Scenic Rim

[4] The Scenic Rim lies in a zone where tropical, temperate and western species overlap in a biodiversity hot spot.

[4] The mountainous landscape forms a quarter circle ridge positioned roughly from south of Toowoomba around to Springbrook.

Parts of the rim are well developed, crossed by highways with facilities for tourists like Cunninghams Gap, others are privately owned agricultural properties and rural villages such as Beechmont and Tamborine Mountain.

The deeply weathered, mainly basaltic, soils support rainforest and vine thicket ecosystems, as well as rare eucalypt and grassland communities.

Parts of the Scenic Rim, Gondwana Rainforests, are listed as a World Heritage Site,[13] and some are designated Wilderness Areas.

[12] A 1,351 km2 area encompassing the Scenic Rim has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports populations of endangered eastern bristlebirds, black-breasted button-quails, rufous scrub-birds, Albert's lyrebirds, pale-yellow robins, paradise riflebirds, green catbirds, regent bowerbirds and Australian logrunners.