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Published: December 2nd 2012
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Babinda
One of many great old sugar towns along the coast. Innisfail / Flying Fish Point
25
th Oct 2012
Since arriving on the East Coast we had ridden a wave of highs and lows and leaving Cairns continued the theme for us. Our original plan was to head back up North and continue to the tip of The Cape, (which would have taken 3 weeks!), but as we had been in Cairns for so long, the wet season was now fast approaching, (it would not be good to be stuck up on the Cape for 6 months!), and we had to head south as we were to meet up with Matt and Penny, his lovely fiancé, in Mission Beach for the first week of November. So there was no question really; we headed south to Innisfail and a little beachside spot we knew of called Flying Fish Point.
The trip from Cairns south to Innisfail passes through some beautiful country, steep mountains covered in tropical forest with valleys full of sugar cane fields. The harvest was nearly over but we still saw a few harvesters out there cutting the last paddocks for the year. The towns are all sugar cane towns centred around the mills that CSR built and
most are still operating (not by CSR). The first you come to is Gordonvale an interesting old sugar town centred around the mill and a park and now mostly growing because of its proximity to Cairns and as the nearest service centre to the community of Yarrabah. The bakery had good vanilla slices here too!
The next town is Babinda, just off the highway and under the lee of Queensland’s two highest mountains Mount Bartle Frere and Mount Bellenden Ker. Babinda also fights each year with Tully (a town a little further south), for the title of Australia’s wettest town. The Boulders and Devil's Pool are popular spots to visit and picnic facilities are located nearby, beside Babinda Creek. Babinda is an old sugar town but the mill here has been decommissioned as the tonnage required for a viable operation was not being achieved. Sugar from the area now goes north to Gordonvale or south to South Johnston.
Innisfail is the regional centre of the Cassowary Coast, named after the rare local flightless bird and is situated on the Johnstone River between the World Heritage listed areas of the rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef. European cedar cutters
Innisfail
We loved this town and all it offered. and Chinese gold seekers were the first settlers arriving in the 1870s and early in the 1880s. During the 1870s, the opening of the Palmer goldfields and other mineral discoveries brought an inrush of multi-cultural settlers to the north of what became the Johnstone Shire, leading in 1876 to the establishment of Cairns.
Meanwhile, partly to rescue the goldfields, a variety of agricultural enterprises were developed in these southern areas. Innisfail (called Geraldton until 1911) was founded in 1880 by Thomas Fitzgerald who took up a 10000 hectare land grant funded by the Catholic Bishop of Brisbane and All Hallows' Sisters of Mercy. With 10 Irish and 35 South Sea Islanders as workers, he began planting sugar cane in the cleared rainforest lands, but not with personal success. Those who followed him did better and the community began to grow rapidly on the proceeds of sugar production. The Mourilyan mill was built in 1882, the Babinda mill in 1914, and South Johnstone mill in 1915.Thus sugar drove the growth of predominantly European Innisfail and still exert a major influence today. A large Italian migration began before WW1 and continued into the 1930s and post WW2. Much of
Innisfail
Great spot, good shops and cafe's, some amazing buildings. Innisfail's present culture is of Italian derivation, and is represented by the magnificent marble Canecutter Monument on the river Esplanade, just across the road from The Coffee Club!
We stayed at Flying Fish Point, about 7 klm out of Innisfail and right on the coast, what a brilliant, magnificent little spot. Flying Fish Point is a quiet little haven with a small caravan park (we would recommend), holiday homes and a few permanents along with the Flying Fish Café, all on the beach and a well-kept secret by the local fisho’s. The café has a reputation that many fine restaurants would die for and their fish and chips are amazing.
Whilst here we visited Bramston Beach, Ella Bay, Etty Bay, Mouliyan and Mouliyan Harbour, Cowley Beach, Kurramine Beach, Wangan and South Johnstone. All the beaches along this coast were amazing, with small communities of retirees and fisho’s living between the myriad of holiday homes. The beaches were mostly unspoilt with a backdrop of coconut palms, this is a coastline that has to be seen to be appreciated and believed. Interestingly, at Cowley Beach the Australian Defence Force has a small base, right on the beach, this would have
Innisfail
Main shopping area. to be the posting of a lifetime (do they make a camouflage boardshort?). Around South Johnstone the agriculture diversified and amongst the sugar cane we also saw Paw Paw, Bananas and Pineapples.
We enjoyed Innisfail and the surrounding areas, it was buzzing, seemed to be diverse and not just reliant on mining and it had a history which showed in the deli’s, coffee, and a few other shops. Just over an hour from Cairns and with a magnificent coastline this town had it all in my books and a climate to die for, loved it!
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Matt
non-member comment
Getting close!
Hiya! Is that house still for sale in Flying Fish Point? Looking forward to reading the next few blogs :)