Entries about cardwell

I had the great opportunity to spend the weekend with my friend Barry's firend, and his family.

Garry and Innes live in Tully, with their three children Nina, Gemma and Garry, and Roxy the littleist dog ever!

oh, and two budgies

The house is relatively new, and has plenty of space for everyone

even with the intensity of the semi-final AFL games - when I learnt a whole different language!!

After a warm welcome, we headed up to the neighbours for the weekly Friday night BBQ with a view.

The house had great views over the mountains

and as Garry is a trained butcher, the food, cooked in a gas oven, was delicious

We took a walk around the garden, and down to Yam Diggers Club

- where the children get to build fires and live in the bush (at the bottom o the garden).

and then Garry set off one of the toys sold at their toy shop - a rocket that travels up to 200m up!

Garry has a passion for gem stones, and as part of the gem club, he has some beautifully cut stones that he has done himself. IT makes me want to live in Australia, where I can search for gems like these... and marry a rich man to pay for the other ones off the internet!
Garnet

Ruby

Sapphire

Blue Sapphire like Barry's bling ring

Gold nuggets

Tully

The area of sugar cane growing in Cardwell Shire in 2002 was over 22,492 hectares. The tonnage of sugar crushed at Tully Mill in 2002 season exceeded 2 million tonnes.
Bananas grow abundantly; about 8 million cartons of bananas were produced in the shire in 2002.

The Golden Gumboot

The gumboot height represents Tully’s highest recorded annual rainfall of 7.93m in 1950.

The most rainfall recorded in one 48hour period was 52inches (1.32m) in March 1967.
Tully’s average annual rainfall is 4.17m

Vehicles stranded on the Tully River bridge in February 2000

Children enjoying one of the many floods at Euramo – taken in the 1950s when this street was the Bruce Highway
Why does it rain so much? Tully lies in the wet tropics where cyclones and monsoon conditions develop at certain times of the year which can bring heavy rain. The town sits on a narrow coastal plain between Mt Tyson and Mt Mackay which attract rain clouds from across the Coral Sea.

Dedicated to all pioneers of the Tully district – ‘hearts full of hope’

Cassowary – carved by Rod Sheehan & Kim

Tully sugar mill

Constructed between 1923 and 1925 the Tully Sugar Mull was the last sugar mill in Queensland to be erected.

It was designed as the biggest in Australia and was widely regarded as an engineering work of art. The final cost of construction was £751,637
In 2005 the mill crushed a record total of 2,415,050 tonnes of cane.

Sugar farmers & cane cutters of the 30s

The display recognises the hard slog which the early pioneers put into the local sugar industry. It depicts the growing, cutting and transporting of sugar cane and captures a glimpse of the 1930s cane industry. What a contrast to the mechanical harvesters and high tech tractors that have now replaced the horses and cane-cutting gangs today.

Good or ‘gun’ canecuttes could cut 10 top 12 tons of cane by hand a day. They were paid about 75 cents a ton.

Near to Tully is a small town of Cardwell

The Cardwell Shire is part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area which was placed on the World Heritage list in 1988 as one of the world’s outstanding natural treasures.

This area is home to over 3,000 plant species, including 483 classified as rare or restricted; 83 of these are threatened.

This area is also home to 125 animal species which are very rare and ‘endangered’ species in this area include Southern Cassowary, Mahogany Glider, Spotted-tail Quoll.
And a good fish and chip shop with the Cardwell Crab signature piece!

 
Further south from Cardwell there is a great lookout

There’s no place quite like this in the world – surrounded by two World Heritage areas,
Looking seaward, the majestic Hinchinbrook Island National Park and mangrove-fringed channel are all part of the great barrier Reef world heritage Area that protects the world’s largest coral reef. The coastal wetlands and open forests on this side of the channel are all included in the wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

Both international icons are areas o exceptional natural beauty and rich biodiversity, listed as World heritage Areas because of their outstanding universal value.

Hinchinbrook Island – one of Australia’s largest island national parks – formed when ancient rocks were uplifted, folded and weathered into jagged peaks. As the sea level rose after successive ice ages, the lowlands flooded to from the Hinchinbrook Channel, separating the island from the mainland.

The island’s unique and diverse vegetation includes cloud-covered heaths, eucalypt woodlands, rainforest, wetland and mangroves – habitat for av variety of wildlife. With so many rare plant communities and very restricted distribution of some species, Hinchinbrook Island National Park is considered to be a tropical lowland of great importance.

Heading towards Cairns from Tully we passed Lake Echam

Crater Lakes National Park – this clear blue kale surrounded by luch tropical rainforest is part of the wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

The lake is a marr or volcanic crater created thousands of years ago by two massive explosions of superheated groundwater. Difference in soil type, drainage or past disturbance have shaped the forest and a number of rainforest communities can be seen around the lake.

The lake was a great location for a cool dip, a snorkel or even some high speed remote control boat racing

Further on we reach Malanda Falls

The Tablelands are the result of several periods of volcanic activity between 4 and 1 million years ago. Lava flowed out from at least six shield volcanoes on the southern Tableland, and the basis that form the Falls are believed to have come from the Malanda volcano 3-4 million years ago.

As the lava spewed out from the volcanoes, it flowed down and filled ancient valleys. Weathering changed the black basalt to the rich red soils of the Tableland, and erosion cut gullies into the lava forming deep river valleys. Over time, the North Johnston River eroded upstream, and the waters now tumble over the basalt rock wall known as the Malanda Falls.

A large number of Austrailan and American troops were stationed on the Atherton Tablelands during World War II. Malanda Falls was a popular swimming and picnic spot for service personnel and during the war years Australian troops upgraded the pool at the base of the Falls and built a three level platform diving tower,

Malanda's first swimming club was formed in 1925, and swimming carnivals were held here between Malanda, Atherton, Mareeba and cairns.