Park of the Month

Queensland’s protected areas also preserve our rich living history. Come and learn more about our State’s military past at historic Fort Lytton NP.

Discover. Connect. Protect. Enjoy

Park of the Month is a key initiative of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) and NPAQ’s Parks Connect program. We’re passionate about parks, and by sharing decades of knowledge from committed volunteers, conservationists and National Park Rangers with local communities and visitors, we hope Queenslanders from all walks of life will fall in love with our amazing wild places.

Fort Lytton National Park

Guarding the mouth of the Brisbane River since 1881, Fort Lytton National Park protects Queensland’s most significant colonial military site and was Queensland’s first historic National Park, gazetted in 1990.

Built from 1880 to 1881 to protect Brisbane from enemy ships attempting to attack the Port of Brisbane, Fort Lytton is perched on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, just 30 minutes from Brisbane’s CBD. For more than half a century, Fort Lytton was Queensland’s front line of defence and still draws history buffs to the remarkably intact pentagonal fort, which is concealed behind grassy ramparts and surrounded by a water-filled moat beloved by freshwater turtles and invertebrate life.

The fort was designed around a system of river mines and heavy armaments concealed behind earthworks that are connected by mysterious underground passages.

After World War II, Fort Lytton fell into disrepair and was absorbed into land acquired by the petroleum company Ampol in the early 1960s, before being returned to Queensland Government ownership in 1988.

Today, volunteers from the Fort Lytton Historical Association run guided tours there during school holidays, every Sunday and on most public holidays.

Come with us to learn about one of Brisbane’s most extraordinary historic national parks this July!

Don’t miss the Carry On Fort Lytton School Holiday adventure this July!

Carry On Fort Lytton” celebrates much of what the fort was designed for, albeit in 1944. “It’s a dramatic scenario done as a re-enactment, especially suited for children aged between 6 and 12,” said Fort Lytton’s Ranger Daley Donnelly.

“Fort Lytton was an important Australian training base and the AWAS provided much-needed support. Carry On Fort Lytton is a fun way of bringing the history of those years into the 21st century, for a generation whose great-grandparents would have been their own age, or younger, during that turbulent time.”