The Rail Trail in Blackbutt is along the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail, a shared-use path (walking, biking, and horse riding) using an old abandoned railway corridor from Ipswich through to Yarraman, completed in 2018 with a gap between Moore and Esk opened.
From Blackbutt the trail goes west 18km to Yarraman, starting across the road from the Rail Trail location, and is a steady climb up to the top of the range and back down again into Yarraman.
To the east the trail is around 5km to Benarkin where there are toilets and showers available. It then continues through the Benarkin State Forest on to Linville for another 18km or so. Front suspension and gloves are recommended for this part as the surface is rough. Linville through to Moore for 6km makes up the rest of the 30km trail from Blackbutt to Moore.
The section between Moore and Toogoolawah has been funded and was expected to be completed in June 2018 (which is now). I couldn’t find any news of this being completed or nearing completion.
The sections of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail are:
- Wulkuraka (Ipswich) to Fernvale 22km
- Fernvale to Lowood 9km
- Lowood to Esk 35km
- Esk to Toogoolawah 19km
- Toohoolawah to Moore 27km – under construction
- Moore to Blackbutt 30km
- Blackbutt to Yarraman 18km
Some of the sections have smaller parts that can be undertaken, such as the Blackbutt to Benarkin section on the way to Moore.
The Blackbutt location for the rail trail is at the same site as the Roy Emerson Museum. There is a shelter with a picnic table and information about the Blackbutt Station, opened in 1912. The museum has the Nukku Siding building next to it, containing some train history, as well as information about the rail trail.
There is a horse enclosure for a couple of horses near the shelter.