cattle resting front glasshouse mountains sunshine coast queensland australia

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Cattle resting in front of Glasshouse Mountains, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Named by Lieutenant James Cook during his epic voyage along Australia's east coast, the Glass House Mountains are eleven intrusive plugs formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago.The range was formed as molten lava cooled to form hard rock in the cores of volcanoes between 26-27 million years ago. The source of the lava was from the East Australia hotspot. The cores of the mountains contain columns of comendite from lava which cools quickly into a hard rock. The surrounding softer rocks have been eroded in the subsequent time, forming the spectacular volcanic plugs that remain today. The peaks location relative to each other exhibits an alignment that is believed to have occurred due to fracturing.The Glass House Mountains are located in the traditional lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people. In the Aboriginal legend the mountains are members of a family with the father being Mount Tibrogargan and the mother Mount Beerwah. All of the other mountains are sons and daughters with the eldest being Mount Coonowrin.