The Bunya Mountains are a distinctive set of peaks forming an isolated section of the
Great Dividing Range in southern
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
, establishe ...
. The
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
forms the northern edge of the
Darling Downs
The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was general ...
in the locality also called
Bunya Mountains
The Bunya Mountains are a distinctive set of peaks forming an isolated section of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland. The mountain range forms the northern edge of the Darling Downs in the locality also called Bunya Mountains ne ...
near
Bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...
and
Dalby. The mountains are south of
Kingaroy
Kingaroy is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the junction of the D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highways, north-west of the state capital Brisbane and south west of Gympie. As a ...
and just to the south west of
Nanango
Nanango is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Nanango had a population of 3,599 people.
Geography
Nanango is situated north-west of the state capital, Brisbane, at the junc ...
. The range is the remains of a
shield volcano which was built from
numerous
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
flows about 23-24 million years ago.
In 2009 as part of the
Q150 celebrations, the Bunya Mountains was announced as one of the
Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "Natural attraction".
Landforms
The range rises to an average elevation of 975 m; however the two tallest mountains on the range,
Mount Kiangarow and
Mount Mowbullan, rise to over 1,100 m.
Slopes facing the north east are part of the
Burnett River
The Burnett River is a river located in the Wide Bay–Burnett and Central Queensland regions of Queensland, Australia.
Course and features
The Burnett River rises in the Burnett Range, part of the Great Dividing Range, close to Mount Gaeta a ...
catchment, those on the south east make up part of the
Brisbane River catchment, while those facing the south west belong to the
Condamine River
The Condamine River, part of the Balonne River, Balonne catchment that is part of the Murray-Darling Basin, drains the northern portion of the Darling Downs, an area of sub-coastal southern Queensland, Australia. The river is approximately 500 k ...
catchment and ultimately the Murray-Darling
River
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...
system.
Vegetation
![StateLibQld 1 252681 Loggers at their camp in the Bunya Mountains, 1912](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/StateLibQld_1_252681_Loggers_at_their_camp_in_the_Bunya_Mountains%2C_1912.jpg)
The mountains are covered with ancient conifer rainforest that co-exists with a number of other unique natural features - 'balds' which are open
grasslands including some that contain rare
grass
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...
species,
vine, and sclerophyll forests.
Parts of the forest were once logged for various timbers including
red cedar,
bunya pine
''Araucaria bidwillii'', commonly known as the bunya pine and sometimes referred to as the false monkey puzzle tree, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the plant family Araucariaceae. It is found naturally in south-east Queensland Aust ...
and
hoop pine
''Araucaria cunninghamii'' is a species of '' Araucaria'' known as hoop pine. Other less commonly used names include colonial pine, Queensland pine, Dorrigo pine, Moreton Bay pine and Richmond River pine. The scientific name honours the botanist ...
. However, most of the peaks are completely uncleared and covered in
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
as the range was too steep for early
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...
clearers. The mountains are home to the largest natural
Bunya pine
''Araucaria bidwillii'', commonly known as the bunya pine and sometimes referred to as the false monkey puzzle tree, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the plant family Araucariaceae. It is found naturally in south-east Queensland Aust ...
forest in the world.
Indigenous significance
The Bunya Mountains and neighbouring areas were the focus of major gatherings of Indigenous Australians from
South East
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
and
Central Queensland
Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Capricorn Coas ...
to north east New South Wales. The gatherings occurred during the seasons when the bountiful nuts of the bunya pine ripened, from December through to March, and especially during 'bumper crops' which appeared to occur about every three or four years. These were evidently the largest and widest-attended Indigenous gatherings in Australia.
[Markwell Consulting, 2010. Bonye Buru Booburrgan Ngmmunge - Bunya Mountains Aboriginal Aspirations and Caring for Country Plan (Plan).] Climbers would use a strong vine around their waist and the tree, which can be up to 1.5 m in width and up to 50 m tall, to reach the nuts.
Members of the guest tribes were not allowed to climb or collect nuts from the tree.
Apart from feasting on bunya nuts, participants engaged in a variety of intertribal activities: games and sports, ceremony, trade, knowledge exchange, the arrangement of marriages and the settling of disputes. 1902 was the final known gathering on the range.
Indigenous groups such as the
Wakka Wakka
Wakka Wakka, or Waka Waka, people are an Aboriginal Australian community of the state of Queensland.
Name
"''Wakka''" was assigned the meaning "no" by Western linguists who documented the Wakawaka language. Ethnonyms based on the duplication o ...
,
Githabul,
Kabi Kabi
The Gubbi Gubbi people also known as Kabi Kabi are an Aboriginal Australian people native to south-eastern Queensland. They are now classified as one of several Murri language groups in Queensland.
Naming
As is often the case, ethnonyms dis ...
, Jarowair, Gooreng Gooreng, Butchella,
Quandamooka
The Quandamooka people are Aboriginal Australians who live around Moreton Bay in Southeastern Queensland. They are composed of three distinct tribes, the Nunukul, the Goenpul and the Ngugi, and they live primarily on Moreton and North Stradbr ...
, Barrangum, Yiman and Willi Willi traditional owners have continued cultural and spiritual connections to the Bunya Mountains to this day, a number of strategies including the use of
traditional ecological knowledge
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) describes indigenous and other traditional knowledge of local resources. As a field of study in Northern American anthropology, TEK refers to "a cumulative body of knowledge, belief, and practice, evolving by ...
have been incorporated into the current management practices of the national park and conservation reserves with the Bunya Murri Ranger project currently operating in the mountains.
[Queensland Government, 2012. Bunya Mountains National Park Management Statement 2012 (Management Plan). Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing.]
Tourism
Much of the area is protected as the
Bunya Mountains National Park
Bunya Mountains is a national park in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia.
Geography
The park includes much of the mountain range called the Bunya Mountains. The park are encompasses the most westerly area of subtropical rainforest ...
, the state's second oldest National Park, being established in 1908.
There are many
picnic spots,
walking track
A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...
s, lookouts and a few
camping
Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more na ...
grounds on the range, as well as a variety of cottage and group accommodation facilities for families, friends, and school camp groups. Along the walking tracks, which lead to lookouts that offer views of the surrounding countryside, flora such as ferns and
staghorns, as well as the unique Bunya Pine, can be seen. Waterfalls add to the scenic beauty.
In the small patches of cleared land that are used by tourists, colourful birds such as
Australian king parrot
The Australian king parrot (''Alisterus scapularis'') is a species of parrot endemic to eastern Australia ranging from Cooktown in Queensland to Port Campbell in Victoria. Found in humid and heavily forested upland regions of the eastern portion ...
s and
rosella
Rosellas are in a genus that consists of six species and nineteen subspecies.
These colourful parrots from Australia are in the genus ''Platycercus''.
''Platycercus'' means "broad-tailed" or "flat-tailed", reflecting a feature common to the ...
s can be seen. Fauna such as
wallabies
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...
,
scrub turkeys,
koalas
The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...
,
echidna
Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae . The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only living mammals that lay eggs and the ...
s and
possums
Possum may refer to:
Animals
* Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi
** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban a ...
may be seen. The unique
Bunya pine
''Araucaria bidwillii'', commonly known as the bunya pine and sometimes referred to as the false monkey puzzle tree, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the plant family Araucariaceae. It is found naturally in south-east Queensland Aust ...
is known for its Bunya nuts which were a favoured food of local
Australian Aboriginals
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isla ...
.
Climate
The mountains have a highland subtropical climate that is significantly cooler and wetter than the surrounding plains. Heavy winter frosts and even light snow occasionally occur on the highest peaks, while in summer, the mountains experience frequent heavy storms which contributes to the lush
rainforest.
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 ...
*
List of volcanoes in Australia
This is a list of active, dormant and extinct volcanoes in Australia and its island territories. Note that the term volcano is used loosely as it can include groups of related volcanoes and vents that erupted at similar times with lava of r ...
References
External links
*{{Commons category-inline
Volcanoes of Queensland
Tourist attractions in Queensland
Darling Downs
Wide Bay–Burnett
Great Dividing Range
Shield volcanoes of Australia