Killarney
Small country town surrounded by waterfalls and attractive national parks.
Located 196 km south-west of Brisbane, 33 km south-east of Warwick and only a couple of kilometres from the New South Wales border, Killarney nestles on the banks of the Condamine and is one of those small country towns where the interesting places are all located outside the town and where the township itself seems to have changed little in the last fifty years.

In spite of this apparent unpretentiousness and ordinariness, Killarney's greatest claim to fame is that it was the subject of David Malouf's novel Harland's Half Acre. In the novel Malouf writes of the town: 'Named like so much else in Australia for a place on the far side of the globe that its founders meant to honour and were piously homesick for, Killarney bears no resemblance to its Irish original.

'It is lush country but of the green, subtropical kind, with sawmills in untidy paddocks, peak-roofed weatherboard farms, and on the skyline of low hills, bunyah pines, hoop pines and Scotch firs of a forbidding blackness. Tin roofs flare out of an acre of stumps. Iron windmills churn. On all sides in the wet months there is a flash of water. These are the so-called lakes.'

It was 'a flash of water', an exceptional cyclone, which raged through the town in 1968 almost wiping it out.

Things to see:  

Queen Mary Falls National Park
The major attractions in the area are the falls which occur between the township and the Queen Mary Falls National Park which is located 10 km from town on a windy road. On the way up are Browns Falls where it is possible to clamber in behind the falling water. Then there are the 38-metre Dagg's Falls beside the roadway and finally the Queen Mary Falls which drop a spectacular 40 metres into a rainforest gorge. The Queen Mary Falls are part of a National Park which provides a picnic area and a number of pleasant walks. Nearby is a kiosk and caravan park and 8 km further on is Carr's Lookout where visitors can see the start of Australia's longest river system. This is the upper reaches of the Condamine which eventually flows into the Darling which in turn flows into the Murray and which eventually reaches the sea in South Australia.

	Tourist Information
	Adjinbilly Rainforest Retreat Adjinbilly Rd Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4664 1599
	Motels
	Sundown Motel Pine St Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4664 1318 Rating: **
	Hotels
	Killarney Hotel Willow St Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4664 1313
	Resorts
	Cherrabah Homestead Resort Warwick Hwy to Killarney Rd Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4667 9177, 1800 076 232
	Bed & Breakfast/Guesthouses
	Oaklea Bed & Breakfast The Head via Kilarney 27 km east of Kilarney Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4664 7161
	Caravan Parks
	Killarney Caravan Park Claydons Rd Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4664 1522 Rating: **
	Queen Mary Falls Caravan Park Opposite falls Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4664 7151 Rating: **
	Restaurants
	Killarney Hotel Willow St Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4664 1313
	Sundown Motel Pine St Killarney QLD 4373 Telephone: (07) 4664 1318