Mount Gibraltar ( Aboriginal: ''Bowrell'') is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...

with an elevation of that is located in the Southern Highlands region, between

Bowral Bowral () is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, about ninety minutes southwest of Sydney. It is the main business and entertainment precinct of the Wingecarribee Shire and Highlands. Bowral once served ...

and

Mittagong Mittagong () is a town located in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire. The town acts as the gateway to the Southern Highlands when coming from Sydney. Mittagong is situated at an elevation of . The town ...

, in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Further west is .

Location and features

The mountain is locally known as 'The Gib', and is in the form of a

ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

, rather than an obvious conical

peak Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-di ...

. The western extremity of the ridge is commonly pointed out as the mountain itself. 'The Gib' is primarily a residential area with a large nature reserve at its peak. The first European to climb the mountain, in 1798, was explorer John Wilson. He learned from local Aborigines the name 'Bowrell', which meant 'a high place'. Surveyor

Sir Thomas Mitchell Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor General of New Sou ...

also climbed Mount Gibraltar. * 'The Gib' is thought to have been formed from a collapsed

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

core, which pushed through the local

Hawkesbury Sandstone Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, one variety of which is historically known as Yellowblock, and also as "yellow gold" a sedimentary rock named after the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where this ...

beds about 150 million years ago. * The western slopes were previously the site of a granite

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

which mined the volcanic

trachyte Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava enriched with silica and al ...

; the quarry closed in 1986. The site can be reached by a walking track beginning near Bowral Swimming Pool. * The peak is 863 metres above sea-level. * It is part of the range forming the watershed between the Wingecarribee/Wollondilly and Nattai rivers. The range to the north of Mt Gibraltar was formerly called the Merrigong Range and the range to the south-east, the Mittagong Range. * The peak area includes the Mount Gibraltar Reserve. * The Reserve was acquired by Alderman Joshua Stokes, in 1919. A large stone construction, bearing a memorial plaque to Stokes, is a feature of the Reserve. * The Reserve vegetation is a rare remnant of a volcanic soil community. A prominent tree species is ''

Eucalyptus fastigata ''Eucalyptus fastigata'', commonly known as brown barrel or cut-tail, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree that is endemic to southeastern Australia. It has fibrous or stringy bark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth bark above, lance- ...

'' (Brown Barrel). * The Reserve has been the subject of a Landcare Bush Regeneration Program since 1994, with the aim of eliminating introduced species such as

Privet A privet is a flowering plant in the genus ''Ligustrum''. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs, sometimes forming small or medium-sized trees, native species, native to Europe, north Africa, Asia, many in ...

Barberry ''Berberis'' (), commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from tall, found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world (apart from Australia). Species diversity is greatest in South America a ...

Ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

Honeysuckle Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae, native to northern latitudes in North America and Eurasia. Approximately 180 species of honeysuckle have been identified in both conti ...

, Banana Passionfruit, Inkweed and others. * The Landcare group has also compiled a complete Site Species List. * 'The Gib' has three lookout points over Bowral and Mittagong. * On a clear day 'The Gib' can be seen from

Echo Point ''Echo Point'' is an Australian television soap opera produced by Endemol Australia, Southern Star Group for Network Ten on 1 June 1995 until 1 December 1995. The series was devised as an attempt by the Ten Network to rival the opposition soap ...

in Katoomba which is approximately 70–80 km away, although many people confuse it with the nearby, conical Mount Jellore. * On a clear day you can make out the Sydney skyline. * The exposed, rocky area of the peak is the site of several

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

and broadcasting towers, including

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...

microwave transmission Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300MHz to 300GHz(1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signals are normally limi ...

links. * The residential area of Mount Gibraltar includes some of the most highly priced real estate in the Southern Highlands. The former Mount Gibraltar Trachyte Quarries Complex was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 2 December 2013.

Railway

The Main South Railway skirts Mount Gibraltar at its western foothills, passing through a tunnel under Evans Street,

.Bayley, W. A. 1975. ''Picton-Mittagong Main Line Railway.'' Bulli: Austrail. p.39. The original tunnel was single track, but it was replaced in the 1920s by a

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...

tunnel.

Gallery

File:Mount Gibraltar West View.jpg, File:Gibraltar Inner Bowl2.jpg, File:Trees Inner Bowl Gibraltar.jpg, File:Mount Gibraltar Radio Towers.jpg, File:Mount Gibraltar Peak.jpg, File:Mount Gibraltar Stokes.jpg, File:Mount Gibraltar Trachyte Quarries Complex.jpg,

References

External links

Geology of area
{{New South Wales mountains , state=autocollapse

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

Bowral Mittagong, New South Wales