[3][4] Visible from much of the city, Mount Coot-tha is a popular bushland tourist destination including the Mount Coot-tha Lookout, Brisbane Botanic Gardens and Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, as well as a mountain drive, bike trails, parks including a waterfall, and television and radio towers.

[6] The mountain Mount Coot-tha forms the eastern extent of the Taylor Range and is a prominent landmark approximately six kilometres (4 mi) to the west of the Brisbane central business district.

Further to the west, there are even higher peaks within the City of Brisbane, such as: which are within the locality of Lake Manchester in the D'Aguilar National Park, but these are not accessible by road.

[7] For recreation and tourism purposes, Mount Coot-tha is the highest point in Brisbane which is easily accessed and has excellent views.

[25] The Aboriginal people came to the area to collect ku-ta, the Yugarabul word for honey that was produced by the native stingless bee.

[29] The name was suggested by Henry Wyatt Radford, the Clerk of the Queensland Legislative Council,[3] on the advice of local Aboriginal foreman Kerwalli.

[31][32] Archibald Meston (Protector of Aborigines, 1898–1903) wrote in 1923 that Gootcha is a more accurate transcription, and that Coot-tha is a separate word translating to an obscenity; supposedly a joke played on Radford by Kerwalli.

When darkness fell, the lookout bristled with search lights in an amazing display as soldiers kept an eye out for enemy planes.

[34] Mount Coot-tha was also the site of US Naval Ammunition Depot (Navy 134) supplying submarines at the Capricorn Wharf at New Farm (Teneriffe) in Brisbane.

[40] Brisbane community television channel 31 Digital broadcast from the mountain from 1994 to 2017, after which it shifted to internet streaming under the new name of Hitchhike TV.

[42] In 2017, it was proposed to build Australia's longest flying fox from the summit of Mount Coot-tha down to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.

[48][49] The Mount Coot-tha Reserve contains more than 1,500 hectares of natural bushland, including J C Slaughter Falls along Ithaca Creek, as well as native wildlife.

[52] There are several popular walking tracks around Mount Coot-tha, one of which includes an art display comprising works produced by local Aboriginal artists.

The Western side of Mount Coot-tha Forest or Gap Creek Reserve as it is known to the locals is a haven for Brisbane mountain bike riders.

The establishment of a world class mountain bike trail network by the Brisbane City Council has created a diverse range of recreational experiences for off-road cyclists.

The multi-use trails in Mount Coot-tha provide the least degree of technical challenge to mountain bike riders, however many of them are steep and loose.