Kuranda

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Kuranda - Queensland

This village is perched 300 metres up in the rainforest and makes a real great day out from Cairns. Cairns is a busy city which is over-developed for our liking, we visited this area about 8 years ago and we were disappointed with how much it had changed.

The best way to get the most out of the journey to Kuranda is to take the breathtaking, scenic railway one way and the skyrail the other, both routes offer fantastic views and a memorable experience of this, lush World Heritage listed wet tropics rainforest. There is an abundance of flora and fauna, from pythons to ginger plants, bandicoots to orchids.

Kuranda was inhabited by the Djabugay aboriginal people and their lifestyle changed dramatically when the area was logged and mined for gold by foreigners. It became a tourist area in the early 1900’s, with a lull during WW2, only to be revived again in the 60’s by hippies who found it to be an ideal environment for alternative lifestyles.

Kuranda is a colourful village, catering well for tourists but we found fewer shops stocked authentic gifts or crafts made in Australia compared to imported trash and we weren’t too keen on the crocodile and other animal skin products made in Australia. Who do you know that would want a purse made from a Cane Toad? Ok...... responses on a post card!

There is local aboriginal artists work at Doongal (www.doongal.com.au) The street art was fun to see.
If you ever get the chance to visit Australia, the trip up to Kuranda is well-worth doing.

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