Our Time in the Atherton Tablelands, Queensland


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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Atherton Tablelands
July 24th 2017
Saved: December 21st 2018
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Real Aussie tucker which we shared for lunch
Whilst we were staying in Speewah we went off to sightsee around the area. Don't forget to double click on the photos for enlargement

Wednesday 5th July 2017

Today we did the Wheelbarrow Way (137kms) from Mareeba to Chillagoe. This tourist route is so named to commemorate the workers who used wheelbarrows to transport their possessions in the late 1800’s. This was not unique to the area but definitely a common practice.

Dimbulah

In the 1950s a massive irrigation system allowed for more crop growing and the farmers experimented with rice only to find that the birds flocked to the paddy fields and couldn’t be controlled. Sugar cane followed and also fruit and vegetables. The irrigation area ran from Mareeba to Dimbalah where it stops.

The town was established in 1876 to service the Tyrconnell Gold Mine, one of the richest mines on the Hodgkinson Gold Fields. The name "Dimbulah" is thought to have come from the local Indigenous Australian word for "long waterhole", referring to the Walsh River that runs nearby the town. The area around Dimbulah was originally home to the Djankun and Kuku Djungan tribe. During the 1920s the Queensland government forcibly removed
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You have to love the humour
most of their children, forcing the tribe to scatter.

In the early 1900s the area received an influx of Italian migrants and in 1928 tobacco was introduced, becoming the area's major industry soon after. At its peak, there were 800 growers in the area, producing over 8,000 tonnes (60%!o(MISSING)f national yield) of tobacco a year. 'The Way Back In' is an Australian heritage project that documents a small selection of Australian heritage within the Italian communities in Dimbulah, Innisfail and Cairns.

Tobacco remained the dominant crop until recent years when government policy compelled its demise. Recent attempts at alternative crops such as tea trees, mangoes, sugar cane, coffee, lemons, limes, avocados, papaws, papayas, peanuts, soya beans, lychees, grapes and cash crops (pumpkins, melons, etc.) have met with mixed success. Farming is a significant employment option in Dimbulah and many travellers, including backpackers, are employed as short-term farm labourers, particularly during the busy mango harvest from November to January

Savannahlander

The service was introduced on 3 April 1995 by Queensland Rail but is now run under contract by a private operator, Cairns Kuranda Steam Pty Ltd. While primarily a passenger service between Cairns and Forsayth, the train can be chartered for large groups.

Running for 42 weeks in the year, The Savannahlander departs Cairns Central railway station at 06:30 Wednesday mornings and travels up the scenic Kuranda Range. It then travels to the south-west on the Chillagoe-Mungana branch line. The train travels through the towns of Mareeba and Dimbulah before arriving in Almaden where it stays for the night. On Thursday morning The Savannahlander continues south-west on the Etheridge Railway. The rail motors pass through Mount Surprise and Einasleigh before terminating at Forsayth. On Friday the train departs Forsayth for Mount Surprise. The train then departs for Cairns on Saturday morning.

Chillagoe

Had lunch at the Post Office Hotel

It was once a thriving mining town for a range of minerals, but is now reduced to a small zinc mine and some marble quarries. In the 2011 census, Chillagoe had a population of 192 people.

Just out of town is the Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park containing limestone caves. There are between 600 and 1,000 caves in the Chillagoe-Mungana area. The caves, the spectacular karst landscape and the mining and smelting history are the main tourist attractions to the region.

It
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Walkway to the Falls
has been stated by leading geologist Professor Ian Plimer that the Chillagoe region has the most diverse geology in the world.

Chillagoe is a word from an old sea shanty “ikey, cryke, psyke, mikey, Chillagoe, wallabodorie” and was the name given to William Atherton’s cattle station in the 1870’s. John Moffat sent the first prospecting party into the area in 1887 and with Atherton’s help found copper in the area.

Moffat was the magnate of the Herberton Mt Garnet tin fields, and from the start tried to develop the area as a whole. Out of 34 of the original leases pegged around Chillagoe, Moffat’s company held 26 and he employed 70 miners on developmental work on deposits around Chillagoe, Redcap, and Mungana. Transport was a problem, but by 1891 a smelter had been erected at Muldiva to treat the silver-lead ores and another at Calcifer in 1894 for the copper ores. In 1896 the Muldiva smelter was moved to Girofla.

Only the rich ores could be treated effectively without the necessary beneficiation. A central smelter was needed to treat lower grade ores. The Chillagoe Railways and Mines Co. Ltd was formed and in 1897 began construction on a railway from Mareeba to Chillagoe and Mungana. In 1901 the line was completed and a large copper smelting plant was opened by the company at Chillagoe. In 1903 the lead smelter was blown in.

From then until 1914 was the most prosperous period for the district. Much of the capital backing the companies was German and frozen when war broke out in 1914. This closed the smelters, though the Cardross smelter continued while Wolfram Camp and Bamford boomed, supplying tungsten ore. In 1918, the Queensland Government bought the smelters and the 1920’s saw the small miner from all districts to Cloncurry battling a corrupt government enterprise when hand-picked rich ores brought low assays. This resulted in the Royal Commission of 1930 into the key political figures involved. The smelters continued to struggle on until closure in 1943 and were sold for removal in 1950. Today, this geologically spectacular area is producing marble. Red Dome near Mungana was reopened as a gold mine by Elders then New Guinea Mining from 1986 to 1999. The marble from the area was used in the new parliament house in Canberra after first being shipped to Italy and resupplied as Italian marble thanks
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Curtain Fig
to Italian laws stating that once touched in Italy marble becomes Italian!!!!!

Friday 7th July 2017

A very touristy day today. Once the fog lifted we went to Gallo Dairy for coffee and to try some of their cheeses. It was nice to see that this working farm let people watch cheese making and also the cows being milked – a nice touch for the townies to witness. Needless to say we country types didn’t need to bother; we did however buy some rather lovely smoked cheese.

From here we went to see the heritage listed curtain fig tree near Yungaburra. It is one of the largest trees in Tropical North Queensland, Australia, and one of the best known attractions on the Atherton Tableland. It is located just out of Yungaburra. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 December 2009.

The Curtain Fig Tree, estimated to be about 500 years old, is of the strangler fig species Ficus virens. Normally these figs germinate on top of another tree and try to grow roots into the ground. Once this important step is accomplished, the fig will grow vigorously, finally kill the hosting tree and
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Nerada Tea Plantation where we spotted a tree kangaroo
then grow on independently. In this case, the hosting tree tilted towards the next one at a 45 degree angle; the fig also grows around that one. Although these figs kill their hosts, they are an epiphyte which basically feeds from the ground, unlike a parasitic plant which feeds from the sap of the host plant/tree.

The Curtain Fig Tree is approximately 50m high with a trunk circumference of 39m. The canopy extends in a radius of approximately 30m from the trunk of the tree. Extensive aerial roots, which are now thick and interwoven, drop 15m to the forest floor, forming a curtain oriented north-west to south-east over approximately 7m. The host tree has since rotted away and the fig is now a free-standing tree.

From here we visited Narada tea plantation where we saw our first Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) a heavy-bodied tree-kangaroo found in rain forests of the Atherton Tablelands, local authorities classify it as rare. It is named after the Norwegian explorer Carl Sofus Lumholtz (1851–1922), who discovered the first specimen in 1883.

Saturday 8th July 2017

We went exploring along the Clohesey 4 x 4 track near Speewah. We found the Clohesey Cathedral Fig Tree and an orange footed scrubfowl’s huge nest. There were 14 river crossings in total and we met up with runners/walkers doing the “3 marathons in 3days” race over a total of 126.6kms at 3 different venues around Cairns. The was also Rogaining event in the rainforest (long distance cross country navigation, this event was either 4 hour or 8 hour event).. Because of these two events the private track further up the mountain was open so we took advantage of this and had a great drive.

Sunday 9th July 2017

A big trip out today up north to CapeTribulation.

Our first stop up the coast was to Mossman to go to Woolies as coffee was on special!

Sugar cane farming is an important aspect of the local economy, with Mossman Central Mill, the only sugar mill in the district, processing the cane before sending it to Cairns for shipping domestically and internationally.

The district was originally known as Mossman River after the river which flows through it. The Mossman River, in turn, was named by the explorer George Dalrymple on 6 December 1873 after Hugh Mosman who discovered gold in Charters Towers. Dalrymple wrote "I named this river the Mossman River, after Mossman, an explorer and mining man, member of a very prominent mining family". The town was also known for a brief time as Hartsville after Daniel Hart, an early settler. Later the name was simplified to Mossman.

The establishment and subsequent growth of Cairns and the completion of the Cairns Railway up through the Barron Gorge in 1891, gave a more direct gateway to the hinterland but, at this period, it was found that the Mossman district contained suitable land for sugar-growing. The establishment of the sugar mill at Mossman formed the nucleus of the town, which grew at the expense of Port Douglas.

The district was served by two separate 2-foot (610 mm) gauge tramway systems. Both at one time handled passengers and general goods, as well as sugar cane. Mossman district owes its present prosperity to these tramways which pioneered the first reasonable transport in the neighbourhood, for trafficable roads followed later.

During World War II, Mossman was attacked in a Japanese air raid on 31 July 1942. A single flying boat dropped a bomb fell near a house and injured a child.

Mossman
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Henry Ross Lookout
Central Mill Company Limited started life as a grower owned co-operative sugar mill back in 1894. In 1897, Mrs Annie Rose fed the first sugarcane into the mill, with the mill producing its first sugar after crushing 27,905 tonnes of cane for the initial season.

In 1906, Mossman Mill became the first Queensland mill to crush over 100,000 tonnes of cane. That season lasted just under 8 months, extending from June 1906 to late January 1907.

Initially, sugar was shipped from Port Douglas, however road transport eventually came to the forefront and became the preferred mode of transport for sugar to the bulk sugar terminal in Cairns.

L.J.F. Prince (General Manager) pioneered the use of computers for cane payment accounting and, in 1971, Mossman purchased the first process control computer used in the world sugar industry.

The road from Ellis Beach to Craiglie is right next to the Coral Sea and makes for a beautiful drive, which rivals the Great Ocean Drive in Victoria.

PORT DOUGLAS permanent population was 3,205 at the time of the 2011 census. The town's population can often double, however, with the influx of tourists during the peak tourism season May–September.
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Another view from the lookout
The town is named in honour of former Premier of Queensland, John Douglas. Port Douglas developed quickly based on the mining industry. Other parts of the area were established with timber cutting occurring in the area surrounding the Daintree River and with settlement starting to occur on lots around the Mossman River by 1880.

Previous names for the town included Terrigal, Island Point, Port Owen and Salisbury. The town is situated adjacent to two World Heritage areas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.

Port Douglas was No. 3 on Australian Traveller magazine's list of 100 Best Towns in Australia.

The town was extremely busy when we got there and we were not impressed as far too touristy, albeit n upmarket destination. We did go up past some very fine houses to Flagstaff Lookout.

The Port Douglas township was established in 1877 after the discovery of gold at Hodgkinson River by James Venture Mulligan. It grew quickly, and at its peak Port Douglas had a population of 12,000 and 27 hotels. With the construction of the Mulligan Highway it serviced towns as far away as Herberton.

When the Kuranda Railway from Cairns to Kuranda was completed in 1891, the importance of Port Douglas dwindled along with its population. A cyclone in 1911 which demolished all but two buildings in the town also had a significant impact. At its nadir in 1960 the town, by then little more than a fishing village, had a population of 100.

In the late-1980s, tourism boomed in the region after investor Christopher Skase financed the construction of the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort.

The Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort is a seaside resort hotel on Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas, Far North Queensland, Australia. Developed by businessman Christopher Skase at a reported cost of $100 million, it was officially opened in October 1987, and has been said to have transformed Port Douglas "from a sleepy far-north Queensland seaside town into a sophisticated tropical playground for the rich and famous."

Guests known to have stayed at the resort include former President of the United States Bill Clinton and his wife, former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Hollywood stars Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and John Travolta, opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, supermodel Claudia Schiffer, and rock singer Mick Jagger and his ex-wife,
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This ferry costs $27 return for us and the car
model Jerry Hall.

In 2004, the resort began a major refurbishment program, and in 2011 it was purchased by Melbourne property developer David Marriner and Chinese investor the Fullshare Group for $35 million. In 2013, Marriner sold his shareholding to the Fullshare Group, therefore it is now owned by the Chines

The Daintree Rainforest (strictly a tropical seasonal forest), is a region located north of Mossman and Cairns. At around 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi), the Daintree is the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent. Along the coastline north of the Daintree River, tropical forest grows right down to the edge of the sea.

The rainforest is named after Richard Daintree, an Australian geologist and photographer (1832-1878).

The Daintree Rainforest contains 30% of the frog, reptile and marsupial species in Australia, and 90% of Australia's bat and butterfly species. 7% of bird species in the country can be found in this area. There are also over 12,000 species of insects in the rainforest. All of this diversity is contained within an area that takes up 0.1% of the landmass of Australia. Part of the forest is protected by the Daintree National Park and drained by the Daintree River. The roads north of the river wind through areas of lush forest, and have been designed to minimize impacts on this ancient ecosystem.

The tropical rainforest ecosystem of the Daintree Rainforest is one of the most complex on Earth. Its plant diversity and structural complexity is unrivalled on the Australian continent and represents the origins of its more familiar ‘Australian’ flora.

Millions of years ago the Australian continent was warm and humid and rainfall was plentiful. During this time rainforest thrived in places such as the Ayers Rock region. As Australia became more arid, there were fewer and fewer places rainforests were able to survive. In the Daintree region, however the climate and topography were ideal, so the area became a last remaining refuge for rainforest. Within this refuge many species were able to live comfortably without reason to change. Their descendants that are still living today retained many of their ancestors' primitive characteristics, some dating back 110 million years.

One species in particular, Idiospermum australiense, commonly known as the idiot fruit, is one of the rarest and most primitive of the flowering plants. Its discovery in 1970 was arguably Australia’s most significant botanical find, greatly increasing scientists’ awareness of just how ancient these forests really are.

From a total of 19 primitive flowering plant families on Earth, 12 families are represented in the Daintree region making the highest concentration of these plants worldwide. These ancient plant families may well hold the secret to a number of unanswered questions regarding the origins of the flowering plants – plants on which the human race depends for food and medicines.

There is outstanding coastal scenery that combines tropical rainforest, white sandy beaches and fringing reefs just offshore. This is an extremely rare combination.

To the west of Cape Tribulation stands Mt Pieter Botte with its massive granite outcrops. The summit providing expansive vistas of undisturbed forest and to the south the skyline is dominated by the giant granite boulders of Thornton Peak – one of Queensland’s highest mountains. Cape Tribulation was named by British navigator Lieutenant James Cook on 10 June 1770 after his ship scraped a reef north east of the cape, whilst passing over it, at 6pm. Cook steered away from the coast into deeper water but at 10.30pm the ship ran aground, on what is now
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The beach of cairns
named Endeavour Reef. The ship stuck fast and was badly damaged, desperate measures being needed to prevent it foundering until it was refloated the next day. Cook recorded "...the north point Cape Tribulation because "here begun all our troubles".

In the 1930s some European settlers started arriving in Cape Tribulation, but they found the rainforest environment an extremely challenging one within which to establish a settlement. Various ventures such as fruit and vegetable farming, fishing, cattle, and timber cutting were started and abandoned over the years, and having weekly barges as the only transport in and out was another limitation. In the 1960s a rough track was bulldozed and the first vehicle access created, although the road remained a four-wheel drive track until the early 1990s. In 2002, the road was finally sealed all the way to Cape Tribulation and in early 2011 the last bridge was built creating year round all weather access to Cape Tribulation for the first time.

On our drive home we saw a sea eagle sitting on its nest atop of a power pole.

The Daintree River Ferry is a cable ferry across the Daintree River in Queensland, Australia. The ferry is situated some 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Port Douglas, and gives access to the northern section of the Daintree National Park and to Cape Tribulation. The ferry provides the only sealed road access to this area.

The ferry carries a maximum of 40 vehicles, and takes about 5 minutes to cross the river. It operates from 6am until midnight, seven days a week, with limited hours on Christmas Day. The ferry is operated by a commercial contractor on behalf of the Douglas Shire Council. A toll is charged for the crossing, $26.- return for a car in 2017 but this toll keeps rising every year, despite over $4 million in profits in the bank in the local council's Ferry Fund.

The construction of a bridge has been discussed, but has been rejected by Queensland State Government who have designated this ferry as a traffic limiter in the FNQ Regional Plan, together with the denial of electricity supply this is one of the tactics the government uses in their conspiracy to keep the Daintree community economically struggling to discourage settlement and progress. The ferry was replaced in 2006, replacing the previous ferry which carried a maximum of 16 vehicles. This has substantially reduced any delays in making the crossing.

During World War II the teahouse was used by the Australian Army as a convalescent home.

Palm Cove Sunday 16th July 2017

Palm Cove is a beach community named after the palm trees that line the beach. At the 2006 census, Palm Cove had a population of 1,215.

Shortly before World War I in 1918, the land that is today Palm Cove was bought by Albert Veivers from Archdeacon Campbell. Archdeacon Campbell had been known as a priest at Cairns church who experimented with bringing different agricultural crops to the Cairns region. Veivers was important in the advancement of Palm Cove by having the first road built. The creation of the road led property values in Palm Cove to increase dramatically, leading to more prosperity for the community. Shortly after World War II, in which Palm Cove was used as a training base in the use of landing craft for Australian soldiers by American military, the number of people traveling to Palm Cove greatly increased. The opening of the Ramada Reef Resort in 1986 marked the first international hotel chain to be located in Palm Cove and the town has continued to increase in national and international recognition ever since.

We were both impressed by this really pretty beach town quieter that Port Douglas and not so touristy.

Arlington Reef is the closest section of The Great Barrier Reef to Palm Cove being around 30 km offshore. The reef shelters the inshore waters from the Coral Sea swells creating relatively calm waters between the reef and the beach. To the west of Palm Cove is the Macalister Range National Park which is part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area.

Since Palm Cove is located in a tropical climate, the average summer temperature is between 24C and 33C; average winter temperature is between 14Cand 26C.

The major industry for Palm Cove is tourism due to its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. Palm Cove is the location of many world-renowned resorts and hotels such as the Drift Resort, Alamanda, the Mantra Amphora Resort, Peppers Beach Club, and the Reef House.

The pristine beaches and Palm tree lined paths are used by joggers, walkers and cyclists and netted life guard patrol swimming enclosures offer safe access to the sea all year round. The Palm cove jetty is one of the region’s most popular fishing spots where anglers regularly catch species such as mackerel, Giant Trevally and shark.

Tuesday 18th July 2017

Today we went exploring by driving first to Mareeba and then took the road towards Mossman, turning off at Mount Malloy.

Mount Molloy is a historic mining and timber town. At the 2011 census, the town and surrounding area had a population of 273.

At its height Mount Molloy was a copper mine in the 1890s. It was commonly used as camping grounds and Chinese market gardeners used to grow grain and other foodstuffs for the miners nearby.

A private railway was constructed to Mount Molloy, junctioning from the Cairns to Mareeba line at Biboohra, opening in August 1908. It was built by Mount Molloy Limited to serve its smelters.

Mount Molloy was named after Patrick Molloy, an early teamster for a stock route and the person who discovered copper at what was to become Mount Molloy.

Today the dominant industry of Mount Molloy is now cattle grazing and consists of a few shops and an old hotel.

The main road took us down towards Mossman but we wanted the4x4 track to Kuranda which we eventually found at Julatten. We asked directions near the school a were shown a Bowerbirds display.

Julatten is renowned amongst bird-watchers worldwide and in particular for Mt Lewis National Park where all 13 Wet Tropics endemic bird species can be found. Taking Mt Molloy township as a central point, there are just over 300 bird species including all 13 Wet Tropics endemics have been recorded within a 15km radius of the town. No other region in Australia can boast this, not even Kakadu.

The Black Mountain track to Kuranda was a stunning drive through rainforest through the Black Mountain and Kuranda National Parks. We saw our third Cassowarie and a strange black dog, obviously a wild dog, but who knows after looking up the area on the internet I found some scary stuff about the area we had so enjoyed driving through :

Consisting of granite jumbles of black rocks this mountain is inhabited by frogs, wallabies, gigantic pythons and a strange beast that goes by the name of the Queensland Tiger. Many walk into this collection of large black
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Taken from the road to Yundaara
rocks, but very few ever walk out.

A ravine located near the Black Mountain was the site of a massacre of Aboriginal people by European settlers, maybe the ghost of the murdered Aborigines haunts it, taking revenge on the white man for his atrocities upon them. Many unexplained and mysterious disappearances have been attributed to these black mountains. Both humans and cattle have wandered into the vicinity of the black mountains and disappeared without a trace never to return. The first record of a mysterious disappearance was In 1877. A carrier, along with his horse, was out searching for some bullocks that had strayed into the boulders. He, his bullocks and his horse were never seen again. Thirteen years later, Constable Ryan, stationed at Cooktown, tracked a wanted criminal to the scrub at the edge of the mountains. He ventured into one of the caves and along with the criminal both disappeared.

A Prospector named Renn went in - never came out.

Harry Owens, a local station owner of Oakey Creek rode over towards black Mountain early one morning looking for stray cattle. When he did not return his partner went looking for him, first informing the
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Starting from the bottom at Smithfield
local native Police Sergeant. Both men failed to return and the police set out to comb the mountain in an attempt to find them. Two of the native police entered one of the caves, one of them came out and was so unnerved by his experience that he could not give a clear account of what had actually happened to him. In 1932 a packer by the name of Harry Page disappeared and was found dead after a search by a black tracker. Two young men set out to solve the mystery behind the disappearances; they also were never seen again. Black trackers went in after them but even they succumbed to the great black mountains. All disappeared without a trace. All disappearances were thoroughly investigated by local police who combed the mountain in search of the missing persons. No bodies or even evidence that they were ever there has ever been found. The general thought is that they fell into one of the many deep cervices amongst the boulders, or became disorientated and got lost in the maze of caverns beneath. One man, however, did go in and come out. Being an experienced bushman he entered the caves armed with a loaded revolver and an electric torch.

His chilling story follows. I stepped into the opening, like other Black Mountain caves it dipped steeply downwards, narrowing as it went. Suddenly I found myself facing a solid wall of rock, but to the right there was a passageway just large enough for me to enter in a stooping position. I moved along it carefully for several yards. The floor was fairly level, the walls of very smooth granite. The passage twisted and turned this way and tat, always sloping deeper into the earth. Presently I began to feel uneasy. A huge bat beat its wings against me as it passed, however I forced myself on, to push further. Soon my nostrils were filled with a sickly musty stench. Then my torch went out. I was in total darkness. From somewhere, that seemed the bowels of the earth I could hear a faint moaning which was then followed by the flapping of wings of thousands of bats. I began to panic as I groped and floundered back the way I thought I had come. My arms and legs were bleeding from bumps with unseen rocks. My outstretched hands clawed at
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bird's eye view of the Kuranda Range road
space, I expected solid walls and floors, but could not find it. At one stage where I had wandered into a side passage, I came to the brink of what was undoubtedly a precipice-judging by the echoes. The air was foul and I felt increasing dizziness. Terrifying thoughts were racing through my mind about giant rock-pythons I have seen around this mountain. As I crawled along, getting weaker and loosing hope of ever coming out alive, I saw a tiny streak of light. It gave me super strength to worm my way towards a small cave mouth half a mile from the one I had entered. Reaching the open air I gulped in lung fulls of it and fell down exhausted. I later found that I had been underground for five hours, most of the time on my hands and knees. A Kings ransom would not induce me to enter those caves again. Another strange thing about the black mountains is that a creature is said to be lurking within. Described as being cat-like it has been spotted clambering over the boulders on quite a few occasions. Now dubbed the Queensland Tiger this beast is attributed to the cattle mauling and disappearances within the vicinity.

We were obviously very lucky!!!!!

Wednesday 19th July 2017, Crater Lakes National Park

A much gentler day today with no scary stuff

Lake Barrine is a freshwater lake close to Lake Eacham. Lake Barrine was formed over 17,000 years ago when a large volcano erupted, leaving a crater that over time filled up with rain water to create a lake. The crater or maar was formed as a result of a series of volcanic explosions. These explosions were caused by the hot molten rock coming into contact with groundwater. This caused a build-up of steam, gases and pressure which blasted the central core from the volcano. This massive explosion left a huge crater, which filled with rainwater to create Lake Barrine. The largest of the natural volcanic lakes in the area, Lake Barrine is 730 m above sea level. It is about 1 km in diameter, with a shoreline of almost 4.5 km and an average depth of 65 m. No streams or springs feed the crystal clear lake; it is filled only by rainwater. The surrounding rainforest contains giant kauri (Agathis microstachya), red cedar (Toona ciliata) and flowering umbrella trees (Schefflera actinophylla). Wildlife common in the area include eastern water dragons, giant eels, saw-shelled turtles, scrub pythons (Morelia kinghorni), pied cormorants, black ducks, plumed whistling ducks, black coot, whistling kites, brahminy kites, black kites, white-breasted sea eagles and dusky moorhens.

The best known botanical feature of Lake Barrine is the twin Rough Barked Kauri Pines. These giant forest emergents are estimated to be about 1,000 years old and are considered one of the earliest known species of rainforest tree. Towering above the rainforest canopy, they have achieved a height of 50 metres and 2.2 metres in trunk diameter.

The Bull Kauri species is the largest of all the Kauri’s on record and it is a pine even though it does not have a needle leaf. ‘Kauri Pine’ is the common name derived from the Maori name of the related New Zealand Kauri species (Agathis Australis).

We also saw more Brush Turkeys and found out some facts we didn’t know :

The Turkeys are one of the family of Megapodes (large footed), and a mound building bird. They scratch up a mound of leaves and lay their eggs amongst them allowing the heat from the composting vegetation
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They had to climb a ladder to get up here to change out a roller
to hatch the eggs. The male turkey has a sensitive temperature sensor in his beak with which he tests the temperature of the mound daily and adjusts the depth accordingly to achieve a temperature of 33 degrees Celsius. The chicks are orphans right from when they dig themselves out of the mound. They can run as soon as they leave the nest and within a few days their feathers dry out and flight is possible.

We had lunch at the 80 year old Teahouse overlooking the lake on a perfect day.

Lake Eacham

Back in 1886, Lake Eacham was included within original survey plans subdividing the whole of the Lake Eacham area into farming blocks. By 1888, however, the scenic value of the lake was recognised, and both the lake plus a narrow band of 'shoreline' rainforest were formally proclaimed "scenic reserve". For almost 50 years (1888–1936) the Lake was managed, used and enjoyed as a scenic reserve, with, at times, boats and boating; a guest house; speed boats; and watersking. In 1934, the Queensland Government declared the lake and immediate surrounds be protected and managed as a National Park.

Lake Eachamis isolated from any other watercourse (making it an enclosed catchment). How any fish arrived there to begin with is a mystery, but somehow, the Lake Eacham rainbowfish found its way into the volcanic lake. Unfortunately for the small species, other larger fish were introduced into this closed system and eventually, these larger fish ate the Lake Eacham rainbowfish into extinction - at least as far as the lake was concerned.

Aquarists had been collecting the fish from the Lake Eacham National Park (illegally) and were very successful at breeding them. These private collections became the source stock to reintroduce the fish to the lake. However, the cause of the species' initial demise was still living in the lake and proceeded to deplete the entire population of reintroduced stock. Ichthyologists working in the rivers and streams of the Atherton Tableland have found the Lake Eacham rainbowfish in the Tully, Herbert and Johnstone Rivers and Dirran Creek.

The lake has an average depth of 65.5 metres.

Friday 21st July 2017

Danie took the Skyrail Cablecar from Smithfield to Kuranda. I dropped him off and the drove up the Kuranda Range to pick him up later at the Skyrail terminus. He upgraded to
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Barron River
a glass bottomed cablecar giving him a direct view down to the forest floor.

Skyrail is a unique rainforest experience taking you on an unforgettable journey through Australia’s World Heritage listed Tropical Rainforests.

Spanning 7.5km, Skyrail Rainforest Cableway traverses the McAlister Range, through the Barron Gorge National Park, taking guests on an amazing journey between its Smithfield and Kuranda Terminals.

Guests glide just metres above the rainforest canopy in Skyrail’s comfortable six-person gondola cabins, which provide spectacular and uninterrupted views of the rainforest, tropical Cairns, the Coral Sea and the lush Cairns Highlands.

Witness the wonders of the world’s oldest continually surviving rainforests from Skyrail’s unique vantage point, before alighting at Skyrail’s two rainforest mid-stations to explore and learn more about this fascinating environment from the forest floor.

At Red Peak Station, qualified Rangers provide regular guided boardwalk tours sharing their knowledge of this ancient environment and answering visitor questions. Skyrail is The World’s Most Beautiful Rainforest Experience, apparently.

We leave this housesit on Sunday 30th July and head off for another adventure.............................................................


Additional photos below
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SkyrailSkyrail
Skyrail

Taken from the glass floor
Our Housesit in Speewah, QueenslandOur Housesit in Speewah, Queensland
Our Housesit in Speewah, Queensland

Camped out in the van in the back garden surrounded by rainforest
SpeewahSpeewah
Speewah

our undercover pool
SpeewahSpeewah
Speewah

BBQ/Braai anyone?
SpeewahSpeewah
Speewah

Looking up to our van from the dam


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