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Mount Coot-tha
From as far back as the 1860s
this forested area of the Taylor Range has been a popular picnic and
scenic spot for Brisbanites and visitors. It was once known as One Tree
Hill because when the summit was cleared a single bluegum tree was left
conspicuously on the skyline. The reserve was gazetted 1880.
The present name comes from the Aboriginal word
kuta which was applied to a particular kind of dark honey once
plentiful in the area. The tiny native bees used to leave small
particles of dirt around the base of the tree and this was what
the Aboriginals looked for. They would carefully blow the leaves aside
to find these telltale signs and when they found them would climb the
tree with the help of a vine rope. They wiped the hollow limb out with
chewed bark and then soaked it in water to make a sweet, refreshing
drink.
There
is another story that the Acting Clerk of Parliament went to an
Aboriginal they called King Sandy to find out the Aboriginal name for
the hill. Angered at broken promises this man whose real name was
Gairballie gave him a rude word instead of the right word and so what
should have been
Gootcha, the honey bee, became Cootha.
Mount Cordeaux
Alan Cunningham named the
mountain on the northern side of Cunningham's Gap after William
Cordeaux who worked in the Commissariat Department in New South Wales
from his arrival in 1818 until he became one of the commissioners given
the job of dividing New South Wales into counties, hundreds and
parishes. He prospered through land grants and established his home on
his estate at
Leppington, near Liverpool, southwest of Sydney.
Mount Cotton
Surveyor Robert Dixon named the mountain after Major Cotton, Commandant of the Moreton Bay settlement, July 1837 to May 1839. Its Aboriginal name was Tungipin meaning the west wind.
Sydney
Cotton was an engineer in the British army who went on to become a
Lieutenant General and was knighted for his services during the Indian
Mutiny. His wife, Marianne, was the daughter of a British army officer.
He spent much of his military life in India and Burma, but had two
tours of duty in New South Wales, one in the 1820s and again in the
period between 1835 and 1842. He died 1874 at the age of 81. Constance
Petrie said that the old Moreton Bay hands regarded him as the colony's
best governor. Others referred to his gentlemanly manner and urbanity.
Sir John Lawrence called him a master of all technical details in every
arm of the service. He wrote books on army drill and on
India.
Mount Crosby
When John Oxley climbed this
hill, 22 September, 1824, with Lieutenant Butler, he called it Belle
Vue Hill. While Alan Cunningham, who was part of the exploration party
with them, used this name in his journal, he called it Station Mountain
on his map. It was close to their last campsite or 'station'. However
when settlers moved into the area they named it after
Crosbie-on-Eden on the English-Scottish border. Somehow the spelling
came to be changed. There is another theory that the name came from a
George Crosby who was prospecting in the area for a while.
Mount Dunsinane
Charles Fraser was the colonial
botanist who accompanied Cunningham and Logan on an expedition in 1828. He was
born near the towns of Dunsinane and Birnam in Scotland. He gave the
Dunsinane name to part of Mt Mahomet, but it was later given to the hill he
called Birnam Hill.
Mount Edwards
Alan Cunningham named it Mt Edward.
Mount Glorious
The early settlers referred to
the area as Gentle Breezes but it gained its permanent name when
T.C.Beirne as Minister for Lands was visiting the
Patricks' home there about the time of the First World War and
while discussing a suitable name for the place, the eldest daughter of
Charles and Alice Patrick said something like, 'It will have to be a
good name, with a view like this. Isn't it glorious!' And the
name was decided upon there and then.
Mount Gravatt
Kaggar-mabul (place of the
porcupine) may have been the Aboriginal name, but the whites called it
Mount
Gravatt. Lieutenant George Gravatt was in charge of the Moreton Bay
settlement for three months in 1839. This was the time of run-down for
the penal settlement. There were only 94 convicts there when he arrived
in May as a 23-year-old junior officer. He died at the age of 28 while
serving in India possibly through contracting cholera.
Mount Lindesay
There has been considerable
name swapping among the border mountains. In 1828, Logan, Cunningham
and Fraser gave the name of Lindsay to what later became Mt
Barney,
and they called the present Mt Lindesay, Mt Hooker, after the Regius
Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow. The name Lindesay
came from Patrick Lindesay, the officer commanding the 39th Regiment,
then serving in the colony of New South Wales. A military man and son
of a military officer, he was Acting Governor for six weeks or so
between governors Darling and Bourke in 1831. On returning to Britain,
1836, he was made a major general and became Sir Patrick Lindesay.
During his nine years in Australia he promoted the study of the flora
and fauna and encouraged exploration.
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