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Saved: December 21st 2018
Monday 18th June 2017 Today we left Llewelyn for the Atherton Tablelands.
The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It is located west to south-south-west inland from Cairns. Although it is in the tropical latitudes, its elevated position provides a climate suitable for dairy farming. It has an area of around 32,000 km2 with an altitude ranging between 500 and 1,280m. The fertility of the soils in the region can be attributed to the volcanic origins of the land.
The principal river flowing across the plateau is the Barron River. It was dammed to form an irrigation reservoir named Lake Tinaroo. Tinaroo Hydro, a small 1.6MW Hydro-electric power station is located near the spillway.
Atherton was explored by a European J.V. Mulligan in 1875. In 1877, John Atherton settled near the town which now bears his name. The area was originally explored for its mining potential where deposits of tin and gold were found.
Originally a pioneering pastoralist, John Atherton was the first to find tin deposits in Northern Queensland. Local legend has it that Tinaroo Creek received its name from Atherton who shouted, "Tin!
Llewelyn
One of the eighteen racehorsesHurroo!" when he first made his discovery. Atherton and his friends, William Jack and John Newell, discovered the famous lode, which became the Great Northern Tin Mine. A rush of miners from the Hodgkinson’s Goldfields followed. The construction of a dray road through the Tableland brought a secondary rush, this time timber cutters to mine the red gold (redcedar) of the rainforest. Redcedar cutters camps were at Rocky Creek, Prior Pocket, Oonda Swamp (Carrington) & Ziggenbein’s Pocket. Although tin was a major part in the Tablelands, timber is what Atherton owes its existence to with large areas of red cedar, kauri, maple, black bean, walnut, white beech and red tulip oak being milled for buildings.
Before the town of Atherton developed, a full-blown Chinatown sprang into existence. The Chinese had moved from the Palmer River Goldfields to the Atherton area, where the big timber stands had been cleared to make way for farming. The Chinese were considered pioneers of agriculture in North Queensland as 80% of crop production on the Tablelands was grown by them and they played a vital role in opening up the area for settlement. After the crops, they turned to dairying. As the population of
Llewelyn
Out in one of the paddocks Chinatown increased, small shops appeared, wells were sunk to supply water, there were cooks, herbalists, doctors and merchants etc. The rough straw huts were replaced by sawn timber houses with verandahs and corrugated iron roofs. By 1909, Chinatown had become the largest concentration of Chinese on the Tablelands with a population of 1100. Today, the Hou Wang Temple remains as one of the few reminders of the former Chinese population of the Atherton Tablelands.
In the Second World War, Australian troops were camped around the district prior to being sent to the front and then again on their return. Many soldiers were interred at the war cemetery in Atherton.
Crops grown in and around Atherton include banana, sugarcane, corn/maize, avocados, strawberries, macadamia nuts and mangoes and citrus. Tobacco was also grown until October 2006 when it was ended by a Government buyout. Dairying, grazing and poultry are also present on the Tableland
Both of us loved our time on the cattle station but by the end were getting fed up with the dust which got everywhere and the constant blue skies and not rain. Having said that by the end of our stay the nights and mornings
Llewelyn
Danie and Patch were pretty cool and we did have the fire going outside several evenings, which was lovely.
We experienced real country life out in west central Queensland, helping with mustering, branding, castrating and dehorning calves. We cleaned water troughs and went shooting -. Danie managed to kill 15 kangaroos and one emu (we have saved some of the meat from that). He was lent a rifle and shotgun and went off in the farm ute several times. It has to be said the kangaroos are a pest here as were the lovely wedge tailed eagles who took many lambs. We wanted to get some wild pig but whenever we saw them we hadn’t got a gun.
We had access to plenty of meat whilst at Llewelyn station both lamb and beef, which was a great treat. Our time on the station was great but time to move on.
It was a slow drive on the dirt till we got to the main road and we headed back to Winton and then north along the atrocious Kennedy Development Road to Hughenden. The road was very bad and we had to take our time even though it was bitumen.
Llewelyn
Danie doing his thing Hughenden is on the banks of the Flinders River and has a population of just over 1,000 and is named after Hughenden Manor in Buckinghamshire, the home of Benjamin Disraeli. Torrens Creek near Hughenden is where the American army stored explosives in WWII. The Americans didn't know of the dangerous bush fires out there. After they put out a fire they went back to camp thinking that the fire was out. However, the fire took hold again without them knowing. They then heard about twelve major explosions in succession; the explosions left craters twenty feet deep. Hot shrapnel covered a wide area and started more fires. In the townships, people said that buildings shook and windows broke, and some people were convinced that an air raid had occurred. Thousands of soldiers and civilians attacked the blaze in an attempt to stop it spreading to fuel dumps, but were unable to control it. When the fire got to the explosives it was so powerful it blew the Americans out of their trucks. Many buildings and shops got burnt down from the spreading fires. However the locals were able to save the post office. A police Constable from Torrens Creek Police was
Llewelyn
Baby wild pigs awarded the King’s Medal of Bravery.
From here we took the Flinders Highway east and stopped at a free camp on the Campaspe River 90kms SW of Charters Towers. It was a popular site and filled up quickly, we were there at around 3pm so managed to get a spot next to some people from Western Australia so we had Happy Hour with them along with a lady travelling solo with a caravan. A big day travelling doing 506kms.
Monday 19th June 2017 We drove through Charters Towers as nothing much to make us stop there. In 2011 the population was 8,234. During the last quarter of the 19th century the town boomed as the rich gold deposits under the city were developed. After becoming uneconomic in the 20th century, profitable mining operations have commenced once againThe town was founded in the 1870s when gold was discovered by chance at Towers Hill on Christmas Eve 1871 by 12-year-old Aboriginal boy, Jupiter Mosman. Jupiter was with a small group of prospectors including Hugh Mosman, James Fraser and George Clarke. Their horses bolted after a flash of lightning. While he was searching Jupiter found both the horses and a
nugget of gold in a creek at the base of Towers Hill. Charters originated from the Gold Commissioner, W.S.E.M. Charters. A total of ten major gold reefs were eventually mined.
Such were the boom years, between 1872 and 1899, that Charters Towers hosted its own stock exchange. The Great Northern railway between Charters Towers and the coastal port of Townsville was completed in December 1882.[ During this period, the population was approximately 30,000, making Charters Towers Queensland's largest city outside of Brisbane.[The city was also affectionately known as 'The World', as it was said that anything one might desire could be had in the 'Towers', leaving no reason to travel elsewhere.
A 20 head of stamps mill began ore crushing operations on 16 July 1872. The Venus Battery continued to be used by small mine in the region until 1971The unique site remains intact today, together with a cyanide treatment plant and assay office.
By 1917 gold mining became uneconomic. During World War I labour was hard to find, and as the mines drove deeper, ventilation and water problems arose. This production decline was similar across Australian gold mines, with rising costs and a fixed gold price
Townsville
Magnetic Island from Castle Hill eroding profitability. The town entered a long period of relative stagnation and little further development has occurred since.
The Charters Towers gold field produced over 200 tonnes (6.6 million troy ounces) of gold from 1871–1917 The gold is concentrated into veins and was Australia's richest major field with an average grade of 34 grams per tonne. The grade was almost double that of Victorian mines and almost 75%!h(MISSING)igher than the grades of Western Australian (Kalgoorlie) gold fields of that time.
The road to Townsville was very picturesque taking us over the Great Dividing Range. We bypassed the town to get to our free camp at Bluewater as soon as possible as it is extremely popular. When we got there it was full but someone had parked there car in a good place for the van, he came over to us and said they had been saving it for a caravan as didn’t wat backpackers near them. How lucky were we? We got the van organised and left it in the care of the two older couples we later spent Happy Hour with every night for three nights and went shopping.
Tuesday 20th June 2017 We
Townsville
Looking north from Castle Hill took the van into the repair place in Townsville to have the awning replaced under warranty as little holes were appearing in the fabric. Our camp spot was saved using next doors parked car trick to stop others taking it!
Whilst in town we did some sightseeing whilst waiting for the van to be fixed.
Townsville is in the dry tropics region of Queensland, adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, and is Australia's largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast, with a 2015 population estimate of 180,333. Considered the unofficial capital of North Queensland by locals, Townsville hosts a significant number of governmental, community and major business administrative offices for the northern half of the state.
Popular attractions include "The Strand", a long tropical beach and garden strip; Riverway, a riverfront parkland attraction located on the banks of Ross River; Reef HQ, a large tropical aquarium holding many of the Great Barrier Reef's native flora and fauna; the Museum of Tropical Queensland, built around a display of relics from the sunken British warship HMS Pandora; Castle Hill, the most prominent landmark of the area and a popular fitness destination; The Townsville Sports
Hull Heads, Qld.
Our free camp for one night Reserve; and Magnetic Island, a large neighbouring island, the vast majority of which is national park.
James Cook visited the Townsville region on his first voyage to Australia in 1770, but did not actually land there. Cook named nearby Cape Cleveland, Cleveland Bay and Magnetic(al) Island. In 1819, Captain Phillip Parker King and botanist Alan Cunningham were the first Europeans to record a local landing. In 1846, James Morrill was shipwrecked from the Peruvian, living in the Townsville area among the Bindal people for 17 years before being found by white men and returned to Brisbane.
The Burdekin River's seasonal flooding made the establishment of a seaport north of the river essential to the nascent inland cattle industry. John Melton Black of Woodstock Station, an employee of Sydney entrepreneur and businessman Robert Towns, dispatched Andrew Ball, Mark Watt Reid and a small party of aborigines to search for a suitable site. Ball's party reached the Ross Creek in April 1864 and established a camp below the rocky spur of Melton Hill, near the present Customs House on The Strand. The first party of settlers, led by W. A. Ross, arrived at Cleveland Bay from Woodstock Station
on 5 November of that year. In 1866 Robert Towns visited for three days, his first and only visit. He agreed to provide ongoing financial assistance to the new settlement and Townsville was named in his honour.
Townsville developed rapidly as the major port and service centre for the Cape River, Gilbert, Ravenswood, Etheridge and Charters Towers goldfields.Regional pastoral and sugar industries also expanded and flourished. Townsville's population was 4,000 people in 1882 and grew to 13,000 by 1891.
During World War II, the city was host to more than 50,000 American and Australian troops and air crew, and it became a major staging point for battles in the South West Pacific. A large United States Armed Forces contingent supported the war effort from seven airfields and other bases around the city and in the region. The first bombing raid on Rabaul, in Papua New Guinea, on 23 February 1942 was carried out by six B-17s based near Townsville.
The Australian Army maintains a very strong presence in the north of Australia and this is evident by the basing of the Army's 3rd Brigade at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville.The 3rd Brigade is a light infantry brigade. The
brigade consists of three light infantry battalions — the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment (1, 2 and 3 RAR) — and a cavalry contingent from 'B' Squadron, 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment. It also has integral Artillery, Engineer, Aviation Reconnaissance and Combat Service Support units. It is a high-readiness brigade that has been deployed frequently at very short notice on combat operations outside mainland Australia. These include Somalia, Rwanda, Namibia, East Timor, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In addition to the 3rd Brigade, a number of other major units are based in Townsville. These include the 5th Aviation Regiment, equipped with Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters, co-located at the RAAF Base in Garbutt and the 10th Force Support Battalion based at Ross Island. 10 FSB is a force logistics unit that provides back up logistic support to deployed units. The battalion provides specialist transport (including amphibious) and supply support. Along with this there is also the 11th Combat Service Support Battalion and the 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment.
The Army also maintains an Army Reserve brigade in Townsville designated the 11th Brigade. This formation is similar in structure to the 3rd Brigade but comprises reserve soldiers
Mission Beach
Dunk Island from South Mission Beach only. There is also two active cadet units, 130 ACU located within Heatley Secondary College and 15 ACU located on Lavarack Barracks as of 2010, previously located at Ignatius Park College.
As with the Army, the Royal Australian Air Force also maintains a presence in Townsville. RAAF Base Townsville, which is located in the suburb of Garbutt, houses the Beech KingAir 350 aircraft from No. 38 Squadron RAAF. This unit operated the venerable DHC-4 Caribou aircraft until late 2009; however, it has re-equipped in the short term while protracted analysis for a more appropriate Battlefield Transport and Utility aircraft continues. This detachment provides support to the Army units in Townsville. The base is also a high readiness Defence asset and is prepared to accept the full range of RAAF aircraft types as well as other international aircraft including the huge C-17 Globemaster III and the Russian Antonov transport aircraft.
Townsville is also the staging point for the movement of personnel and materials to the remote parts of Northern Australia and many overseas locations.
After looking around we decided to go up into the mountains to the Herveys Range Heritage Tea Rooms, a heritage listed property which holds
Mission Beach
Our site at Tropical Hibiscus Caravan Park a special place in the history of North Queensland. Beginning its life in 1865 as the Eureka Hotel, the Tea Rooms now serve all day breakfast and lunch and a delicious array of scones and sweets. A large variety of teas and coffee compliment the menu, including the infamous Kopi Luwak ($50/cup) coffee! Refreshments are served in the beautiful gardens or inside within the historic original building.
It was built by pioneer settler Charles Saville Rowe in 1865 which was just one year after the sea side township of Townsville was first settled. The site is situated in Thornton’s Gap atop Hervey Range which rises 1000ft above the plains below and sits on the old Georgetown Road which was the main road from the port of Townsville to the goldfields and pastoral areas to the west and north.
The internal structure is the original hand adzed hardwood construction from 1865. The heritage listed building remains one of the few slab sided inns left standing in Australia and is the oldest building of its type in North Queensland; a fine example of early architecture.
Built by pioneer settler, Charles Saville Rowe in 1865 which was just one year
Walsh's Pyramid
Going up Gillies 263 corners after the sea side township of Townsville was first settled. The site is situated in Thornton’s Gap atop Hervey Range which rises 1000 ft above the plains below and sits on the old Georgetown Road which was the main road from the port of Townsville to the goldfields and pastoral areas to the west and north.
The tea rooms that you are able to visit today are a reminder of days gone by; the internal structure is the original hand adzed hardwood construction from 1865. The heritage listed building remains one of the few slab sided inns left standing in Australia and is the oldest building of its type in North Queensland; a fine example of early architecture.
Kopi luwak or civet coffee, refers to the coffee that includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet and for sale here. Producers of the coffee beans argue that the process may improve coffee through two mechanisms, selection and digestion. Selection occurs if the civets choose to eat cherries. Digestive mechanisms may improve the flavor profile of the coffee beans that have been eaten. The civet eats the cherries for the fleshy pulp, then in the
Barron Gorge NP
Roots around a rock digestive tract, fermentation occurs. The civet's protease enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the cherries are then defecated with other faecal matter and collected.
The traditional method of collecting faeces from wild civets has given way to intensive farming methods in which civets in battery cage systems are force-fed the cherries. This method of production has raised ethical concerns about the treatment of civets due to "horrific conditions" including isolation, poor diet, small cages and a high mortality rate. Intensive farming is also criticised by traditional farmers because the civets do not select what they eat, so the cherries which are fed to them in order to flavor the coffee are of poor quality compared to those beans collected from the wild. According to an officer from the TRAFFIC conservation programme, the trade in civets to make kopi luwak may constitute a significant threat to wild civet populations.
Although kopi luwak is a form of processing rather than a variety of coffee, it has been called one of the most expensive coffees in the world with retail prices reaching US$700 per kilogram. The price of farmed
Bartle Frere
Josephine Falls (considered low-grade by connoisseurs) kopi luwak in large Indonesian supermarkets is from US$100 per kilogram (five times the price of a high quality local arabica coffee).
Kopi luwak is produced mainly on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago.
Wednesday 21st June 2017 – winter solstice Today we stayed home, chatting to the two couples next to us and hearing about their experience during the night when two girl backpackers pulled in right next to us around 9pm. Danie asked them to leave as no tents or campervans/cars allowed to camp. They said they were going to use the table and move on. Around 10pm we heard raised voices and thought no more about it. However next-door had gone outside and asked them to move on only to be shouted and sworn at by these girls, this couple is well into their seventies and these girls showed no respect at all. No wonder foreign backpackers have a bad name out on the road, they are dirty and leave litter, especially toilet paper in rest areas.
In the afternoon a girl and her five children came around selling freshly cooked mud crabs
Bartle Frere
Scenic Lookout looking across the valley for $15, naturally we all had to buy one, we had ours for tea and it was beautiful. They are $54 each in Darwin!!!!!
Thursday 22nd June 2017 Today we had a short drive along the coast on the Bruce Highway to our next free camp, 181kms. Hull Heads Recreation Area 21kms SE of Tully and it was drizzling.
We could see Hinchinbrook Island as we neared Cardwell, separated from the northern coast of Queensland by the narrow Hinchinbrook Channel, a great fishing area. Hinchinbrook Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and wholly protected within the Hinchinbrook Island National Park, except for a small and abandoned resort. It is the largest island on the Great Barrier Reef. It is also the largest island national park in Australia.
Next town was Ingham, the service centre for many sugarcane plantations. Victoria Sugar Mill, the largest sugar mill in Australia and one of the largest in the southern hemisphere, owned by Wilmar Sugar Australia Limited, which is located close to the township of Ingham (Approx. 6km). Much of the cane is transported to the mills by light tramlines.
The town is named after William
Bartle Frere
Josephine Falls Bairstow Ingham, a pioneer sugar planter on the Herbert River in 1874.CSR no longer owns the Sugar Mills in Ingham because they sold them to Sucrogen, an offshore-based company.
The Australian-Italian Festival is held in Ingham the first weekend in August each year and is one of the most popular events in the region, with thousands of people attending the event. The festival celebrates Ingham's cultural background, dating from the 1890s, when the first Italian immigrants came to the region. More than half the population of the town are of Italian descent. The town is known as "Little Italy".
Next town was Tully is the wettest town in Australia with an annual rainfall exceeding 4000mm or 158” and the highest ever annual rainfall in a populated area of Australia (7,900 millimetres (310 in) in 1950). In 2003 a giant gumboot (the "Golden Gumboot") was erected as a monument to the town's climate; it also serves as a museum documenting past floods, as well as displaying the current rainfall for the year. The Tully River (previously known as the Mackay River) was named after Surveyor-General William Alcock Tully in the 1870s. The town of Tully was named after the
river when it was surveyed off when the sugar mill was erected in 1924. Previously a settlement known as Banyan had grown up on the other side of Banyan Creek during the previous decade.
Tully is one of the larger towns of the Cassowary Coast Region. The economic base of the region is agriculture; sugar cane and banana being the dominant crops grown. The sugar cane grown at the many farms in the district is processed locally at the Tully Sugar Mill to give raw sugar which is shipped elsewhere for refinement.
It was raining when we drove through the town en route to the tiny village of Hull Heads on the mouth of the Hull River. The camp area is maintained by the coast watch group and is a lovely grassed area. There were a few caravans there but drizzle prevented us meeting up for a Happy Hour. We did manage to walk along the beach at low tide. Remembering that crocodiles are in this area as they are all along the northeast of Queensland.
Friday 23rd June 2017 We left Hull Heads and drove 206kms to the Tropical Hibiscus Caravan Park at Mission Beach.
Zillie Falls
Unable to get any closer A great little park and cheapest we could find, refusing to pay $44 per night to be squashed in tight. We paid $35 which is pricey but it is school holidays!
After setting up we went for a drive and found a fabulous place for brunch at Bingil Bay just north of Mission Beach. For us Mission Beach itself is far too touristy and our caravan park was at Wongaling Beach, much nicer as is South Mission Beach. We were surprised to find a Woolies so filled up with fuel and did a little grocery shop.
Mission Beach is a small town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, In the 2011 census Mission Beach and surrounding villages had a total population of 3,181 people (Bingil Bay 369, Mission Beach 765, Wongaling Beach 1064, South Mission Beach 778, Carmoo 205).
The beach is flanked by green mountains rising just a short distance inland, and provides views out to the Family Islands. Close to shore at Mission Beach lies a shallow reef; during very low tides portions of this reef are exposed. The reef runs from the mouth of Porter's Creek at the south end of North Mission
Beach almost to Clump Point, a popular fishing spot which is also the main departure and arrival point for the Dunk Island Ferry.
Surrounded by World Heritage rainforest on one side and the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef on the other, Mission Beach is home to many wildlife species, most notable is the cassowary. This large flightless bird can be found in the rainforest surrounding the area but appears to be thriving in spite of land clearing, traffic and predators such as wild dogs and feral pigs. Much of the area is part of the Coastal Wet Tropics Important Bird Area.
Mission Beach is also the mainland gateway to Dunk Island (part of the Family Group of Islands), with water taxis and ferries shuttling guests and day-trippers out 4 kms to the island and its resort.
Like many other small Australian towns, Mission Beach has built a monument to its most famous characteristic. The big cassowary, standing 5 metres high, can be found at the Wongaling Beach shopping complex. We were lucky and saw two on separate occasions on our trips around the area.
In 1872 it was alleged by two sailors (Wilson and Sullivan),
Millaa Millaa Falls
The most photographed falls in Australia that the captain (Stratman) and some of the crew of the ill-fated Maria which was wrecked in a "typhoon", were killed and eaten by natives north of Tam O'Shanter Point. Survivor Thomas Ingham attests that the aborigines were initially friendly with his party until joined by another group of unfriendly natives. A group of vigilantes raided the area now called South Mission Beach and attacked a local aboriginal camp. In 1916 Ingham wrote : "Sub-Inspector Johnstone gave short-shrift to the cannibals, who had eaten the captains party, and the brutes who had speared me and taken my belt was seen to be wearing it around his head like a crown. That sealed his fate. This belt saved my life when I gave it to him. It made him a king when he crowned himself with it and bought about his demise. Sub-Inspector Johnstone gave it back to me, and I have kept it ever since." The river Louisa was renamed Maria Creek after the wreck. Johnstone River was named after Sub Inspector Johnstone.
In the early 20th century Chinese banana farmers used Aborigines as labourers in the Tully River region. Opium addiction and conflict with European settlers resulted in
Millstream Falls
The widest falls in Australia the Queensland government creating an Aboriginal internment centre at the present Mission Beach. Superintendent John Martin Kenny started the necessary work on 1 September 1914. There was no mission in the religious sense. The settlement had characteristics of a penal settlement.
The Hull River detention centre and superintendent's residence were destroyed in the cyclone of 10 March 1918 and were not rebuilt. Superintendent Kenny and his daughter escaped the collapsing residence and were killed by debris. The surviving Aborigines were forcefully moved to Palm Island, near Magnetic Island, Queensland.
The first white settlers, the Cutten brothers, came to Mission Beach area in 1882 and settled at Bingil Bay, where they farmed mangoes, bananas, pineapples, coffee, citrus fruit and coconuts. They also manufactured their own coffee. Produce was shipped south on cargo-boats. Before this the only white people to enter this area were the timber-getters who sometimes camped on the beach and retrieved timber from the adjacent rain forests. They employed local Aborigines for their assistance in their timber hauling, paying the Aboriginal labourers with tobacco and tools. The natives were generally friendly.
In 1872 it was alleged by two sailors (Wilson and Sullivan), that the captain (Stratman)
and some of the crew of the ill-fated Maria which was wrecked were killed and eaten by the natives north of Tam O'Shanter . Survivor Thomas Ingham attests that the aborigines were initially friendly with his party until joined by another group of unfriendly natives. In 1916 Ingham wrote : "Sub-Inspector Johnstone gave short-shrift to the cannibals, who had eaten the captains party, and the brutes who had speared me and taken my belt was seen to be wearing it around his head like a crown. That sealed his fate. This belt saved my life when I gave it to him. It made him a king when he crowned himself with it and bought about his demise. Sub-Inspector Johnstone gave it back to me, and I have kept it ever since." By all accounts any native that was wearing or had in their possession an item previously belonging to a survivor of the Maria was considered as a sign of guilt and revenge without trial was taken on the camp.
We went tropical fruit wine and port tasting at Murdering Point winery, on the Canecutters Way Tourist Drive, very nice it was too and we did purchase.
The
multi-Award winning Murdering Point Winery is unique in every sense; the name, the unmatched range of exotic tropical wines, the location and the passion that drives the owners to offer Canecutter Way guests only the best.
Along with wines produced from tropical fruits such as lychee, mango and passionfruit, Murdering Point Winery also produces wines of outstanding quality from the Australian Bush Tucker fruit, Davidson Plum, and the homeopathic, “Supherb”, a health conscious blend of jaboticaba, ginger and ginseng.
Murdering Point Winery is also home to the White Devil Port, a delicious wicked pineapple sensation, “The Point” port, and the Black Devil Port, a unique blend of black Sapote and cognac, Mocha Cream, a chocolate coffee cream, Banana Cream and Choc Mint Cream.
Next stop was Kurrimine Beach where the beach is the closest one to the Great Barrier Reef and you can walk out to King Reef when the tide is very low. We missed that but there is always next time.
The first arrival of European people came in 1872 when survivors of the shipwreck, the "Maria" arrived on the coastal areas surrounding what is now the Johnstone River. Sub-Inspector Robert Arthur Johnstone's search
party came with the intention of rescuing remaining survivors. The crew would later venture up river between what is today Flying Fish Point and Coquette Point. Johnstone wrote very highly of the area, stating:
A most glorious view appeared - a noble reach of fresh water, studded with blacks with their canoes and catamarans, others on the sandy beaches; deep blue fresh water expanding to an imposing breadth.
— Robert Johnstone (1872).
Johnstone named the area after himself and upon his recommendation the explorer George Elphinstone Dalrymple arrived in the area in September 1873 to chart the area further.
Later in 1879, Irishman Thomas Henry FitzGerald arrived in the area to establish a sugar industry. He was accompanied by large numbers of Kanaka South Sea Islanders workers accompanied by smaller numbers of Irish labourers. The house built by FitzGerald and thus the first establishment in the area was called Innisfallen, after the largest island in the Lakes of Killarney, Ireland. Inis Fáil (Island of Destiny) is an ancient Irish name for Ireland itself.
From 1879, the settlement was named Geraldton after FitzGerald, but in 1910 was renamed "Innisfail" to avoid confusion with the town of the
same name in Western Australia.
The 1920s and 1930s saw the beginning of a major period of settlement by Italian immigrants and noteworthy populations from Greece and Malta. Later in this period populations from Yugoslavia, India and the Philippines would also settle in the area.
This was the last stop on our Grand Tour and we headed home.
Saturday 24th June 2017 We went to check out South Mission Beach where there are some lovely homes and then went to Tully Gorge. It was raining in Tully when we passed through!!! The sugar cane season has started and so the mill was pumping out steam and smoke and the little trains were busy bringing cane from the plantations.
On our way inland we passed many MacKay plantations
Stanley Mackay (Grandad) planted his first banana crop in North Queensland in 1945 beginning a family tradition that has lasted 65 years. Stanley Mackay pioneered the banana industry in Northern Australia and was awarded Australia's highest honour the 'Medal of the Order of Australia’ in 1985. John and Robert (Stanley’s two boys) continue to develop the family business. John and Robert's boys, the 3rd Generation - Gavin,
House Sitting in Speewah
Rainforest from our caravan Barrie, Stephen, Cameron, Daniel and brother-in-law Mark are together managing MacKays as it has grown to become Australia’s largest and most significant banana producer.
Nestled between Dunk Island on the Great Barrier Reef and the Tully Gorge World Heritage Rainforest are our 5 farming properties. On their 3600 hectares around the small town of Tully, they receive Australia’s highest rainfall and hot, humid conditions year round. Over the past 70, years they have found this Australia’s ideal environment for our 3 crops, bananas, papaya and sugar cane and our warm climate cattle. Due to the logistics of presenting their produce in the ultimate state and condition nationally, they have facilities across the eastern seaboard of Australia from Tully itself, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
Commencing with bananas, Grandad developed the banana industry in North Queensland which now produces over 90% of Australia’s bananas. A constant desire to provide the best banana experience for consumers has resulted in the Smart Banana, a product exclusively grown and packaged by MacKays.
Sugar Cane has developed over the years to the stage where we are the largest supplier of sugar cane to the Tully Sugar Mill; arguably Australia’s most advanced Mill. Crop
Speewah
The house and our van rotation techniques and varietal strains together with a mountain of hard work have allowed this part of our business to solidly expand.
Reblo™ is their unique brand of red flesh papaya – relatively misunderstood in Australia due to consumers unfavourable experiences with yellow flesh pawpaw, MacKays goal is to provide sweet creamy red flesh papaya and grow consumption through its great eating experience. Reblo™ is currently enjoyed year round in Sydney and Melbourne.
Cattle are a passion among some family members so what started as a semi commercial hobby soon became a solid developing business. Year round access to limitless feed and water along with careful stock breed selection has established an industry recognised herd. Grass fed for superior flavour and managed in a stressless environment has given both the taste and tenderness that a consumer desires.
Tully Gorge National Park is 35km west of Tully along the Tully Gorge Road, which is sealed and accessible by conventional vehicles. It is a pleasant drive through agricultural land before entering the rainforest of the national park. The road ends at the Kareeya hydro-power station and there is no road access to the Tully Falls. (This access is via
Speewah
Undercover pool Ravenshoe)
The Tully River plunges from Koombooloomba Dam through a narrow, densely forested gorge. This is one of the wettest areas in Australia and the river, which has Grade 3-4 rapids, is one of the best white water rafting spots in Australia.
Sunday 25th June 2017 Josephine Falls today. The falls are situated at the foot of the southern face of Mount Bartle Frere in the Wooroonooran National Park. They descend from the Atherton Tableland at an elevation of 192 metres (630 ft) above sea level in the range of 150–300 metres (490–980 ft) near a popular recreation site as the water flows over a large rock to form a natural waterslide on Josephine Creek, a tributary of the Russell River. Beautiful falls with plenty of backpackers taking to the waters.
Mount Bartle Frere is the highest mountain in Queensland at an elevation of 1,611 metres (5,285 ft). The mountain was named after Sir Henry Bartle Frere, a British colonial administrator and then president of the Royal Geographical Society by George Elphinstone Dalrymple in 1873. Bartle Frere was British Governor of Cape Colony at the outset of the Zulu Wars. Mount Bartle Frere is part of
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Pizza oven the Bellenden Ker Range and the watershed of Russell River.
The foothill to summit is entirely covered by rainforest, ranging from typical tropical rainforest in the lowlands to low cloud forest at the cooler summit, where temperatures are up to 10 °C (18 °F) lower than on the coast. Despite the treacherous climb, reaching the top offers an expansive view of the surrounding area. Takes two days so we didn’t attempt this!
Our trip today was 312kms circular tour and well worth the effort. Next stop was Gordonvale passing Walsh’s Pyramid (922 m) an independent peak with a distinct pyramidal appearance, An annual footrace is held on the second Saturday in August, to its summit. The "Pyramid race" starts at the nearby town of Gordonvale and attracts hundreds of competitors aiming to win the $1000 prize money. How sad, we won’t be in the area to compete.
Gordonvale was previously called Mulgrave and then Nelson. The name Gordonvale was settled on as a tribute to John Gordon, a pioneer in the district who was a butcher, dairyman and grazier and early director of Mulgrave Central sugar mill.
The area was first settled in 1877 by the
Speewah
Looking up from the dam Alley and Blackwell families who cut a road through to Trinity Inlet so they could haul out cedar logs. By 1880, the road was well-used by miners and packers and they established the Riverstone Hotel to service the passing trade. After a while, a small town developed, encompassing three pubs, a store and a butcher shop run by John Gordon.
In the Cairns area, a Chinese businessman, Andrew Lee On built the first sugar mill in 1882, named Pioneer Mill, and established the Hop Wah Plantation on 612 acres of land. Other plantations and sugar mills were also established in the area in years following, and the region developed into a sugar cultivation and milling area.
Around 1902, Anthony Abdullah (Simon) moved to Gordonvale with his wife, Mary. The Abdullahs were among the earliest Lebanese families to migrate to Australia, hailing from the tiny village of Kfarsghab. Anthony owned the grounds where today stand St Michael's Catholic Church. The convent was his original family home. He ran a drapery business, and was known locally and with fondness as 'Abdullah the Turk'. The family were great benefactors of the Church. They moved to Sydney in 1923, leaving Gordonvale forever.
Speewah
Dam and some of the fruit trees During the Second World War a contingent of approximately 3000 American paratroopers was stationed in Gordonvale and did their training there for their missions in New Guinea. The American Army commandeered some of the town's hotels to use as hospitals as many troops were injured during this training. Quite a number of local women were employed to do parachute packing.
At the 2006 census, Gordonvale had a population of 4,420.
Cane toads (Bufo marinus) were deliberately introduced into Australia in an attempt to control the native Frenchi beetle (Lepidiota frenchi) and the greyback beetle (Dermolepida albohirtum) whose larvae (colloquially known as "cane grubs") were destroying sugar cane crops in North Queensland.
The Australian Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations imported 101 cane toads into Gordonvale from Hawaii in June 1935. By March 1937 some 62,000 toadlets had been bred and distributed into sugar cane fields up and down the Queensland coast. Unfortunately the toads were unsuccessful at controlling the cane beetles and began their invasion which continues today.
Cane toads can’t climb sugarcane to get to the beetles, they are nasty creatures with poisonous skin so no predators….. only in Australia!
The spread of cane
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Looking from the pool toads was slow at first but by 1959 they had colonised most of Queensland’s east coast. In 1964 they appeared in the Gulf of Carpentaria and by 1984 had reached the Queensland/Northern Territory border. In March 2001 the invasion front entered the wetlands of heritage-listed Kakadu National Park and by 2009 the toads were within reach of the Northern Territory/Western Australian border.
We went up the Gillies Highway which permits road access from the Goldsborough Valley near Gordonvale, to Atherton on the Atherton Tableland via the Gillies Range Famous for its
263 corners (no wonder I was feeling less than well when we got to the top), and 800 m elevation change in only 19 km of road. The Gillies Highway and range were named after William N Gillies, a former Premier of Queensland. There is a roadhouse at the top so we stopped for a reviving coffee. Truth to tell it was an experience and we did stop at a pull in to take a photo of Walsh’s Pyramid and the valley.
Next was the town of Yungaburra with a population of 1,116. We will be coming back here when doing our house sit so spent little
Speewah
The pig hunters time here. We drove through Malanda and Millaa Millaa for the same reason. We were pleased we had done the Gillies Highway as we now know we wont be taking the van this way to get to the Atherton Tablelands next week.
The Queensland police and native troops carried out extensive massacres in the Yungaburra area to rid it of blacks. In one incident in 1884, at Skull Pocket just north of the town a group of Yidinji were surrounded at night, and at dawn mowed down after they fled on hearing the first shot. The children were brained or stabbed to death by native police.
In the early 1880s the area around Allumbah Pocket was used as an overnight stop for miners travelling west from the coast. In 1886 the land was surveyed, and in 1891 settlers moved in.
In 1910 the railway arrived, and the town was renamed Yungaburra, to avoid confusion with another town called Allumbah.
The name Yungaburra comes from Janggaburra, after janggaburru, the Yindiny word for the Queensland silver ash (Flindersia bourjotiana). By 1911 indigenous numbers had fallen to 20% of the pre-settlement population due to disease, conflict with settlers and
Westy
These are BIG dogs!! loss of habitat.
Malanda had a population of 2,052 people in 2011 and is 732 metres (2,402 ft) above sea level. Malanda first developed in the 1900s after the discovery of tin and copper at Herberton saw a steady stream of miners and engineers moving over the mountains from the coast.
The name Malanda is synonymous throughout North Queensland with milk and cheese. Local promoters, noting that Malanda milk is sold in the Northern Territory and as far north as Weipa, declared Malanda to be 'the headquarters for one of the largest and longest milk runs in the world'. The milk is also exported to Indonesia and Malaysia. Malanda Milk is now a part of Dairy Farmers, but with a shorter milk run, only as far south as Mackay and as far north as Darwin. We called in to do some cheese tasting at Mungali Creek Dairy, but I have to say I was less than impressed and hope to find a better one later on our travels.
In 1886 a decision was made to build a railway into the area but the problems of construction were enormous. Over 3,412 kilometres (2,120 mi) of railway was installed
into the region in the next six years. By 1890 the Tablelands railway line had reached Kuranda. It pushed on to Mareeba in 1893 and Atherton in 1903 and did not reach Malanda until 1911. The line closed in 1964.
In 1908, James English (later the publican of the Malanda Hotel an) and James Emerson both moved into the area. Both saw the district's dairy potential. English brought cattle from Kiama and the Richmond River areas in New South Wales and Emerson had a herd of 1,026 cattle overlanded from Lismore. They took 16 months to reach Malanda and only 560 survived the journey. Despite this arduous start the industry grew and by 1919 Malanda had its own butter factory. In 1973 this amalgamated with the factory in Millaa Millaa to form the Atherton Tablelands Co-operative Dairy Association.
In 1910, in response to a developing local industry, John Prince established a sawmill in Malanda. It was from this mill that the boards for the Malanda Hotel (built in 1911) were sawn
The northern entrance to the town passes the Malanda Falls. In comparison to the spectacular gorges of the escarpment the falls were created by the last flow of lava from the Malanda Shield Volcano with a cascade of only 4 meters. The town's swimming pool lies at the bottom of the falls. .
Lastly we went to Millaa Millaa. The town is known for the Millaa Millaa Falls, the Millaa Millaa lookout and rolling green meadows that enjoy high rainfall,it is a stunning beautiful area and we both enjoyed the scenery. The Milay Milay Vine (Elaeagnus triflora) is the origin of the place name for Millaa Millaa (the English version of the word). It's a vine with a similar habit to Bougainvillea, somewhat sprawling all over the place.
We returned home via the Palmerston Highway, a much gentler descent and the one we will use to get up onto the Tablelands with the van tomorrow.
On our return there was a notice near the gate BYO pizza and Happy Hour at 6pm. The managers had lit the pizza oven and guests could bring their own pizza to cook. We had no pizzas but took drinks and sat at a big table with other caravanners. We got talking to a cockney couple who live in Perth at Mindarie Quays and do a lot of house sitting but prefer to live in the houses the look after, unlike us who like to stay in our van.
Our site at this park had Italian parsley, chillies and paw paw so we availed ourselves of someone's generosity
Monday 26th June 2017 We left Mission Beach and drove up to Herberton, 168kms. The weather was miserable so we didn’t go anywhere today. Wild River caravan Park is tiny but really nice. The lovely manager had saved the last concrete pad for usas I had rung ahead and booked for two nights ($25 per night).
In the 2011 census, Herberton had a population of 934 people
The first European exploration of this area was undertaken in 1875 by James Venture Mulligan. Mulligan was prospecting for gold, but instead found tin . The town of Herberton was established on 19 April 1880 by John Newell to exploit the tin find, and mining began on 9 May. By the September of that year, Herberton had a population of 300 men and 27 women.
In the late 19th century the Mulligan Highway was carved through the hills from Herberton and passed through what is now Main Street, Atherton, before continuing down to Port Douglas. This road was used by the coaches of Cobb and Co to access Western Queensland.
At its apogee, Herberton was the richest tin mining field in Australia, and was home to 17 pubs, 2 local newspapers and a brewery.Tin mining ceased in Herberton in 1978.
Several crops are grown around Herberton, and it is the location of Queensland's only tropical vineyard. Herberton is a mini salad bowl with crops including avocados, lettuce, tomatoes, maize and pumpkins. Poultry and beef industries are also present. Herberton's public hospital and the private school, Mt Saint Bernard residential college, are other major employers in the town.
Tuesday 27th June 2017 The weather had improved and so we went to Mareeba
The town is 417 metres (1,368 ft) above sea level on the confluence of the Barron River, Granite Creek and Emerald Creek. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning meeting of the waters. In the 2011 census, Mareeba had a population of 10,181 people.
On 26 May 1875 James Venture Mulligan became the first European officially to see the future site of Mareeba when he rode up the eastern bank of the Barron River, and passed the junctions of Emerald Creek and Granite Creek.
The Mareeba area was first settled by Europeans in 1877 by John Atherton, who arrived with cattle at Emerald End, which is just north of the town today. Mareeba quickly became a busy coach stop for Cobb & Co on the road from Port Douglas to Herberton. When the railway arrived in 1893, Mareeba grew into a busy town.
From 1942 to 1945, up to 10,000 Australian and US service personnel used Mareeba Airfield as a staging post for battles in New Guinea and the Pacific. The Americans referred to it as Hoevet Field in honour of Major Dean Carol "Pinky" Hoevet who was killed on 16 August 1942. Units that were based at Mareeba during World War II included No. 5 Squadron RAAF, No. 100 Squadron RAAF, the Australian 33rd Light A-A Battery, 19th Bomb Group USAAC, 43rd Bomb Group USAAC and 8th Fighter Group USAAC.
Numerous crops are grown throughout Mareeba Shire, including avocados, mangoes, lychees, longans, sugar cane, cashews, macadamias, bananas, pineapples, tea tree oil, coffee, and a variety of vegetables and tropical fruits. Poultry and cattle are also common. Tobacco was once the main grown crop of the local economy, but is no longer grown within the Mareeba shire.
The Mareeba Rodeo takes place over a weekend each July. The first rodeo was held 1949 at Davies Park. On the Friday night, there is a parade through the town, and the Rodeo Princess is crowned (the first Princess was crowned in 1959). Over the rest of the weekend the rodeo proper is held at Kerribee Park. A ute muster is often staged over the same weekend as the rodeo.
We went to Coffee Works and were dismayed to see that coffee/tea tasting cost $19 each, so we just had a coffee in the café and hope to find somewhere else in the region to do a tasting!
Just out of town we drove the Waterfall Circuit, going to three waterfalls, Elinjaa Falls, Zillie Falls and the most photographed falls in Australia, Millaa Millaa Falls.
The hard columnar basalt from lava flows solidified in drainage valleys. Subsequent water erosion of softer rocks cut into these valleys eventually forming the many spectacular waterfalls through this region.
After this we came across the Falls Teahouse, a café and bed and breakfast that had homemade pies and cakes. Danie had what he described as the best curry pie ever and I had pie floater (pie and mushy peas) The owner came out to see us and when I mentioned in the north of England we have vinegar and sliced raw onion on ours not gravy, he said I should have asked for it…… silly me forgot, but we will return as I want to visit another creamery in the area. Who should walk in but the English couple we met at the pizza night, they were staying in Ravenshoe, our next place to see. They got to Ravenshoe via the “Unsuitable for Caravans” road we had seen . They missed the sign and when we took it to get to Ravenshoe we couldn’t believe they did it. No passing places, very narrow roads and very windy too!!! Fabulous if not towing like we were ,with amazing views.
Ravenshoe - At 930m (3,050ft) above sea level, Ravenshoe is the highest town in Queensland, with Queensland's highest pub "The Ravenshoe Hotel" (formerly the Tully Falls Hotel until 2014) and highest railway station. Traditionally the main industry in Ravenshoe was timber, but since 1987, when the government made 2,200,000 acres of surrounding rainforest world heritage listed, the main industries have been tourism, beef and dairy farming.
The site of the present day Ravenshoe was first settled by pastoralists prior to 1881 but when stands of red cedar (Toona ciliata) trees were found at nearby Cedar Creek, the mining entrepreneur, John Moffatt purchased the pastoral properties in.1897. A village called Cedar Creek was established. By 1910, the nearby mining town of Herberton has been connected by railway to Cairns and Cedar Creek had been renamed Ravenshoe. The name is supposed to have been chosen because a copy of Henry Kingsley's novel Ravenshoe was found discarded nearby.
Roads connected Ravenshoe with Atherton and Innisfail by 1936 and by 1949 there were three sawmills, two hotels, two cinemas, a guest house and two churches.
The railway service from Atherton to Ravenshoe closed in 1988, following the designation of the Wet Tropics of Queensland as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We went through the town to get to Big Millstream Falls, reputedly the widest single-drop falls in Australia , a tiered plunge waterfall on The Millstream plunging over the edge of a columnar basalt lava flow. The English couple were there too – we never did get to know their names.
From here we drove back to Wild River Caravan Park.
Wednesday 28th June 2017 We only had 78kms to drive today so took our time packing up. We drove through Atherton and Mareeba, stopping at the Coffee Works for breakfast and so to Speewah where we will be based for the next 4 weeks.
We are on a 5 acre property this time, with lots of fruit trees. We have a heated undercover pool and a great view of the surrounding rain forest. There are only two large ex pig hunting dogs to feed at night so we are hoping the weather improves so we can get out and about as there is so much to see in the area.
The Danish couple, Jan and Aneta invited us to eat with them (Jan is a chef) and told us about plant watering, pool maintenance and dog care. They are back-packing in the Solomon Islands for 4 weeks.
Thursday 29th June 2017 Today we checked out our nearest town, Kuranda and went to see the Barron Falls. We had wanted to go down to Cairns but the road was closed due to an accident.
The Barron Falls is a steep tiered cascade waterfall on the Barron River located where the river descends from the Atherton Tablelands to the Cairns coastal plain.
The Barron Falls may be viewed and accessed by road via the Kennedy Highway that crosses the Barron River upstream of the falls, near Kuranda. The narrow-gauge Kuranda Scenic Railway and the Skyrail aerial tram also leads from the coastal plain to the tablelands. The train stops at Barron Falls overlook, where passengers may disembark for several minutes. The Skyrail stops at two rainforest mid-stations, Red Peak and Barron Falls. The trail at Barron Falls Skyrail station leads through the rainforest to three separate lookouts providing views of the Gorge and Falls.
Kuranda is a town and locality on the Atherton Tableland in the Shire of Mareeba, It is 25kms from Cairns, via the Kuranda Range road. It is surrounded by tropical rainforest and adjacent to the Wet Tropics World Heritage listed Barron Gorge National Park. At the 2011 census, the locality Kuranda had a population of 2,966.
Kuranda was first settled in 1885 and surveyed by Thomas Behan in 1888. . Construction of the railway from Cairns to Myola (later Cairns to Herberton) began in 1887 and the line reached Kuranda in 1891. The current railway station was built in 1915.
Although coffee was grown around Kuranda in the early twentieth century, timber was the town's primary industry for a number of years. Kuranda has been known as a tourist destination since the early 1900s. It was both the rainforest and local Aboriginals which attracted people to the area. Today Kuranda is a 'village in the rainforest' with tourism being the current backbone of the local economy. The 'village in the rainforest' concept promoted from the 1970s onwards served two purposes. It attracted those seeking a bohemian enclave in which to reside as well as a being a tourist promotional strategy. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Kuranda was popular with alternative lifestylers, a theme that still runs through the local community today.
Friday 30th June 2017 Jan and Aneta left very early this morning so we were on our own from today. The weather is not being very kind, with plenty of drizzle, but it is winter and night temperatures have not dropped below 21C riing to the high twenties.
We went to Cairns today as we learnt there is a South African shop there!
The city is the 5th-most-populous in Queensland and ranks 14th overall in Australia.
Cairns was founded in 1876 and named after William Wellington Cairns, Governor of Queensland from 1875 to 1877. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but declined when an easier route was discovered from Port Douglas. It later developed into a railhead and major port for exporting sugar cane, gold and other metals, minerals and agricultural products from surrounding coastal areas and the Atherton Tableland region.
The estimated residential population of the Cairns urban area in 2015 was 147,993. Cairns is a popular tourist destination because of its tropical climate and access to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
In 1770, James Cook mapped the future site of Cairns, naming it Trinity Bay. Closer investigation by several official expeditions 100 years later established its potential for development into a port.
The site was predominantly mangrove swamps and sand ridges. Labourers gradually cleared the swamps, and the sand ridges were filled with dried mud, sawdust from local sawmills, and ballast from a quarry at Edge Hill. Debris from the construction of a railway to Herberton on the Atherton Tableland, a project which started in 1886, was also used. The railway opened up land later used for agriculture on the lowlands (sugar cane, corn, rice, bananas, pineapples), and for fruit and dairy production on the Tableland. The success of local agriculture helped establish Cairns as a port, and the creation of a harbour board in 1906 supported its economic future.
During World War II, the Allied Forces used Cairns as a staging base for operations in the Pacific, with US Army Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force operational bases (now the airport), as well as a major military seaplane base in Trinity Inlet, and US Navy and Royal Australian Navy bases near the current wharf. Combat missions were flown out of Cairns in support of the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. Edmonton and White Rock south of Cairns were major military supply areas and US Paratroopers trained at Gordonvale and the Goldsborough Valley.
A Special Forces training base was established at the old "Fairview" homestead on Munro's Hill, Mooroobool. This base was officially known as the Z Experimental Station, but referred to informally as "The House on the Hill".
After World War II, Cairns gradually developed into a centre for tourism. The opening of the Cairns International Airport in 1984 helped establish the city as a desirable destination for international tourism.
Cairns is located on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula on a coastal strip between the Coral Sea and the Great Dividing Range. The northern part of the city is located on Trinity Bay and the city centre is located on Trinity Inlet. To the south of the Trinity Inlet lies the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah. Some of the city's suburbs are located on flood plains. The Mulgrave River and Barron River flow within the greater Cairns area but not through the CBD. The city's centre foreshore is located on a mud flat.
Saturday 1st July until Sunday 30th July 2017 based in Speewah
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