Lomandra MTB Car Park

Overview

The Lomandra MTB Car Park is the dedicated mountain-bike trailhead for Samford Conservation Park, a 624-hectare reserve on Brisbane's north-western fringe at Ferny Hills. The car park sits at the Lomandra Day Use Area off Samford Road and adjoins a purpose-built MTB warm-up / skills area — a short loop of berms, small rollers and table-tops used by riders to test bikes before heading into the network proper.

From Lomandra, riders link directly into a network of eight mountain-bike-only trails plus shared management fire-roads (Lomandra Road, Three Ways Road, Sewer, Pipeline). The trails are gentle-to-technical XC singletrack with a few descents (Sunset, Whipsnake) and Lomandra Road / Kombi carry the park's biggest jumps. The trail network is built and maintained by the Northside Trail Care Alliance (NTCA), the trail-building subsidiary of the North Brisbane Mountain Bike Club ("Dirt Dogs", founded 1995), in partnership with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS).

Samford Conservation Park is one of the closest legal MTB networks to inner Brisbane (≈20 km north-west of the CBD) and forms part of the Mountains-to-Mangroves Corridor linking D'Aguilar National Park to the Pine River system. The Lomandra car park is therefore the practical "front door" of the whole network — Ironbark Gully picnic area on the other side of the park is the family-walking entrance.

Location & Access

Address: Lomandra Day Use Area, Samford Road, Ferny Hills QLD 4055
Coordinates: -27.3919, 152.9162
Drive from Brisbane CBD: ≈30 minutes (20 km via Samford Road)
Drive from Ferny Grove rail terminus: ≈8 minutes (last suburban train station — Ferny Grove line, Brisbane CityTrain)
Drive from Samford Village: ≈10 minutes (5 km west)
Parking: Sealed car park at Lomandra Day Use Area; one of two main parking areas in the park (the other is Ironbark Gully picnic area on the southern side). Lomandra is the preferred trailhead for MTB; Ironbark Gully is the preferred trailhead for walkers and families.
Access: Free; no day-use fee.
Shuttle meeting point: Gravity MTB Shuttles uses Maureen Lawrence Park (tennis-courts side), directly opposite the main Lomandra car park entrance, as a meeting point for shuttle services — though their primary uplift product currently services Ironbark Trails and Clear Mountain rather than the Samford network itself.

Best Season & Conditions

Open year-round, dawn to dusk for safe riding (the park itself is open 24 hours but QPWS asks visitors to walk/ride in daylight only).
Sub-tropical climate — best riding April–September (cool, dry). Summer (Dec–Feb) is hot and humid with frequent afternoon thunderstorms; trails get tacky and gully sections can be slick.
Wet-weather closures: Some gully trails (Sewer, Bergin Creek Break, Kombi lower section) drain slowly and can be soft for 24–48 hours after heavy rain. NTCA / QPWS request riders stay off the trails until they're dry to protect the surface. Check Trailforks for current conditions.
Fire season: Bushfire risk Sep–Mar; the park may close at short notice on extreme fire-danger days. Check the QPWS park alerts page before driving out.

Managing Body & Trail Builders

Land manager: Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS), Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI).
Trail builders / maintainers: Northside Trail Care Alliance (NTCA) — volunteer arm of North Brisbane Mountain Bike Club ("Dirt Dogs", founded 1995). NTCA runs regular "trailcare sessions" and weekly "Hours of Power" work days across Samford and Bunyaville Conservation Parks.
NBMBC website: https://nbmbc.org.au/
NTCA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthsideTrailCareAlliance/
The combined attribution is: QPWS (land) / Northside Trail Care Alliance + North Brisbane MTB Club (trails).

History & Background

The reserve was first declared a timber reserve in 1873-74 — 317 acres of state forest between what is now Bunyaville and D'Aguilar National Park, gazetted for sustainable timber harvest. The protected boundary has expanded over the following 150 years.
Today's 624 ha Samford Conservation Park protects open eucalypt forest (red ironbark, narrow-leaved ironbark — Eucalyptus crebra) and acts as a wildlife corridor in the Mountains-to-Mangroves Corridor between D'Aguilar National Park and the Pine River.
The MTB network was developed in stages through the 2000s and 2010s by NTCA / NBMBC, gradually moving informal "bandit" trails onto sanctioned alignments with QPWS approval.
Wildlife records list 432 species in the park including 160 native birds (powerful owls, rainbow lorikeets, rosellas, kookaburras), brushtail and ringtail possums, echidnas, and the occasional carpet python on the trails.