Paronella Park-Mena Creek

Once again we said our goodbye's this morning to Pauline, Les, Carlene and Rex hopefully this time we will not have to return to Cairns. We only had to travel 120klm from Cairns to Paronella Park, so after the requested cup of coffee from Pauline we hit the road reaching Paronella Park by lunch time. On the way we were held up by several lots of road works which slowed us up considerably, but it was quiet an enjoyable journey as the weather was beautiful and we travelled through lush greenery also passing by lots of cane fields and banana plantations.

Paronella Park was the dream of Jos'e Paronella and is located beside Mena Creek Falls, his dream was to build a castle. On 13 acres he built his castle, picnic areas at the lakeside, tennis courts, tunnels and bridges, and planted 7000 tropical plants and trees. In 1933 he also built North Queensland's first Hydro Electric Plant, the power from the plant was used to light up the falls and his castle, also to run the water features throughout the park and lighting. Over the years the park has sercomed to natural disasters, flooding, fire and cyclones and was left to become over grown and neglected. Paronella Park is heritage listed and the main focus now is on maintaining the property and there are a number of ongoing restoration & preservation projects happening. The entrance fee of $38 each includes a guided day tour and a night experience tour and we also received a free night in their caravan park. During the night experience tour we were able to see eels, turtles and fish in the lake, would not like to be swimming in there with all those eels (yuk). Lights and music made the castle very enchanting at night.