Innisfail and surrounds

After an enjoyable month of house sitting on the mango farm we spent a final week in Cairns before heading south to Innisfail, a town of around 10,000 people and spread between the North and South Johnstone Rivers in an area rich with sugar cane and banana plantations.

We scored a prime camping spot beside the South Johnstone River and kept a constant eye out for a crocodile which, according to the locals, liked to sun himself from time to time on the opposite bank from our park. Unfortunately, he was a no show for the week but we did manage to get some good shots of quite a tame cassowary wandering along the beach at nearby Etty Bay. These huge birds stride around rainforests and, as with crocodiles, there are warning signs everywhere, telling people not to go near them!

We also visited more waterfalls in the area as well as the Australian Sugar Industry Museum before spending the day and night at Paronella Park.

This is a 13 acre property full of tropical plants and trees and containing the remains of a castle and home of Jose Paronella who arrived in Innisfail in 1913 from Spain and worked hard in the local cane fields before buying and selling local cane farms and finally building his own home and castle beside Mena Creek Falls.

He also built North Queensland's first hydro-electric plant there in order to power the Park.