Mount Cougal, Springbrook National Park - August 2002

Mt Cougal West Peak

Mt Cougal, that came out of the blue, hey? Yes I’ve decided to post about a short walk I did back up the South East Queensland back in the days when I had hair. Mt Cougal isn’t walk that immediately springs to mind when thinking of a walk in this part of Australia, but with only an afternoon up our sleeves to do a walk this one fitted the bill. We were on our way home from a trip up north to Hinchinbrook Island and while Sam and Belinda were out enjoying all Surfers Paradises’ earthly delights (shopping), Dave and I headed out of town to climb a mountain.

And Feral walkers!

Pulling up at the small car park on Grade of Eden Road we climbed a fence, past a sign warning us to beware of the Feral Children, then started to climb steeply up the maintenance track for the Queensland - New South Wales border fence on the Queensland side of the border. After an initial steep climb the track eased off a little following a ridge line and we got some good views over some cleared land. The views didn’t last long though and we were soon back in dense rainforest following the border fence as it curved around to the north.

There was one fairly easy scramble to get to the eastern peak.

Looking back to the high rise buildings of Surfers Paradise from Mt Cougal East Peak.

After a little bit of up and down the border fence ended at what looked like a fairly serious obstacle, ahead of us was a reasonably sized rock bluff. We were using a set on Tyrone Thomas’ notes on this stroll and he mentioned a track to the right that heads up a breach in the cliff line and sure enough after a bit of easy scrambling we’d made it up the crux of this walk. A few minutes later and we were on top of My Cougal East Peak. Now, I remember walking around the small summit, pushing through the grass trees to get the best views and thinking that it looked like the nearby Mt Cougal West Peak would almost be doable but with our notes only mentioning the eastern most peak we gave the western peak a miss. In the many years since I did this walk I’ve learnt a little more about the walk over to Mt Cougal West Peak, there is indeed a rough pad that drops steeply into a saddle of east peak and then climbs very steeply up Mt Cougal West Peak. Apparently this requires a bit of decent scrambling so it’s one that I’m looking forward to checking out one day when I’m in the area. After taking in the views towards Surfers Paradise and I’m thinking, Mt Barney(?) Dave and I retraced our steps back down to the Troopie.

I'm thinking this is Mt Barney.

The Dirt.
We walked around 7 kilometres on this medium grade walk. The scrambling to get to Mt Cougal East Peak is pretty easy, but I believe the scrambling required to get to Mt Cougal West Peak is a lot harder and more exposed, I’ll let you know definitely one day! Dave and I were using some walking notes out of Tyrone Thomas’ old 50 Walks Coffs Harbour Gold Coast Hinterland book, the book is long ago out of print. Mr and Mrs Daly have also written this up in their Queensland book and they have included Mt Cougal West Peak in their notes. This walk is predominantly a rainforest hill climb, although with a bit of scrambling and a few views it makes for an interesting stroll.

Relevant Posts.
Mount Barney Circuit, Mount Barney National Park, 2014.
Mount Cordeaux & Bare Rock, Main Range National Park, 2008.
Coomera Circuit, Lamington National Park, 2016.

Mt Cougal West Peak, I'll have to get back here one day.