By Denis Bright
Less than forty kilometres upstream from the Currumbin Estuary on the Southern Gold Coast, visitors can be treated to the delights of the Mount Cougal National Park. Welcome to a world of tall forests, waterfalls and cascades. Torrents of cold clear water sweep down from the coastal ranges near the border with NSW. All this challenges the conventional tourist mosaic of the Gold Coast.
Compared with hikes into the wider Springbrook National Park, this Mount Cougal Section is quite compact. The twin peaks of Mount Cougal straddle the Upper Currumbin Creek on both sides of the catchment.
Elevations adjacent to the twin peaks approach 700 metres.
No forest location is without its hazards to the unwary. Rock-sliding down the cascades near the car park entrance should always be avoided.
Casual visitors are still able to enjoy the ambiance of this location and can walk along the creek from the end of the paved walking track to the Mount Cougal Cascades. This is about three kilometres beyond the paved walking track to the partly restored heritage saw-mill site.
The forest and creek are best after rain which sweeps away accumulated flood debris which might contain some hazards of the forest.
This also makes walking through the shallow creek channel so much easier as the water is crystal clear.
There are numerous reviews of this locality online from bush-walking groups.
Sites along the creek can be placed in a better context preparatory reading from Rocks and Landscapes of the Gold Coast Hinterland.
This outstanding monograph was prepared by a team from the Queensland Division of the Geological Society of Australia under the direction of Warwick Willmott. This publication invites readers to take an interest in the natural history of the Gold Coast hinterland in the genre of specialist writers who want to share their knowledge with a wide public audience.
One of the many maps and sketches has been added to share some of this technical enthusiasm for natural history.
Lavas from the Tweed Volcano were extruded 23-24 million years ago to conceal the older rock surfaces in the Gold Coast Hinterland.
The Currumbin Valley has since cut into these lava flows to reveal cliffs of rhyolite and tuff which make the hike to the twin peaks very challenging.
Along the creek itself the minor and major cascades represent other stages of the dark lava flows.
Invite an indigenous elder and a field geologist on your outing if your party needs more precise identification of the rock formations and their significance.
The Yugambeh people lived in Mt Cougal and Springbrook’s valleys for at least 6,000 years. It was a meeting place for indigenous people from as far afield as Maryborough. Tribal feasts were held at Bora rings and middens.
The partly restored remains of a saw-mill near the paved walking track from the car-park are a reminder of the human impact from logging operations in the vicinity of Currumbin Creek. Bush tracks were once traversed by heavy vehicles.
With contemporary commitment to improved sustainability in Australian lifestyles, it is important to weigh up the environmental impact of an outing to the bush versus an outing to a theme park or attendance at a movie matinee with treats of take-away foods.
Earlier generations had fewer choices about their consumer options. My father Colin Bright (deceased in 1989) did some casual work on banana plantations in the Currumbin Valley during the jobless era of the 1930s. He also joined the Currumbin Surf Life-saving Club.
The Depression years were not a time for vast choices. At a distance of forty kilometres on bush roads, a day out to the Upper Currumbin Valley would have been quite an adventure.
So if tomorrow’s choice of activities is a visit to the Mount Cougal National Park, value your right of passage on the sealed roads back to your natural history.
