Mount Cordeaux Summit 1135m (Main Range National Park, Queensland's Scenic Rim)

            On 25 August 1828 Allan Cunningham was the first European to find and explore Cunninghams Gap. He named the guardian peaks of Cunninghams Gap as Mount Mitchell (after Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor-General) and Mount Cordeaux (after William Cordeaux, Mitchell's assistant).

Cunningham's discovery seemed to solve the problem of finding a shorter route between Moreton Bay Colony and the newly discovered Darling Downs. However, the route proposed by Cunningham proved too steep to negotiate easily, with drays and their contents having to be lowered by ropes over a cliff.

An alternative route was found in 1847, when stockman Henry Alphen was credited with discovering an easier route through a gap, 7 km to the south. It is thought that Aboriginal people used this gap in the range as a trade route between the east and west. Cunningham had noted the gap 20 years earlier but had not suggested its use for transport.

Alan Cunningham named Spicers Gap and peak after Peter Spicer, Superintendent of convicts, because he identified the peak while looking for escaped convicts from the Moreton Bay penal settlement.

Spicers Gap became the first safe and trafficable route between the port at Brisbane Town (then known) and the Darling Downs. Bullock teams would pull drays laden with wool to port and return with supplies for the Darling Downs settlers. Early road construction techniques can be seen along the old road in Spicers Gap Conservation Park. An inn used by travellers flourished for a short time opposite the present-day Spicers Gap camping area.

It took from the late 1850s to the mid 1860s to build a major road through Spicers Gap. By 1871, use of the road declined as the railway then linked Warwick to Moreton Bay via Toowoomba. A more direct route across the range was constructed at Cunninghams Gap and was opened in 1927 and later sealed in the 1940s. Today, it is a major interstate highway with more than a million vehicles passing through each year.

The extensive forests of the Great Dividing Range were recognised as an important timber source. By the early 1900s, most of the area's red cedar had been felled and harvested. Timber-getters then turned to hoop pine, carabeen, pigeonberry, tulip oak and purple laurel. Ranges around Killarney, Emu Creek, Swan Creek, Cunninghams Gap, Goomburra and Mount Mistake were heavily logged throughout the 1900s.

As a result of representation by local people, Cunninghams Gap was reserved as a national park on 3 July 1909. Walking tracks were built in the park from the late 1930s to the late 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s, a number of other national parks were reserved along the Main Range. In August 1980, the parks were amalgamated to form Main Range National Park.

Source: Queensland Government.

Taken on: January 1, 2020

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Sets appears in: • Darling Downs (Warwick, Stanthorpe, Main Range, Girraween)

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Camera: Nikon D5600, f/13.0, 1/60 sec, 13mm (=19mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D5600
Lens:	TAMRON SP AF 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical IF B001N
Aperture:	f/13.0
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	13mm (35mm equivalent: 19mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	+2/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 9.2.1 (Windows)
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