From the late 1930's to the late 1970's Paronella Park was an old fashioned amusement park with a cinema and a ballroom. It was all powered by its own hydro electric power station. The Paronella family were the first in North Queensland to have power and the locals were very jealous of their hot showers!
The buildings include a castle and grand staircase and are very beautiful. We fed lots of fish, eels and turtles in the river below the waterfall. There is a resident crocodile but we didn't see it! There is an avenue of huge Kauri pines and a water fountain.
In 1979 there was a big fire and the Paronella family abandoned the property because of the damage caused, the fact that the main road was moved away and the cane cutting machines replaced all the resident cane workers. The current owners bought it in 1993 and have brought it back to life.
We saw the park in day light and then after dinner at the Mena Creek hotel we came back and the castle and gardens were all lit up. We walked down Lovers Lane to Teresa Falls, named after Jose Paronella's daughter and onto the old tennis courts to view the castle which originally was a cafe that served icecreams. There were hundreds of bats hanging in the trees and when it got dark they all left to feed on fruit for the night.
It was one of our most enjoyable days of the trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment