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Kangaroo Point Cliffs is a free, floodlit crag on the Brisbane River, a short walk from the CBD. Here's what the climbing is like, how the old quarry came to be, the council's rules on anchors and groups, and how to move safely from the gym to the rock.
Kangaroo Point Cliffs puts a 20-metre crag in the middle of Brisbane: a long wall of volcanic rock on the Brisbane River, opposite the City Botanic Gardens, with a park at its foot and floodlights that keep it climbable after dark. Here is what you need to know before you go, as checked in October 2026.
The cliffs sit in Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park, which the council lists as open 24 hours a day. It has two levels: River Terrace along the clifftop, and the lower terrace at the foot of the cliffs, where you climb, at 29 River Terrace. A steep staircase of 107 steps links the two. The park has public toilets, water bubblers, picnic shelters and barbecues, metered parking on Lower River Terrace, River Terrace and nearby streets, and, at its northern end, the Riverlife Adventure Centre in the old Naval Stores.
You don't need a car. Since December 2024 the Kangaroo Point Bridge has carried walkers and cyclists from the corner of Alice and Edward streets in the CBD to Scott Street in Kangaroo Point, the riverside bike path runs past the base of the cliffs, and theCrag's guide puts South Bank station about ten minutes' walk away.
The cliff is the face of a quarry. The Queensland Heritage Register records that Commandant Logan of the Moreton Bay penal settlement opened it around 1826 to supply stone for his buildings, among them the Commissariat Store of 1828–29. The stone, Brisbane tuff, is a pink and green volcanic rock laid down in the late Triassic. From 1842 private builders, John Petrie among them, rented the quarry, and from 1898 the Marine Department quarried rock here for training walls along the lower Brisbane River; by 1919 more than half a million tonnes had gone. That work opened the long, sheer face that climbers use today. The quarry closed in 1976, and the cliffs were entered in the heritage register in 2003.
theCrag lists more than 400 routes in five sectors: KP North, the Left and Right Main Walls, the Nursery Cliffs and a bouldering area. Most are bolted face climbs on quarried tuff that is often sandy; cracks are rare. Concrete bollards and rings along the clifftop make top-roping simple, most sport routes have a two-bolt belay for lowering off, and some routes have carrot bolts that need bolt plates. The busiest climbs are beginners' top-ropes graded 14 to 17, while most of the better climbing is 20 and harder. Numbered light boxes along the base split the long main wall into sections, and theCrag uses them to locate routes.
The face looks north-west and gets very hot once the summer sun reaches it in the middle of the morning, so in summer it's climbed early or in the evening; the rest of the year it's pleasant all day, and the rock dries quickly after rain. Rock falls, often large, aren't rare, and serious injuries have happened, so wear a helmet.
The park never closes. The heritage register describes the cliffs as floodlit by night, theCrag says the lights let you climb into the early hours, and operators such as Pinnacle Sports run night sessions under them. Big events can shut the cliffs: theCrag's access notes recorded the cliffs and vehicle access closing for the Riverfire fireworks on 6 September 2025.
Brisbane City Council looks after the anchors along the clifftop. It has replaced 18 of the concrete climbing bollards, and in March 2025 it swapped the ring bolts that climbers had fixed into the stone wall at the top for certified ring bolts drilled into the bedrock. Its project page advised climbers to rig top-ropes and abseils from the council's marked bollards; other anchor points are used at your own risk. The bolts on the face are a different matter: theCrag says volunteers from Safer Cliffs Queensland maintain them, paid for by climbers' donations, and Rock Climbing Queensland, the trading name since October 2026 of the Australian Climbing Association Queensland, takes reports of bad bolts online.
Bouldering is allowed only in the council's designated areas, at Kangaroo Point and in Toohey Forest. Use crash pads and spotters, keep groups to 20 or fewer, brush off chalk, and don't add bolts or other hardware, alter the rock or paint routes. theCrag's local ethic adds three rules: top-rope through your own quickdraws to save wear on the anchors, never chip holds, and don't place new bolts without the agreement of the KP community. Expect some closures, too: the council stabilised loose parts of the face with rock pins, mesh and sprayed concrete in 2024 and is planning the next round of maintenance works.
Climbing at the cliffs is free. The council's rules on park bookings and permissions are about organised and paid activity: a commercial activity in a council park, including lessons, tours and outdoor education, needs the council's permission, which is free for up to ten participants and charged above that, and the application should go in at least ten working days ahead. A group that wants a base can book one of the park's six bookable sites, from St Mary's Hideaway (15 people) to the open-air amphitheatre (54), at least five working days ahead. Groups without their own qualified leaders can book an operator that already works there: Pinnacle Sports runs three-hour sessions for groups, parties, schools and corporate events, and Riverlife takes private group bookings from six people.
Climbing outside means rigging your own anchors, judging the rock and managing the rope, so it's worth learning to belay and lead indoors first. Brisbane's roped gyms are the place to start: Urban Climb West End, Rocksports and Crank all run Learn to Lead courses, and our Brisbane page lists every gym in the city with its prices.
For the move outdoors, Pinnacle Sports, based in Kelvin Grove, runs guided three-hour sessions at the cliffs by day or night ($115), a four-hour technique workshop at Kangaroo Point ($150, from age 15), a nationally accredited two-day Top Rope Climbing Course ($580) that teaches you to build anchors, with a day at Mount Ngungun in the Glass House Mountains and a day at Kangaroo Point, and a two-day Sport Lead Course ($580) for leading bolted routes. Riverlife runs guided climbs at weekends ($109). The council's Active and Healthy programme runs low-cost sessions too: on 7 July 2026 a two-hour school-holiday climb for 10 to 17-year-olds cost $6, booked through Pinnacle Sports. And the UQ Mountain Club, which you needn't be a student to join, climbs at the cliffs two nights a week with routes set up for newcomers.
For other walls and crags around the state, see climbing in Queensland and climbing in Australia.
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