62 Australian Geographican outcrop that Sam’s offsider Dom Godwin calls Paradise Pool.
“Some people say they like to live life on the edge,” Dom says.
“We like to live over the edge.”
Not every Wet Tropics water experience is extreme. About
50km south of Cairns on Babinda Creek is a beautiful wide pool
above the Babinda Boulders, which can be seen only on the
Devil’s Pool Walk, a 1.3km return track taking in three viewing
platforms. Each shows how water has both sharpened and
smoothed the granite boulders like an outdoor sculpture park.
Other tranquil swimming hideaways in the region include
Josephine Falls, Alligators Nest at Tully and the Spa Pool, near
Cardwell, where the creek runs through a depression in its rocky
bed, creating a natural jacuzzi.T
HIS AREA IS called the Cassowary Coast, but so far the
1.8m-tall birds have avoided us. We’ve been told our best
chance to see one is on the easy 1.3km Fan Palm Walk
in Djiru National Park, 5km south of Mission Beach. Insects and
tropical birds create a racket around us, but the rustling in the
dense forest is not caused by foraging cassowaries. Rather, it’s the
wind flapping the fronds of the fan palms, which thrive in almost
permanently soggy soil due to their broad shape allowing for
maximum sunlight absorption.
We spot none of the elusive birds on our walk, but next morn-
ing a pair saunters past our motel in Tully. And later, on a scenic
drive back up the Tully Gorge, one stands feeding by the side of
the road, barely noticing as we get within 10m to admire its glossy
blue-black plumage and striking blue neck.
Since we’ve been in Tully, there’s been no sign of rain, although
it’s never far away. Tully holds Australia’s record for the highest
annual rainfall in a populated area. In 1950 there was a total yearly
downpour of 7.93m, which looks a mighty lot when measured
out centimetre for centimetre by the Golden Gumboot monu-
ment in town that memorialises the event.
Records aside, understanding the rain is critical to the region’s
primary producers. Every day at 9am John Edwards, production
manager at Tully Sugar, records the gauge reading in the mill’s
yard. “It’s a tool we rely on,” John explains. “Cane is a grass that
needs sunshine and water to grow. But all field work is mecha-
nised and if you can’t get out there because it’s too wet, we have
to stop crushing.”
He laments that in Tully “it always seems to rain, but 5km
down the coast it doesn’t”. That’s because the town sits sand-
wiched between the coastal Walter Hill Range and inland Mt
Mackay, which creates a moisture trap.
While the locals have learnt to work around the rain, the Wet
has become an export attraction. Mamu Tropical Skywalk cus-
tomer service officer Sherrill Mehonoshen says the most positive
comments are from the British: “They love the tropics because
it’s wet, but not cold.”The vista that Mamu unveils from its 350m-long walkway
jutting into the North Johnstone River Valley is truly spectacu-
lar. Via the skywalk, or the alternative forest path, you arrive at a
100-step tower. After a breathless climb, you can gaze north up
the valley to layer upon layer of ridges and peaks that fade off
into the heat haze.
This treetop attraction, which is located about 30 minutes
drive inland from Innisfail, was born out of a recent infamous
disaster. In March 2006 Cyclone Larry shredded so much of the
rainforest around here that the skywalk was able to be built with
only minimal manual clearing.
Advantage was taken of a natural cycle: much like a eucalypt
forest needs fire, destructive winds break up the rainforest canopy,
allowing sunlight in to ignite the next generation of growth.
The waterfalls here are also thriving in the Wet – the 18m
Millaa Millaa Falls is easily the prettiest we see. But near Mamu
is a 3.5km track to the less frequently visited Nandroya Falls,
which are narrower, higher and more impressive as Douglas
Creek drops 50m from a narrow chute. Continued page 66A popular spot in the shadow of Queensland’s highest peak,
Mt Bartle Frere, Josephine Falls is like a water park for locals
even though it can sometimes be hazardous to enter. This is the
lowest of four separate drops in the Josephine Falls precinct.Water has both sharpened and
smoothed the granite boulders like
an outdoor sculpture park.