Jose Paronella emigrated to Australia, arriving at Innisfail in northern Queensland in 1913. He worked hard, initially cutting cane then buying, improving and selling cane farms. He made a considerable fortune. I won’t go into the history, which although fascinating would be too long a read in this blog, but suffice it to say that Jose’s dream was to build a castle. This he did. He also planted over 7,000 trees, constructed staircases, paths and fountains, and incorporated waterfalls to make thirteen acres of parkland which he opened to the public in 1935. Ever inventive, his constructions were made of concrete, using old cane railway track as reinforcement. Jose died unexpectedly in 1948 and his family carried on with the park until the 1970s when a series of misfortunes reduced it to a partial ruin. It quietly decayed until 1993 when it was taken over by new owners who started on an ambitious plan to reconstruct the whole estate, a task that continues and will continue for many years to come.
We stayed overnight at Paronella Park, joining the evening tour to see the buildings and waterfalls under floodlighting . . . .
. . . . and very dramatic it was too.
Next day we joined the morning tour and saw the grounds in daylight. The decay was obvious but the place exuded a certain charm. It was a great experience.
The weather hadn’t been too kind to us (again). Overnight we experienced torrential rain and high winds. Our Hannibal tent shook a bit but we stayed warm and dry inside. However, packing up a soaking wet tent in the rain is not the most fun you can have.
Next stop was Innisfail, a small town that was virtually wiped out by a cyclone in the 1920s. Rebuilding was rapid and the town is now known for its art deco style buildings.
And a bridge.
A quick visit to the Sugar Museum which we decided was very poor (expensive, tatty and not particularly informative) and we continued through occasional showers to Mission Beach. This place is one of the known beauty spots, long sandy beach, coconut palms and a deep blue ocean. Unfortunately we could see little of this through the curtain of rain.
The wet tent was put back up and the walls too were necessary to keep us snug and dry whilst Kim cooked up the evening meal. We experienced another noisy night with the rain beating tattoos on the canvas but next morning dawned a little brighter even though by now everything was soaking.
By mid morning the sun had made an appearance, the beach looked more cheerful and we could even see Dunk Island in the distance.
A couple of hours motoring brought us to Tully which has a Golden Gumboot prominently displayed in the centre of town. Do I hear you asking why?
Tully is a wet town. It has a lot of rain. The gumboot is 7.93 metres high, the amount of rain that fell on Tully in 1950, a record that stands to this day.
Then we had an outbreak of odd bikes. The first was a solar powered thing that had already clocked up 5,000 kilometres. The young fellow who built it is hoping to circumnavigate Australia in it. After a brief chat, we wished him loads of luck. We have the feeling that he might need it.
Next we saw this one which really defies description.
Townsville, our next brief stop, was fine for coffee and a walk round but we didn’t stay long. We liked the parkland by the shore but found little else to keep us there. So we pushed on. Charters Towers grew rapidly in the mid 1800s when gold was found in the area. It grew fast and it grew rich. At one time it even had its own stock exchange.
The gold is now long gone but it remains a thriving place with lots of character. Better, the sun came out even though it was between brief showers. We did dry the tent and got everything straight again. In this dry and tidy state, it’s probably a good place to stop, pour a glass of wine and get ready to enjoy a relaxed evening.
Not too many days to go now before our adventure will be over so we have to make the most of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment