Mount Bellenden Ker

Mount Bellenden Ker is the second-highest mountain in Queensland, Australia, with a height of 1,593 metres (5,226 ft). It is named after the botanist John Bellenden Ker Gawler. Located 60 km (37 mi) south of Cairns near Babinda, it is adjacent to Mount Bartle Frere, the state’s highest peak, part of the Bellenden Ker Range which is also known as the Wooroonooran Range. The two mountains dominate the Josephine Falls section of the Wooroonooran National Park.[1] Both peaks are made of resistant granite and are remnants of an escarpment that has been eroded by the Russell and Mulgrave Rivers.

Several television transmitter towers have been built on the mountain. The only access to the television transmitter site and the mountain top weather station is by a privately owned cable car.[2]

In 1873, Walter Hill, Queensland’s first Colonial botanist, undertook an expedition to northern Queensland to collect native plants and included a trip to Mount Bellenden Ker. In the same year Robert Arthur Johnstone climbed the peak while exploring the coastal lands south of Cooktown with George Elphinstone Dalrymple.[3] Another expedition to the summit, led by Archibald Meston (1851-1924), was conducted in early February to early March 1889.