Highgate Hill Park is a small hilltop park on Hampstead Road in Highgate Hill, with a heritage rotunda and wide views across the Brisbane city skyline. It is free to visit and about 10 minutes by car from the CBD.
It is a park for a short stop rather than a whole day: a walk around the slopes, a look at the rotunda, a picnic in the shade and the view.
The view of Brisbane from Highgate Hill Park
The park sits on the summit of Highgate Hill, and the grassed slope opens out to an extensive view of the city towers. Three paths cross the park, two concrete on the steeper slope and one gravel, so you can walk the top edge and watch the skyline change as you move.
The same high ground has drawn people for a long time. By the 1860s the summit was a popular lookout, and South Brisbane City Council moved to buy it as a park on 14 February 1903, at about the same time it bought Mowbray Park.
If you like a city view, Brisbane has several more to compare: Mt Coot-tha Lookout looks over the whole city from the west, and Mt Gravatt Lookout looks back from the south. Browse them all on the lookouts page.
The heritage rotunda
The park’s best-known feature is the rotunda, built around 1910. It has a corrugated iron roof, timber posts and balustrades, and is painted in white and deep green. There is bench seating inside and a “directional dial” in the centre, and you can see the rotunda from every side of the park. It opens onto Dornoch Terrace and the opposite side, with timber steps at both openings.
Highgate Hill Park has been a Brisbane City Council Local Heritage Place since 1 July 2002. The listing notes that the park has stayed largely unchanged since it was bought.
Little details to look for
The park keeps a lot of its original character. Look for the four cast iron ornamental bollards, the porphyry retaining walls at the corner of Dornoch Terrace and Hampstead Road, and the three pathways that cross the slope. The bollards line the Dornoch Terrace edge. The council’s heritage listing says the park remains largely as it was when it was acquired, with few changes beyond porphyry-edged garden beds added in 1961, so the layout you walk is close to the one locals used a century ago. The fig and palms were planted around 1910.
The heritage listing values the park for two things: its place in the early 1900s push to add parkland in the area, and more than 100 years of community use. It is a good example of how a hilltop with a view became a park everyone could use.
Picnics and shade
A large Moreton Bay fig fills the corner of Dornoch Terrace and Hampstead Road, with a picnic table underneath it and park benches nearby. Weeping figs, hoop pines, silky oaks and queen palms add more shade around the park. There is a drinking fountain with a dog bowl, but council’s toilet and barbecue lists show no public toilets or barbecues in the park.
Making a stop of it
Because the park is small, it works well as one part of a day around the inner south side. Walk the lawn, take a seat in the rotunda to look at the city, then move on to a market or a riverside park nearby. The list of places under Nearby below shows a few good options.
Planning your visit
- How long: Allow 20 to 45 minutes for a walk round, the rotunda and the view.
- Cost: Free.
- Best time: Clear days for the skyline view. The fig and other trees give shade.
- Dogs: Brisbane City Council requires dogs to be on a leash everywhere except designated off-leash areas.
- What to bring: Water, a hat and a picnic.
- Toilets: None in the park. The closest on council’s public toilet list is at Lyons Playground Park on Paradise Street, Highgate Hill, about 450 metres away in a straight line.
- The ground: The park is on a hillside and the site slopes down the side of the hill.
Getting there and parking at Highgate Hill Park
The park is at 94 Hampstead Road, Highgate Hill, on the corner of Dornoch Terrace. By car it is about 10 minutes from the Brisbane CBD without traffic. Parking is on the surrounding streets, so check the signs before you leave your car.
By bus, council’s stop data lists stops on Dornoch Terrace and Hampstead Road near the park, and Translink route 196 stops at Gladstone Road and Dornoch Terrace (stop 11). Check the Translink journey planner for current times.
Nearby
- Mowbray Park – another Brisbane park to add to the same day.
- West End Markets – markets in the neighbouring suburb of West End.
- Kangaroo Point Cliffs – more city views, from the river side.
- South Bank Parklands – the city’s riverside parklands, a short drive away.
- State Library of Queensland – a free indoor stop at South Bank for a wet day.
- More parks across the city are on the Brisbane page and the parks page.
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Quick answers
Where is Highgate Hill Park?
It is at 94 Hampstead Road, Highgate Hill, on the corner of Dornoch Terrace, about 10 minutes by car from the Brisbane CBD.
Is Highgate Hill Park free?
Yes. It is a council park with no entry fee.
Does Highgate Hill Park have toilets?
No. There is a drinking fountain with a dog bowl, but council lists no public toilets in the park.
What is there to see at Highgate Hill Park?
A rotunda built around 1910, a large Moreton Bay fig with a picnic table underneath, and extensive views towards the Brisbane city skyline.
Can I take my dog to Highgate Hill Park?
Dogs must be on a leash. Brisbane City Council only allows dogs off the leash in its signed off-leash areas.
Is Highgate Hill Park a heritage place?
Yes. It has been a Brisbane Local Heritage Place since 1 July 2002.
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