Mount Beerwah Summit Track

Easy

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A 2.6km trail up the tallest of the Glass House Mountains (556m), starting easy before becoming a steep scramble to the summit; reopened in 2016 after a rock-collapse closure.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

2.64 km

Est. time

40 min

Elevation gain

41 m

Route type

Out & back

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Glass House Mountains National Park, Glass House Mountains, Sunshine Coast hinterland, QLD. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Tracks & plans

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Species to look for on this trail

Ancient trees and rare flora confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Pink Bloodwood

Corymbia intermedia

Mid-altitude forest eucalypt, D'Aguilar Range▾

Mid-altitude forest eucalypt, D'Aguilar Range

A medium-to-tall tree (20-30m) with rough, tessellated bark and profuse perfumed white flowers. Wikipedia's D'Aguilar National Park article lists it among the mid-altitude forest species, growing alongside grey gum and brush box where rainfall is higher than the drier foothill woodlands below.

How to spot it

Rough, tessellated (checkerboard-patterned) bark running right up the trunk and branches, unlike the smooth, shedding bark of the grey gum it often grows beside. Lance-shaped adult leaves and flower buds in clusters of seven; fruit are urn- or barrel-shaped, without winged seeds.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia: D'Aguilar National Park; Wikipedia: Corymbia intermedia

Photo: Mark Marathon (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Glasshouse Mountains Tea-tree

Aggreflorum luehmannii

Rare, Restricted Endemic▾

Rare, Restricted Endemic

Endemic to the Glass House Mountains (also recorded in the Numinbah Valley), this rare tea-tree is restricted to the peaks and exposed rock faces, with only small isolated populations known.

How to spot it

Smooth reddish-brown bark peeling in long strips, glossy elliptical leaves 15-40mm, small white flowers January-February, capsule fruit shed soon after seed release.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Glass House Mountains National Park / Aggreflorum (Leptospermum) luehmannii

Mount Beerwah Mallee

Eucalyptus kabiana

Endangered - Two Sites Only▾

Endangered - Two Sites Only

Named after the Kabi Kabi people, this mallee grows in heath on the steep trachyte slopes of Mount Beerwah and Mount Coolum and nowhere else on Earth, with a fragmented population of roughly 2,000 plants threatened by fire.

How to spot it

Mallee shrub to 5m (occasionally a small tree to 10m), smooth white-to-grey bark, lance-shaped or curved leaves 60-150mm, white flowers in groups of 7-11 buds, hemispherical fruit with protruding valves.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Eucalyptus kabiana

Swamp Stringybark

Eucalyptus conglomerata

Endangered▾

Endangered

Endemic to the Sunshine Coast between Beerwah and Kin Kin, this straggly stringybark grows in damp sandy soil near creeks and swamps at Glass House Mountains National Park, threatened by land clearing and drainage works.

How to spot it

Straggly tree or mallee 8-12m with fibrous stringybark, lance-shaped leaves 70-137mm, white flowers in clusters of 11+ buds, small woody capsule fruit, grows at heath edges near water.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia - Eucalyptus conglomerata

Photo: Ian Brooker and David Kleinig (CC BY 3.0 AU) via Wikimedia Commons

Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Wallum Sedge Frog

Litoria olongburensis

Vulnerable (IUCN & EPBC Act)▾

Vulnerable (IUCN & EPBC Act)

A small frog endemic to the acidic wallum wetlands of coastal south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales, with wild populations estimated at 10,000-50,000 and declining from habitat loss, weeds and chytrid fungus. Glass House Mountains National Park protects a population in the isolated Blue Gum Creek wallum habitat.

How to spot it

Small brown-to-dark-green frog, told apart from similar reed frogs by a sharp, pointed snout. Call is a distinctive high-pitched 'creeeek... crik'. Found among sedges and heath fringing acidic, tea-coloured wallum swamps rather than open water.

Family Pelodryadidae · Source: Wikipedia - Wallum sedge frog; Wikipedia - Glass House Mountains National Park

Save Straddie, CC BY 3.0 AU