The scenic Auburn River flows through a steep-sided gorge, tumbling over massive, water-sculpted, salmon-coloured granite boulders. The gorge and river are the park’s most striking landscape features. The park protects a western hardwood forest, now uncommon in the area, and provides habitat for many plants and animals.

The 405ha park protects three significant ecosystems, open blue gum forest, vine scrub (dry rainforest) and open ironbark woodland with grasstrees dotting the understorey. Silver-leaved ironbark and forest red gum dominate the grassy open forests. Queensland bottle trees Brachychiton rupestris and broad-leaved bottle trees Brachychiton australis, thrive in the dry vine thicket on the northern bank of the river near the camping area.

The Auburn River winds its way through the park forming cascades and rock pools, offering refuge to a diversity of wildlife along the riparian zone. Its banks are lined with bottlebrushes, leptospermum shrubs, stunted figs and open blue gum forest. Numerous birds, reptiles and mammals, such as the vulnerable brush-tailed rock-wallaby, live in the habitats along the river.