Mount Coolum, Sunshine Coast

Mount Coolum, Sunshine Coast

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Posted 2012-08-21 by Pamelafollow


About two hours north of Brisbane, the idyllic coastal town of Coolum Beach is nestled between the historical surf town of Noosa and the largest and busiest town on the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore.

Walking up and down Mount Coolum is great way for a family to spend a couple of hours together immersing themselves in nature. Your children will have fun exploring the unspoilt national park, as they point out all the native wildlife and you can smile knowing that you are all receiving plenty of exercise, especially after one of your children refuses to walk anymore and you have to carry them the rest of the way!

Driving along David Low Way, you are surrounded by natural beauty on both sides of the road. On the right hand side you have the coastline, which consists of white sandy beaches, large sand dunes and lots of bush full of native plants and wild life, all enclosed inside towering rocky headlands. And to the left hand side, is Mount Coolum, rich in aboriginal heritage and ecological significance.

From the car park a rugged path travels through a dense Eucalyptus forest, until midway up the mountain the path erupts into a sheer incline made up of steps cut into the sand stone cliffs. As the forests tapers off, on the mountains summit, the path leads into open grasslands with bare sandstone paths and cliffs. Where the Peregrine Falcons surf the air currents and nest in the blunt faces of the sandstone cliffs.

Soaring 208 meters above the sea, Mount Coolum offers the avid photographer a 360 degree view of the Sunshine coast. Look towards the beach at dawn and see the sun as it rises out of the ocean, highlighting everywhere from Noosa to Maroochydore, and then at dusk, walk about 100 metres off the main path, to see the sun setting over the hinterlands all the way to the Glasshouse Mountains.

Mount Coolum has no peak, and it is this headless shape that is the reason behind many of the Gubbi Gubbi people, Dreamtimes, myths and legends.

As well as the importance it has to the aborigines of this area it also has an important ecological role as well. Potassium-argon dating dates that the mountain that is a volcanic vault was created by volcanic activity between 25 and 26 million years ago. Mount Coolum is rich in flora and fauna. In fact, nowhere else in Australia is there such a diversity of plant life in such a confined area, and because of this, ecologically, Mount Coolum is one of the most important square kilometres in Australia. In fact two types of fern species that are common on Mount Coolum are found nowhere else.

Mount Coolum is beautiful at any time, but extra special just after rain, when natural waterfalls cascade down the cliffs, and during spring, when the colours of wildflowers paint the forest in their beauty.

With a circa of 1 square kilometre, it takes about 1 hour to walk to the peak and back through a national park. It is recommended to be undertaken by only experienced bush walkers, but many children, as long as they have adult supervision, can manage it as well, in fact many locals, include Mount Coolum into their weekly fitness program.

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195764 - 2023-06-16 04:12:25

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