Mount Maroon is a mountain in
South East Queensland
South East Queensland (SEQ) is a Bioregion, bio-geographical, Megalopolis, metropolitan and Statistics, statistical Regions of Queensland, region of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of ...
that is part of the
McPherson Range
The McPherson Range is an extensive mountain range, a spur of the Great Dividing Range, heading in an easterly direction from near Wallangarra, Queensland, Wallangarra to the Pacific Ocean coastline. It forms part of the Scenic Rim on the border ...
. The mountain rises to above sea level about 12 km west of
Rathdowney
Rathdowney or Rathdowny () is a small town in southwest County Laois, Ireland. It lies some 32 km southwest of Portlaoise in the Irish Midlands, at the point where the R433 regional road from Abbeyleix to Templemore is crossed by the R ...
.
The original indigenous name for the mountain is Wahlmoorum which means sand goanna in the Yuggera language.
Another aboriginal name documented for the mountain is Dahl-moor-uhn, which means "big fellow waterhole bunyip" attributed to two small yet deep lagoons, on the summit of the mountain. The earliest photograph of the lagoons are from 1910. The current name for the mountain comes from the first grazing property in the area called Maroon.
Mount Maroon consists mainly of
rhyolite
Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture (geology), texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained matri ...
and has its geological origins in cooling molten rock beneath the surface.
The mountain was first gazetted in 1938 as Mount Maroon National Park.
In 1950,
Mount Barney National Park
Mount Barney National Park is a national park in Queensland (Australia), 90 km southwest of Brisbane. It amalgamated the adjacent Mount Lindesay National Park in 1980. It is part of the Scenic Rim Important Bird Area, identified as such by ...
was extended to include Mount Maroon and nearby
Mount May.
The mountain contains areas of montane
heath
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
vegetation, rocky pavement and
mallee ash shrublands.
[Mount Barney National Park: Visitor Information rochure Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. 2001. Environmental Protection Agency.]
Three
rock climber
Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in guidebooks, and ...
s had to be rescued from the mountain in 2002.
In early 2008 a bull mastiff named Diff made headlines when it slipped over a ledge and had to be rescued via
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
.
The dog, which was not permitted to be in the national park, led rescuers (by its barking) to two men who were stranded on a steep cliff ledge while trying to rescue the dog.
See also
*
List of mountains in Australia
This is a list of mountains in Australia.
Highest points by state and territory
List of mountains in Australia by topographic prominence
This is a list of the top 50 mountains in Australia ranked by topographic prominence. Most of these ...
References
Maroon
Maroon ( , ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word , meaning chestnut. ''Marron'' is also one of the French translations for "brown".
Terms describing interchangeable shades, with overlapping RGB ranges, inc ...
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