The Glass House Mountains National Park is in Queensland, Australia, about 70 km north of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. The mountains were named by Captain Cook, who in 1770 thought they looked like glass houses as he sailed along the eastern coast of Australia. The region consists of a flat plain punctuated by volcanic plugs, the cores of extinct volcanoes that formed between 25 million to 27 million years ago.
Understand
The Glass House Mountains are:
- Mount Beerburrum
- Mount Beerwah, 555 m
- Mount Coochin, 235 m
- Mount Coonowrin colloquially known as Crookneck, 377 m
- Mount Elimbah, 129 m
- Mount Miketeebumulgrai, 199 m
- Mount Ngungun, 253 m
- Round Mountain
- Mount Tibberoowuccum, 220 m
- Mount Tibrogargan appearing to be a giant ape, 364 m
- Mount Tunbubudla or the Twins, 312 and 293 m
- Wild Horse Mountain, 123 m
History
The Glasshouse Mountains are located in the traditional lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people.
Landscape
Flora and fauna
The peaks support a diverse range of habitats including montane heath and shrubland, open forest and woodlands and small rainforest patches on some peaks. The montane heath is particularly rich in threatened and endemic species many of which can be found nowhere else.
Climate
Get in
From Brisbane, follow the Bruce Highway (M1) north, take Exit 163 Steve Irwin Way and follow the signs to the Glass House Mountains.
From the Sunshine Coast, follow the Bruce Highway (M1) south, take Exit 179 and follow Roys Rd to Beerwah, then head south along Steve Irwin Way.
Fees and permits
Get around
See
Do
- The bushwalks/scrambles to the tops of the mountain vary from an easy 30 min walk along a sealed path to a more intense four-hour return journey.