Mount Bellenden Ker

Josephine Falls of the Russell River

The Mount Bellenden Ker is with a height of 1593 m the second highest mountain in Queensland, Australia. It is named after the botanist John Bellenden Ker Gawler. The mountain is located 60 km south of Cairns at Babinda. It is located adjacent to Mount Bartle Frere, the highest mountain in Queensland, which is as much a part of the Bellenden Ker Range, which is also called Wooroonooran Range. The two mountains dominate the field of Josephine Falls in Wooroonooran National Park. Both mountains are made of durable granite and are relics of a rock wall eroded by the influence of Russell and Mulgrave River.

Access

On the Mount Bellenden Kerr are several TV towers. The only access to the TV towers and to the top is by this privately owned cable car.

History

In 1873, Walter Hill, the first botanist to the colonial government of Queensland began an expedition to the north of Queensland, to collect plants and to make a trip to Mount Bellenden Ker. In the same year Robert Arthur Johnstone climbed to the summit, as he explored the coastline south of Cooktown with George Dalrymple. Another summit expedition led Archibald Meston (1851-1924) by the spring of 1889.

Environment

Precipitation

Measurements on the summit of the mountain show an average annual rainfall of 8312 mm, which makes the local meteorological station for rainiest Australia. They measured the highest rainfall record in the calendar year 2000 12,461 mm and the highest Australian value of a calendar month, with 5387 mm in January 1979.

2006 coincided with an annual rainfall of 9800 mm more precipitation than in all other regions of Australia. This mainly resulted from two massive tropical cyclones that close on the mountain moved over. In 2010, the precipitation busiest year since the introduction of rain measurements in Queensland, reported the Meteorological Station, which is located on the hilltop of annual rainfall of 12.438 mm - slightly below the 2000 measurement.

Avifauna

The Mount Bellenden Ker is in the field of Wooroonooran Important Bird Area, which was declared by Birdlife International as protected areas because there are endemic bird populations of Queensland 's Wet Tropics.