Glass House Mountains – their History
Geology
The Glass House Mountains are intrusive plugs – remnants of volcanic activity that occurred some 25–27 million years ago. Molten rock filled small vents or intruded as bodies beneath the surface and solidified into hard rocks. Millions of years of erosion have removed the surrounding exteriors of the volcanic cones and softer sandstone rocks, leaving the magnificent landscape features you see today. The craggy peaks of the Glass House Mountains towering above the surrounding Sunshine Coast landscape.
First Nations
The Glass House Mountains region hold great significance to the First Nations people that have always lived there. Close to traditional pathways and with many ceremonial sites protected today, before British arrival in the area, it was a special meeting place. Here First Nations Peoples gathered for ceremonies and trade. The individual peaks hold significant meaning and cultural importance to the Jinibara and Kabi Kabi peoples with the mountains continuing to hold special spiritual significance.
With recent dating of artefacts of our First Nations people being pushed back over 65,000 years, there is plenty of scope for stories of the dreamtime to be passed down through generations. There are a number of legends that apply to this area, and a number of variations to the legends, but the theme is basically the same in all of them.
The First Nations legends of teh Glass House Mountains can be read here.
Contrary to common perceptions, life for the Jinibara People in traditional times did not involve a nomadic relentless search for food. Rather, traditional country was bountiful, and individuals had their own specialised personal responsibilities for providing for the group.
Each clan of the Jinibara People had a few places where camps were erected on an annual basis, providing people with a consistent lifestyle in an area for several months.
During the 1860s, much changed for the Indigenous People. Vast areas of timber were felled and burnt to make way for farming and livestock. Traditional ways of living were destroyed.
Today, the Jinibara People continue their connections with their traditional country, and maintain their places, areas and sites of significance. They have the right under native title to “maintain sites, objects, places and areas of significance to the native title holders under their traditional laws and customs and protect by lawful means those sites, objects, places and areas from physical harm or desecration“.
British history
The Glass House Mountains were named by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. The following extract from Cook’s journal on Thursday, 17 May 1770 noted:
“These hills lay but a little way inland and not far from each other, they are very remarkable on account of there singular form of elevation, which very much resemble glass houses which occasioned my giving them that name…“
Next came explorer Matthew Flinders in the sloop Norfolk. Flinders had been sent from Port Jackson and climbed Beerburrum Mountain in July 1799.
Timber cutting quickly became an important early industry in the Glass House Mountains, and in 1890 the North Coast railway line was opened immediately to their east. The village of Glass House Mountains grew around the railway and a State primary school opened in 1910.
The forest plantations in this area were planted in the early 1930s and the ‘Tibrogargan’ and ‘Twins’ forest management areas were re-planted in the 1980s and 1990s with commercial pine trees.
Toward the end of World War I extensive soldier-settlement orchard blocks were opened up, mainly for pineapples and citrus, with settlement extending south to Beerburrum. In 1925 it was recorded that Glass House Mountains village had a storekeeper, a butcher and a fruiterer; Beerburrum had a medical centre, a school, a hall and a fruit-preserving co-operative.
In the longer term, however, many of the soldier-settler farms proved be unviable, leading to abandonment and population decline. Beerburrum’s population dwindled from 647 in 1921 to 257 in 1954.
Despite these early agricultural difficulties, pineapple farms continue to operate in the district, and the tourist appeal of the Glass House Mountains has brought trade into the area. There are national parks around several of the mountains, with tracks and lookouts. The Wild Horse Mountain Scenic Lookout has a shuttle bus service.
Glass House Mountains and Beerburrum each has a primary school and a public hall, and adjoining railway stations. With recent population growth Glass House Mountains has acquired a sports complex and residential subdivisions west of the town. The census populations of Glass House Mountains was 4,791 in 2011.