It was time for some more gyro plane flying lessons, so last Monday we set off for
the six hour drive from Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays to Innisfail. The weather forecast wasn't
looking promising (200 mm of rain over the next three days!) but we had the
time off so if we didn't get any flying hours we would relax and do some
sightseeing around this relatively unfamiliar area.
Waterfalls were on the agenda, aptly so considering that the wet
season had officially started in the Tropical North of Queensland. I wanted to
see the longest permanent single-drop waterfall in Australia, near Ingham in
the Girringun National Park. We stopped off at the information centre to get
details of the drive out there as takes about an hour from the centre of town.
Just as well we did. The helpful and informative staff advised us that it
hadn't been raining enough yet to see the 267 metre waterfall in its entire splendour,
and if we were passing through again it was best to wait. So, we’ll schedule
that detour for further into the wet season in February or March.
Continuing through Ingham we left the Bruce Highway for Lucinda, via
Halifax. We passed Victoria Mill, once one of the largest sugarcane mills in the
southern hemisphere, with its three tall steam stacks clearly visible in the
distance. From June to November, the mill crushes 3.74 million tonnes of
sugarcane, and recycles its waste into energy and feeds power back into the
electricity grid. The raw sugar produced is then transported by rail to the
port village of Lucinda, home of the world’s longest offshore sugar loading
facility with a 6 kilometre long jetty stretching out to sea.
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| Lucinda Jetty |
Majestic Hinchinbrook Island looms in the background - Lucinda is the
departure point for channel boat charters and access to the well-known Thorsborne
Trail. The Palm Island Group is also nearby, which includes the luxury resort
island of Orpheus.
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| Hinchinbrook Island |
The sleepy main street of Halifax, once the hub of the Herbert River
district, is lined with heritage listed mango trees and historic building
facades. The smell of mango hangs heavy in the air at this time of year, as abundant
fruit falls from the trees and ferments in the hot sun.
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| Herbert River |
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| Mango madness |
Looping back on to the highway the road climbs for some fantastic views
of the Hinchinbrook Channel. There’s a lookout at the top – well worth the stop
to take in this World Heritage Area if there is no cloud.
The day was getting on and we were keen to see if we could get some gyro
plane flying in, so we continued north through the seaside town of Cardwell and
onto Tully. A quick stop to climb the Golden Gumboot for a view of the town,
its sugar mill and surrounding misty mountains was in order. At 7.9 metres
high, the gumboot marks the record-breaking rainfall the town received in 1950 –
well above the annual average of four metres.
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| The Golden Gumboot |
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| Tully sugar mill |
We moved on as it started raining, not surprisingly, turning off onto
the Canecutters Drive for a more scenic route into Innisfail. This led us to Paronella Park and our accommodation for the next three nights. We were booked into a
cute and cosy cabin backing onto dense lush rainforest this time instead of the
campground, which worked out well as it pretty much didn't stop raining for the
next three days. The nearby Mena Creek Falls were deafening (we could hear
them from our cabin) as we hung out on the swing bridge watching the water
thunder over the cliff.
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| Cabin accommodation at Paronella Park |
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| View from swing bridge over Mena Creek Falls |
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| Mena Creek Falls - view from inside Paronella Park |
No flying that afternoon due to, you guessed it, the rain, so we celebrated
our wedding anniversary at a local Innisfail restaurant, Roscoe's. Each evening
they put on a splendid Italian buffet and it’s very difficult not to stuff
yourself silly. A tip though; get there on opening at 5.30pm, or wait until
after 7.30pm when the tour bus departs and it starts to quieten down.
Alternatively, order takeaway pizza or pasta from the window at the front and enjoy
very casual al fresco dining with a glass of something red from the bar.
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