We were told to phone ahead to book a spot at the on-site caravan park, and with just 20 places, we were lucky to get the last slab the night we were heading past. A bonus is that your powered site is free with entry into the gardens, and it makes it so much easier to do the night tours (especially with little ones) when you're staying right next door!
The story behind this place is beautiful and inspiring. The dream of Jose Paronella, who arrived in Australia in 1913 from Spain and made his fortune working hard in the sugar cane industry. In 1929, he bought 13 acres of scrub along Mena Creek because of its beautiful waterfall and started to hand-build his amazing gardens, complete with ballroom, movie theatre, cafes and his own family home. He planted over 7,000 trees, built bridges, tunnels and created the first Hydro electricity station in Queensland right there next to his waterfall. It's all quite amazing considering he did all of this by hand and with little help and also with a background not in landscaping, building, engineering or construction, but his training in Spain was as a pastry chef.
The park ran as a successful business with visitors coming from near and far to enjoy Jose's amazing creation, but sadly he died in 1948 of cancer, leaving his wife Margarita, son Joe and daughter Teresa to carry on his dream. The park was badly damaged in floods in 1967, '72 and '74 and after both Margarita and Joe died, the park was sold out of the family in 1977 and then in 1979, a fire swept through the Castle causing irreparable damage and closing the park to visitors for the first time. There were even more setbacks with three cyclones further damaging the gardens, but when Mark and Judy Evans, Victorians looking for a challenge, bought the park in 1993, they devised a plan to put the once beautiful park and one man's amazing vision back on the map. And they have done just that, restoring the old ruins and gardens and creating a museum and cafe/information centre on site.
We spent two terrific days exploring and marvelling at the amazing rainforest gardens, the Castles, the steep staircases, all made by hand. We also were lucky enough to see the amazing Mena Creek Falls in full flow, thanks to all the rain the area had seen in the past few days.
A highlight for us was the nighttime tour. The terrific guides kitted us out with umbrellas and torches and we took off into the dark to experience the beautiful gardens at night! We saw cane toads and thankfully no snakes, but Sage was amazed to see real life fairies flying amongst the rainforest canopy (Not Tinkerbell but fire flies our guide explained and they were truly magical to see) and Bastian was bewildered by a variety of glowing mushrooms that created tiny lights amongst the forest floor.
But by far the highlight for Arley in particular was being given a little container of fish food and directions to the turtle nesting area. Oh my goodness! We had never seen such a frenzy of fish, eels and turtles, all piling on top of each other, scampering for a taste of the food!
I also think Luke found the cascading waterfalls and tropical surrounds quite relaxing while he worked from the rainforest deck.... It still astounds me that he manages to balance his commitment to his business and his commitment to our holiday with incredible ease. If there's one thing this guy can do well, its multitask....!! If only his customers knew!!
No comments:
Post a Comment