Mount Coot-tha is a mountain and a suburb of the

City of Brisbane The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of the metropolitan area of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. Unlike LGAs in the other main ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. In the , there were no residents in the suburb. Visible from much of the city, Mount Coot-tha is a popular bushland tourist destination including the Mount Coot-tha Lookout, Brisbane Botanic Gardens and Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, as well as a mountain drive, bike trails, parks including a waterfall, and television and radio towers.

Geography

The mountain Mount Coot-tha forms the eastern extent of the Taylor Range and is a prominent landmark approximately to the west of the

Brisbane central business district Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD" or "the city". It is located on a point on the northern bank of the ...

. Mount Coot-tha is the source of Ithaca Creek. The mountain has a number of named peaks in the suburb: * Constitution Hill () * Mount Coot-tha () * The Pinnacle (), * The Summit () Sir Samuel Griffith Scenic Drive is a loop road around the mountain, passing by (clockwise) Mount Coot-tha, Constitution Hill, and The Summit. It provides access to the Mount Coot-tha Lookout with its cafe and restaurant, the radio and television stations with their transmission towers at The Summit (originally located there to maximise transmission), picnic areas, and walking and cycling tracks. One of the walking tracks provides access to The Pinnacle. It is often claimed that Mount Coot-tha is the "highest point in Brisbane", but, as the elevations above show, the peak known as Mount Coot-tha is not even the highest peak of the mountain as a whole with both Constitution Hill and The Summit being higher. However, Mount Coot-tha has a lookout with unobscured views over much of Brisbane, while Constitution Hill and The Summit do not. Further to the west, there are even higher peaks within the City of Brisbane, such as: * Boombana Knob () * Mermaid Mountain () which are within the locality of Lake Manchester in the D'Aguilar National Park, but these are not accessible by road. For recreation and tourism purposes, Mount Coot-tha is the highest point in Brisbane which is easily accessed and has excellent views. The Brisbane Botanic Gardens are at the base of the mountain at 152 Mount Coot-tha Road (). A number of other faciliites are on that site including the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium (), the Mount Coot-tha branch of the

Brisbane City Council Brisbane City Council (BCC) is the democratic executive local government authority for the City of Brisbane, the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. The largest City Council in Australia by population and area, BCC's jurisdic ...

Library (), and Queensland Herbarium (). Between the botanic gardens and the mountain is the Mount Coot-tha Quarry at 200 Mount Coot-tha Road (). It is operated by the Brisbane City Council. The quarry extracts

metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, cau ...

for both

stonework Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, ...

and

aggregate Aggregate or aggregates may refer to: Computing and mathematics * collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...

. Due to the hardness of the rock, blasting can be required for extraction, but the hardness is beneficial as the building materials it creates are very durable. The quarry has provided the aggregates for over 96% of Brisbane's roads, producing approx of aggregate for

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

each year.

History

Before the

Moreton Bay penal settlement The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement operated from 1825 to 1842. It became the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. History The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement was established on the Redcliffe Peninsula on Moreton Bay in 1824, under the instruct ...

, Mount Coot-tha was the home of the Yugara

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

people.Mount Coot-tha Forest track map — (

) The

people came to the area to collect ''ku-ta'', the Yugarabul word for

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

that was produced by the native stingless bee. In 1839, surveyor James Warner and his team cleared the top of the mountain of all trees except one large

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', '' Allo ...

tree. Because this single tree could be seen from many other locations, it was used as a trigonometric station to take

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...

measurements. This led to the mountain being called ''One Tree Hill''. In 1873, the forests on the mountain were reserved declared a timber reserve to supply timber for Queensland's growing railway network. The name ''Coot-tha'' replaced the name ''One Tree Hill'' when the area was declared a park in August 1883. The name was suggested by Henry Wyatt Radford, the Clerk of the Queensland Legislative Council. In the mid 1890s, the Shire of Toowong (then the local government for the area) established a quarry on the side of the mountain. Following the 1925 amalgamation of local government areas that created the City of Brisbane, the ownership and operation of the quarry was acquired by the Brisbane City Council. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the mountain was used as a military base by the

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

and the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. It was converted to a vast explosives depot and at one stage held more than 120,000 tonnes of explosive weapons. When darkness fell, the lookout bristled with search lights in an amazing display as soldiers kept an eye out for enemy planes. Anti-aircraft guns and searchlights were located on the lookout. Mount Coot-tha was also the site of US Naval Ammunition Depot (Navy 134) supplying submarines at the

Capricorn Wharf Capricorn (pl. ''capricorni'' or ''capricorns'') may refer to: Places * Capricorn and Bunker Group, islands of the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia * Capricorn District Municipality, Limpopo province, South Africa Animals *Capricorn, an an ...

at New Farm ( Teneriffe) in Brisbane. In 1970,

established new botanic gardens at the base of the mountain with the intention of replacing the then Brisbane Botanic Gardens at

Gardens Point Gardens Point is a peninsula in central Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is located south of Alice Street and bounded by the Brisbane River on its other three sides. The Brisbane CBD lies immediately to the north of the point. Gardens Poi ...

in the Brisbane CBD, which was prone to flooding and lacked space for expansion. The new gardens were originally called the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens and were officially opened in 1976, becoming the Brisbane Botanic Gardens with the gardens in the CBD being renamed the City Botanic Gardens) .The new gardens cover . The Mount Coot-tha Library opened in 1975 at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Unlike most branches of the Brisbane City Libraries, this library specialises in botany, horticulture, gardening and landscape design. On 24 May 1978, Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium officially opened in the grounds of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Brisbane community television channel

31 Digital 31 may refer to: * 31 (number) Years * 31 BC * AD 31 * 1931 CE ('31) * 2031 CE ('31) Music * ''Thirty One'' (Jana Kramer album), 2015 * ''Thirty One'' (Jarryd James album), 2015 * "Thirty One", a song by Karma to Burn from the album ''Wild, ...

broadcast from the mountain from 1994 to 2017, after which it shifted to internet streaming under the new name of Hitchhike TV. On 20 November 2005, one of the Mount Coot-tha more difficult trails, the '' Currawong trail'', was renamed the ''Kokoda trail'' in honour of the Australian soldiers who marched the Kokoda Track in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

during

. In 2017, it was proposed to build Australia's longest

zip-line A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the b ...

from the summit of Mount Coot-tha down to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Despite initially being approved by the

, in April 2019 the new Mayor of Brisbane Adrian Schrinner decided to cancel the project due to public protests.

Heritage listings

Mount Coot-tha has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

sites, including: * Sir Samuel Griffith Drive: Mount Coot-tha Forest * Sir Samuel Griffith Drive: Mount Coot-tha Lookout

The Lookout

Mount Coot-tha is one of Brisbane's most popular tourist destinations and is a popular stop with bus tours. Of particular note is the Lookout, which includes the Kuta Cafe, Summit Restaurant, and Gift Shop. The lookout, restaurant and cafe allow for panoramic views of the City. A function centre adjoins the restaurant. Well-known British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore gave a night-time public lecture about the stars of the southern hemisphere at the lookout in 1988, in conjunction with Patrick Moore being a guest speaker at a dinner of the Southern Astronomical Society at Toowong in Queensland.

The Mount Coot-tha Reserve

The Mount Coot-tha Reserve contains more than 1,500 hectares of natural

bushland In Australia, bushland is a blanket term for land which supports remnant vegetation or land which is disturbed but still retains a predominance of the original floristics and structure. Human survival in bushland has a whole mythology evolvin ...

, including J C Slaughter Falls along Ithaca Creek, as well as native wildlife. Mount Coot-tha Reserve also shares a border with Brisbane Forest Park, which adds a further 25,000 hectares.

Television and radio towers

On a ridge near the summit on the other side of Mount Coot-tha, are the

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

transmission towers for the Brisbane television stations and their respective studios;

Ten Ten, TEN or 10 may refer to: * 10, an even natural number following 9 and preceding 11 * one of the years 10 BC, AD 10, 1910 and 2010 * October, the tenth month of the year Places * Mount Ten, in Vietnam * Tongren Fenghuang Airport (IATA code ...

( TVQ-10),

Nine 9 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 9 or nine may also refer to: Dates * AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era * 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era * 9, numerical symbol for the month of September Places * Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...

( QTQ-9), Seven ( BTQ-7). The transmission tower for ( ABC Brisbane) is located on the mountain, which also broadcasts television for multicultural station SBS and previously the community television station

Briz 31 Hitchhike TV (also known as HTV) is a news website. Originating as Brisbane community television channel Briz 31, the service became available on 28 February 2017 as the station's terrestrial broadcasting went offline but started serving news t ...

. Most of the FM Brisbane radio stations also transmit from Mount Coot-tha. Part of the Brisbane suburb of The Gap is located on the foothills beneath the television towers.

Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens

The Brisbane Botanic Gardens has a range of attractions featuring plants from different landscapes, including a tropical hothouse, a Japanese garden, an arid zone (plants from Central America and Africa), and a Pacific Island zone. The major exhibit is the display of native Australian plants (with emphasis on Queensland plants), featuring an artificial lagoon.

Library

Mount Coot-tha has a public library on Mt Coot-tha Road in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens operated by the

. Unlike most public libraries in Brisbane which have general collections, this library holds a specialist collection about

botany Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "bot ...

and

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

and related topics reflecting its locations within the botanic garden and the

Brisbane Planetarium The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium is located on the grounds of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in the suburb of Mount Coot-tha, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Planetarium was officially opened on 24 May 1978. The Planetarium is named af ...

also on the site.

Walking tracks

There are several popular walking tracks around Mount Coot-tha, one of which includes an art display comprising works produced by local

artists. The tracks vary in difficulty, with most involving some uphill sections or steps. Tracks around Mount Coot-tha are often used by hikers training to walk the Kokoda Track in

as the terrain and climate are considered similar.

Mountain bike trails

The Western side of Mount Coot-tha Forest or Gap Creek Reserve as it is known to the locals is a haven for Brisbane mountain bike riders. The establishment of a world class mountain bike trail network by the Brisbane City Council has created a diverse range of recreational experiences for off-road cyclists. The mountain bike trails at Mount Coot-tha have been assigned a grading under the International Mountain Bicycling Association, Trail Difficulty Rating System. The multi-use trails in Mount Coot-tha provide the least degree of technical challenge to mountain bike riders, however many of them are steep and loose. Riders are advised to pay special attention when riding over the erosion control banks (water bars) which have been the downfall of many a novice rider. The trail ratings provide a guide to the relative difficulty of each trail. The multi-use tracks are used by horses, pedestrians and mountain bikers. Each year

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a ...

events are held in the area.

Transport

Mount Coot-tha can be reached by Brisbane Transport Bus 471 ( Translink). Between 2014 and 2016 the

ran a CitySights Bus that included Mount Coot-tha. A short taxi ride from Toowong is also possible as well as Uber and such. Parking is limited at the lookout.

Controversies

The Mount Coot-tha Quarry is the subject of ongoing complaints by nearby residents claiming that it is a "massive scar on the landscape" and that they have been adversely affected by dust, noise, vibration, and damage arising from the blasting, claiming that blasts last up to 30 seconds. The Brisbane City Council counters the complaints by pointing out that the quarry has been in place for so long that any residents should have been aware of the quarry prior to moving to the area, that blasting is conducted at most twice a month with each blast lasting for less than 0.6 seconds, that blasts are conducted using blast minimisation techniques, and that blasts are within the guidelines established by the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...

(which the government has confirmed). Residents can be advised of upcoming blasts by subscribing to an email list. Residents assert that the conditions under which the quarry operates would not be approved if it was being proposed today, but the principle of "existing industrial use" allows industrial activities to continue if they were acceptable at the time of their original establishment/approval.

References

External links

* *
Mount Coot-tha

Mountain Bike Trails Info

Mt. Coot-tha
(Government website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mount Coot-Tha, Queensland Coot-tha Tourist attractions in Brisbane Suburbs of the City of Brisbane Queensland in World War II