Mount Tibrogargan

Mount Tibrogargan is one of the many mountains in the Glass House Mountains National Park, north-northwest of Brisbane, Australia. It is a volcanic plug of hard alkali rhyolite that squeezed up into the vents of an ancient volcano 27 million years ago.

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Tibrogargan is one of the most easily recognised mountains in South East Queensland, bearing some resemblance to a gorilla or old man hunched over. However, in 2004 parts of the rock face that resembles the eyes eroded and subsequently crumbled off. The name Tibrogargan comes from the Undanbi words chibur flying squirrel and kaiyathin biting.

In the mythology of the region, Tibrogargan was the father of all the other Glass House Mountains except Beerwah, his wife. It was said that Tibrogargan saw a rising of the waters from the sea, and called to his son Coonowrin to take his mother Beerwah to a safe place; however, Coonowrin (a.k.a. Crookneck) failed to do so, and in anger Tibrogargan clubbed Coonowrin and broke his neck. Tibrogargan is said to have turned his back to face Coonowrin.

Tibrogargan is the second steepest of the Glass House Mountains after Mount Coonowrin, and is also quite high for the region at 364 metres (although still almost 200 m shorter than Beerwah, the tallest of the group), so it is a popular destination for bushwalkers, rockclimbers and tourists. The latter group is regularly victims of their own inexperience and poor planning and are the subject of rescues by the State Emergency Service and rescue helicopters.

Public access to the tallest and second tallest Glasshouse mountains reopened at the end of 2015 after being closed from 2009- 2015 and 1999 respectively which makes Tibrogargan the tallest Glasshouse mountain legally accessible to the public. Tibrogargan is a challenging hike with rock scrambles approaching climbs. The path is well worn and visible on the SW shoulder but the views from the summit are restricted due to vegetation in comparison to the other nearby rocky peaks.

There are other less demanding walking trails in the immediate surroundings of Tibrogargan, including the Tibrogargan Circuit (3.3 km) and the Trachyte Circuit (5.6 km). All trails leave from the carpark at the base of Tibrogargan, including the summit climb.