HISTORICAL SITES AND HERITAGE LOCATIONS BEERBURRUM

Craggy volcanic peaks, rhyolite plugs, rise abruptly above the scenic landscape, a rolling green patchwork of pine plantations, bushland and cultivated fields. The Glass House Mountains were named by Lieutenant James Cook as he voyaged up the Queensland coast in 1770. They are spiritually significant to the local Aboriginal people and are listed on the Queensland and National Heritage Registers as a landscape of national significance. In this park, remnants of the open eucalypt woodland and heath vegetation, which once covered the coastal plains, provide a home for an interesting variety of animals and plants. Visit the interpretive centre in the Glass House Mountains township. Drive to the nearby Glass House Mountains lookout in Beerburrum State Forest for views of the multiple peaks. Enjoy a picnic at the base of Mount Beerwah or Mount Tibrogargan. Take the easy Western Boundary walk at Mount Beewah or try a slightly more challenging walk such as the Tibrorgargan circuit or Mount Beeburrum track for great views. If you are a fit, experienced walker with rock climbing skills, tackle the Mount Ngungun summit track. The summit routes on Mounts Ngungun and Tibrogargan are also suitable for roped sports for experienced and well-equipped climbers.

Beerburrum, off Steve Irwin Way, was the first and largest of about 24 soldier settlements established in Queensland to help returned soldiers re-enter civilian life as farmers. The Governor's wife Lady Goold-Adams drew the first land ballot on 6 November 1916. More than 21,000 hectares of farming land was made available for pineapple growing, other horticulture, bee-keeping and poultry. Over the course of the scheme, which ran until 1929, about 400 soldiers and their families tried their luck farming at Beerburrum. Poor soil and low prices made it financially tough for the former diggers. By 1929, only 69 soldier settlers remained. In May 1920, General Sir William Birdwood, described by some historians as 'the soul of ANZAC', planted a camphor laurel tree in what he named ANZAC Avenue. School children planted more trees to create an avenue, in time for a visit to the settlement by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) in August that year. Unlike other memorial avenues in which a tree symbolised a specific fallen soldier (often bearing a name plate), Beerburrum's trees were in memory of 'lost mates'. Today, only 13 trees from the WWI memorial survive.