Mt Tibberoowuccum… a Glass House Mountain less travelled

I decided at the beginning of the year that this year I was going to climb all of the Glass House Mountains and today we climbed the third (though it is officially my fifth – just not this year).

I was a little excited about this one… the actual trail was a bit of a mystery, so I had to do some research.

When we were at the top of Mt Tibrogargan and the fog finally lifted, we could see this little rock knob jutting out of the shrubbery to the west, and I wondered which of the Glass House Mountains this was, and how we would go about getting ourselves on to the little rockface that we were looking at.

It is not signed, and generally there is not much information about it either… not even which of Tibrogargen’s family it was according to Aboriginal myth… which made me even more curious…

So I printed out a few notes and off we went.

I am not generally directionally challenged… but turns out we set off in totally the wrong the direction. I suspect if we had kept going, we would have eventually wound up on the top of Mt Tibberoowuccum – or possibly enroute to Morayfield… I am sure eventually someone would have come upon us…

The reason for my error was that I had so many notes I wasn’t sure which one was actually the right one… and they all had similarities, but were in fact quite different. Cherrybabe to the rescue – he deciphered my notes and came to the conclusion that we were not at all where we were meant to be, so we headed back to ground zero.

Take two.

Now these are the proper directions, and if you follow them… you should be good… assuming that I am better at writing them than following them.

Drive to Mt Tibrogargan on Barrs Road, not far from the township of Glass House Mountains.
Proceed onwards to the second carpark, which is about 800m past the Mt Tibrogargan carpark. It is signed as the Trachyte Walking Circuit carpark.
Once there, don’t follow any of the signs! That was my undoing.
Walk back out to Barrs Road from the carpark – it is about 20 meters… [repeat] walk out onto the road – don’t be tempted to take the track that veers off – it may lead there eventually, but that is not the ‘official’* path (*my ‘official’ path).
Turn left once at Barrs Road and walk up the road about 50 metres.
To your left you will see a 4WD track. I think it is a fire track. It has a little sign that says ‘T 212’. It is also just past where Barrs Road turns into Marshs Road (it is signposted).
Walk up the 4WD track for about 500 metres veering towards the right when you get to the junction of another 4WD track. It is worth mentioning, that it really is a 4WD – don’t take the family wagon thinking that you will get there faster… you won’t… while there were a few 4WDs out and about, they were seriously rigged up.
At this point keep a lookout for a path leading up the mountain to your left. It is actually marked by a little pile of rocks on both sides of the track, but don’t rely on them just in case.
From here you can’t go wrong. Well, at least that is the hope. It is a very scant trail that leads up to the summit, and is somewhat overgrown, but there is also a little marker rock pile at the top of the accent that indicates where you then turn another left up the trail, which is particularly handy on your return trip.

We actually got to a point where we thought we were at the top, but due to the density of the shrubbery, you couldn’t actually see the summit. I am a pretty stubborn individual, and I felt certain that this can’t be it… I clearly remembered the peak to be quite rocky and jutting out above the shrubbery and felt there should be at least a little bit of a climb in order. I was right.

So, Mt Tibberoowuccum is 220 meters high. Certainly not the highest by any stretch, but on a height by sight ratio I would give it a 10:1 because the views are AMAZING!

It is not a tough climb, more of a scramble, and the pay off is incredible. It will take about 25 minutes to get to the summit – less if you don’t waste time taking photos, absorbing the scenery and wandering off in the wrong direction…

I loved being able to look over to Mt Tibrogargan and see the trail leading up the mount, knowing that I had scaled that same rockface myself, only a few months prior. But the views don’t stop there as you pretty much have a 360° view of the Sunshine Coast. Moreton Bay and Island in the distance, and other Glass House Mountains scattering the surrounding landscape.

Just beautiful! The summit itself is made up of large shale type boulders, tinted an iridescent yellow through the lichen that seems to attach itself to all of the flat surfaces. Dozens of Xanthorrhoeas perched on the cliff edges made it particularly picturesque. Oh, and there were hundreds of butterflies *little squeal*… and March flies *expletives*…

What I LOVED the most, is there was not a person in sight… absolute peace and quite… well, bar the noise we were making… I was never blessed with any stealth-like qualities. Having said that… I hope that doesn’t change anytime soon… so maybe read this post and then forget I ever mentioned it…

Walking down is easy. I had read about a few other paths, and at some stage, I will go on another exploratory climb, but we just went back down the same way we came up… We had already been lost once… no need to tempt fate.

Mt Tibberoowuccum was well worth the climb. While I will emphasis the same caution as with any of the other walks – bring water, good footwear, hat, sunscreen and be careful – it is definitely not an extremely difficult walk / climb, but it can be dangerous if the weather is not suited to the day.

I loved knowing that I was climbing one of the lesser climbed of the Glass House Mountains. Others may find not having a proper path to follow an obstacle, for us, it was a preference.