When English explorer Captain James Cook sailed up the Queensland coast in 1770, he noticed these mountain peaks inland that reminded him of the glass furnaces called glasshouses in his native Yorkshire, and duly christened them the Glass House Mountains.
The mountains are the stuff of Aboriginal legend, telling of how they came to be as a father punished his son of cowardice in the face of a raging storm, and was forever shamed by this family event.
Today these mountains stand at the southern end of the Sunshine Coast, reached from Bruce Highway through Steve Irwin Way, named in honor of the popular Crocodile Hunter, whose Australia Zoo is in the nearby town of Beerwah.
Drive to the Glass House Mountains National Park to view the "glasshouses" created by volcanic activity millions of years ago, and don't forget to visit Australia Zoo as well.
Photo: Mount Coonowrin, one of the Glass House Mountains © Tourism Queensland