The party was headed by Allan Cunningham and Patrick Logan while searching for a route to the Darling Downs from the newly established Moreton Bay penal colony.

[5] The McPherson Range was the location of the 1937 Airlines of Australia Stinson crash, which went missing on a flight between Brisbane and Sydney in 1937.

Bernard O'Reilly, a local farmer, trekked through thick forests and rugged terrain to discover the wreck and two emaciated, badly injured survivors, nine days after the crash.

[6] The sub-tropical rainforest on the range has never been damaged by severe bushfires (until the fires of 2019)and contains more than 20 species of rock and tree orchids.

[8] The rainforests contain important populations of the endangered rufous scrub-bird, and the vulnerable Albert's lyrebird, both of which are confined to south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales.