint-and-sip classes in acrylic and watercolour, held across five Gold Coast studios — Isle of Capri, Broadbeach, Burleigh Heads, Nerang, and Mt Nathan — or brought to your venue. BYO drinks; everything else is supplied. French pastries available to order from a local supplier. Clay pottery workshops also run on site, led by a collaborating artist named Kirsten.
Purling Brook Falls
Mon–Sun 12am–11:59pm
A spectacular 100-metre waterfall in Springbrook National Park. The trail passes behind the falls through a rock overhang with views of the Gondwana rainforest.
Sanctuary by Sirromet
850 Mount Cotton Rd, Mount Cotton QLD 4165, Australia
Mon–Sun 8:30am–8pm
Terry Morris founded Sirromet after Victorian friends scoffed at the idea of a great Queensland wine. That slight became a winery on Mount Cotton, just outside Brisbane, drawing Granite Belt fruit to a property with Moreton Bay views. The glamping accommodation — tented pavilions above the bush — sits alongside the cellar door and Tuscan Terrace restaurant.
Clay and Sip Gold Coast
Hope Island QLD 4212, Australia
Small pottery studio in northern Gold Coast running hand-building workshops where the stated goal is messiness over mastery. The instructor's pitch is refreshingly honest: clay fails constantly, and that's the point. Informal sessions suit first-timers equally well as a catch-up with friends. Wabi sabi, apparently, is the whole philosophy.
Lamington National Park
3582 Lamington National Park Road
Lamington spans roughly 21,000 hectares of the McPherson Range on Yugambeh Country, part of the UNESCO Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area along with neighbouring Springbrook. The park has two main visitor sections — Green Mountains and Binna Burra — each reached by separate roads from different points of the Gold Coast hinterland, with no driveable connection between them inside the park. The Border Track, a 21-kilometre walking trail along the McPherson Range, links the two. The park holds the largest Queensland stand of Antarctic beech (Nothofagus moorei), including individuals estimated at over 2,000 years old through clonal coppicing, alongside subtropical rainforest, regent and Albert's lyrebirds, and the famous-since-1937 site of Bernard O'Reilly's rescue of the Stinson airliner survivors. The historic Binna Burra Lodge was destroyed in the 2019 bushfires and has been rebuilding since.
Mason Wines
32 Hartley Rd, Tamborine Mountain QLD 4272, Australia
Wed–Sun 10am–4pm
Grapes grown on 40 acres in the Granite Belt — three and a half hours southwest, near the Queensland–New South Wales border — make their way to Tamborine Mountain, where Mason pours Verdelho, Viognier, and Petit Verdot alongside a menu drawing on an on-site garden planted in 2020. Snow peas, nasturtiums, and chillies go straight from soil to kitchen.
Gold Coast & Hinterland Spinners and Weavers
238-280 Mudgeeraba Rd, Mudgeeraba QLD 4213, Australia
Wed 9am–1pm
Forty years on, this Mudgeeraba collective still gathers at Woodturners Cottage three days a week to spin, weave, dye, and felt. Members share equipment, borrow from a textile library, and enter work in the Mudgeeraba and Gold Coast shows. Beginners are welcome on any Wednesday. The shop—fibre supplies, wheels, looms for hire—is members only.