Travel North Queensland

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Travel North Queensland
The coast between Townsville and Cairns is one
of the best coastal roads in Australia.

It is tropical and lush, and full of lovely beaches, rainforests, wetlands and some of the best national parks in Australia: Thorsborne Trail on Hinchinbrook Island, Paluma Range with Big Crystal Creek, Little Crystal Creek and Jourama Falls; and Wooroonooran National Park with Josephine Falls and Babinda Boulders. The coast was heavily damaged by tropical cyclone Larry in 2006, but things are back to normal now. Here is some information about the area's attractions, and in the end of the page is a North Queensland map.

Travel North Queensland: Townsville Travel Information
First there is Townsville ? the town called Brownsville by people of Cairns, who like to point out that their city is green and lush while Townsville is dry and brown, in a rivarly similar to the one between Sydney and Melbourne. And it is true ? Townsville sits in a pocket of dry tropics, protected from rains by the mountain range behind it. But this is why Townsville?s skies are always sunny while in Cairns the rains can last for months. Townsville is the second largest city in Queensland, more than twice as large as Cairns (I?ve heard no Cairns people being aware of that fact!), and there is a lot to do for travellers. In the city centre there are excellent museums and Queensland?s most famous aquarium in the Reef Headquarters. Townsville has got some good dining and a lively night-life, and Queensland?s cleanest beach ? The Strand. Only 20min off shore is Magnetic Island, and Sunferries and Reef EcoTours take you to the Great Barrier Reef. Places to stay in Townsville are Globetrotters Backpacker Hostel, Adventurers Resort, Reef Lodge and Downtown Motel. For campers, there are Coral Coast Tourist Park and Walkabout Palms.

 

Travel North Queensland: Big Crystal Creek
North of Townsville are Townsville northern beaches Bushland Beach, Bluewater Beach, Saunders Beach, Toolakea, Toomulla, Balgal Beach and Rollingstone, each worth turning in for a nice swim. North of Rollingstone is the southernmost tropical rainforest in Paluma Range National Park, also well worth turning in for a swim on a hot summer?s day ? the air temperature is much lower up here than down on the coast. The southern access road takes you to Little Crystal Creek and Paluma village. It?s a narrow and twisting road up the mountains with good views and once you come to a stone bridge (after 7km) you are in the Little Crystal Creek with deep rock pools full of refreshingly cool water, and a picnic area. Another 11km up is the Paluma Village. Northern access road goes to Big Crystal Creek where there are barbeques and a camping ground. Turnoff to the northern, Jourama Falls section of Paluma Range National Park, is further north, 91km north of Townsville, where there is the Waterview Creek, good views of Jourama Falls, a picnic area and a camping ground.

 

Travel North Queensland: Ingham Queensland
North of Paluma Range is Ingham in the middle of sugar cane fields. On the main street there is the original ?Pub with No Beer? that ended up in a popular song, and just south of town there are Tyto Wetlands that attract a lot of waterbirds, including the impressive brolgas and jabirus; and watch out for crocodiles.

 

Travel North Queensland: Australian Italian Festival
Many Italian immigrants live in the area and in May every year there is the Australian Italian Festival in Ingham, with entertainment on the main street and plenty of Italian foods to sample. Seven kilometres out of Ingham is Victoria Mill, the largest sugar mill in the Southern Hemisphere. In Ingham, you can stay at the Royal Hotel, or Herbert Valley Motel.

 

Travel North Queensland: Mount Fox
Inland from Ingham is one of the largest national parks in north Queensland - Lumholtz National Park, also known as Girringun National Park, with plenty of bushwalks in its different sections. Wallaman Falls is the most accessible section where there is Australian longest single-drop waterfall. Mount Fox section is less accessible and there are no facilities but Mount Fox is an interesting ancient volcano and if you are fit, you can walk up to its crater, it?s not a long walk but it?s quite steep. There are some long bushwalks from Wallaman Falls to Blencoe Falls, Society Flat and Murray Valley Lookout. There is plenty of interesting wildlife to see, including cassowaries, bettongs, gliders, freshwater turtles, platypuses and eastern water dragons.

 

Travel North Queensland: Orpheus Island Queensland
Off the north Queensland coast near Ingham is the Palm Island Group which includes Great Palm Island (Aboriginal community), Orpheus, Pelorus, Fantome, Curacoa, Esk, Brisk and Havannah Islands. Orpheus Island is the largest after the Great Palm Island, and well worth a visit. It is a continental island but around it is some of the best fringing coral reef of any of the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. It is mostly national park and heavily forested so there is lots of bird-life to watch and sea turtles nest here too. There are some lovely beaches in Mangrove Bay and Yank?s Bay, and good snorkelling and diving. At Pioneer Bay there is James Cook University?s marine biology research centre which is a private property. Orpheus Island Resort is fairly expensive but the good news is you are allowed to camp in the bush, just book with EPA.

Travel North Queensland: Forrest Beach
On the north Queensland coast around Ingham, there are Forrest Beach, small towns Halifax and Cordella, and the small fishing town Lucinda, the southern access point to Hinchinbrook Island. As you drive across the Cardwell Ranges on the Bruce Highway, there is a lookout point with magnificent views of the Hinchinbrook Channel and of the Hinchinbrook island behind, a good spot to stop and take a few photos.

Travel North Queensland: Thorsborne Trail
Hinchinbrook Island is world's largest island national and one of the greatest places to visit in north Queensland. It has a resort in the northern end which is reached from Cardwell, but bushwalkers like to hike the 32km-long Thorsborne Trail, it is a beautiful three-day walk along sandy beaches and through thick forests, with good views from the hilltops and plenty of wildlife. You can camp at Blacksand Beach, Banksia Beach, Zoe Falls, Sweetwater Creek, Mulligan Creek and George Point but you have to book with EPA in a good time as the campsites get quickly booked out (Hinchinbrook is known to get booked out as long as a year in advance during the cooler winter months!). Hinchinbrook Wilderness Safaris take you to the Blacksand Beach, then pick you up in the southern end of the trail three days later, and take you back to Cardwell.

 

Travel North Queensland: Cardwell
Cardwell is a tiny north Queensland town with only a few backstreets behind its main street - the Bruce Highway. There are some good views of Hinchinbrook Island from Cardwell Beach, and the jetty is a good place to fish. Crocodiles are known to inhabit the Cardwell beach, so don?t go swimming. You can stay at Kookaburra Holiday Park, Hinchinbrook Hostel, Cardwell Sunrise Village and Hinchinbrook Hop.

 

Travel North Queensland: Edmund Kennedy National Park
Inland from Cardwell is the Cardwell Forest Drive, a 26km round scenic drive with good swimming holes and lookouts ? turn inland next to the BP petrol station and the drive is signposted. North of Cardwell is the Edmund Kennedy National Park with a boardwalk through the mangroves, but don?t get off the boardwalk ? crocodiles inhabit the muddy waters. Further north are the Murray Falls with rainforest swimming holes, a walking track and a camping ground but as always in such places in north Queensland, be careful in those rainforest rock pools, the rocks are slippery and people have drowned in these pools.

 

Travel North Queensland: Tully River
Further north you come to Tully ? a town that is known to be the wettest place in Australia, with an annual rainfall over 4000mm. It is a lovely north Queensland town (when it?s not raining) with green rainforested mountains in the backdrop, and as a symbol for all the rain, there is one of Australia?s Big Things ? the Big Gumboot. There is also a sugar mill and a rainforest waterhole called Alligator?s Nest, but Tully is most famous for great white-water rafting - definitely best in north Queensland. Many rafting companies will take you to Tully from as far as Cairns and Townsville. There are many fruit farms in the area and many backpackers stay in Tully (and other towns like Innisfail and Bowen) while earning some extra money from fruit-picking. If you want to work, stay at Banana Barracks, others there are The Savoy, Tully Motel, Green Way Caravan Park and Tully Heads Caravan Park on Tully Heads Road.

Travel North Queensland: Tully Gorge
Behind Tully is Misty Mountains ? a huge bushwalking area which is reached both from Tully in east and Ravenshoe, Millaa Millaa and Palmerston Highway in north on Atherton Tablelands in the inland north Queensland. There are 130km of long bushwalking tracks in Misty Mountains, going through some superb rainforest with more than 1000 species of rainforest trees and many endemic bird and mammal species. Rare mammals include coppery brushtail possums, lemuroid possums, striped possums and Herbert River ringtail possums. From Tully, a road takes you along the Tully River up to mountains to the Cochable Creek campsite which is the starting point of the 14.5km Cannabullen Creek Track which follows the creek with several crossings and a beautiful waterfall. The longer, 35.5km Koolmoon Creek Track follows the local Aboriginal People?s traditional pathway with creek crossings, waterholes and views of Tully gorge. You can camp in the bush but you have to book with EPA.

Travel North Queensland: Mission Beach North Queensland
North from Tully is Mission Beach ? Queensland?s answer to New South Wales? Byron Bay and one of the most popular places to visit in north Queensland. Mission Beach actually consists of many beaches. Mission Beach itself is the central one. South of it are Wongaling Beach and South Mission Beach, and north are Narragon Beach, Bingil Bay, Brookes Beach and Garners Beach. Mission Beach area is a nice place to just relax and take it easy, go swimming (outside the stinger season only) and enjoy some shopping, nice restaurants and bars, but popular activities are bushwalking in the dense rainforests (Mission Beach is the best place in Australia to see cassowaries); and visiting the Great Barrier Reef and Dunk Island Queensland (check out Sunbird Adventures, The Quick Cat and Dunk Island Ferry & Cruises). Skydiving is offered by Jump the Beach, and white-water rafting at Tully River by R?n'R. You can camp at Dunk Island View Caravan Park, Tropical Hibiscus Caravan Park and Hideaway Holiday Village. Other places to stay are Treehouse (a good one!), Sanctuary Retreat and Beachcomber Coconut Village. Mission Beach was devastated in the Cyclone Larry in March 2006, but things are back to normal now.

Travel North Queensland: Dunk Island Queensland
Dunk Island belongs to the Family Islands group (others are Thorpe, Richards, Wheeler, Coombe, Smith, Bowden and Hudson islands) in north Queensland. There is a resort area in the eastern end of the island, but the rest of it is national park with some great bushwalks in dense rainforest, up to the central mountain where there are great views, then down to mangrove mudflats and small sandy beaches. There is some good bird-life to see; the famous bright-blue Ulysses butterflies; and an Artists? Colony where you can buy jewellery and pottery, but it is only open Mondays and Thursdays between 10am and 1pm. Dunk Island Resort is fairly expensive, but you can camp on the national parks camping ground, just book with EPA. Dunk Island is a very short boat ride from Mission Beach (only 4.5km) and the Quick Cat takes you there from Clump Point jetty.

Travel North Queensland: Josephine Falls
North of Mission Beach is Innisfail, the nort Queensland town that was badly damaged in the Cyclone Larry in March 2006, and the large Wooroonooran National Park with tropical rainforests and Queensland?s highest mountain peak Mount Bartle Frere (1622m), the summit of which can be walked along the Bartle Frere Track which starts at Josephine Falls, on the left hand side of Bruce Highway in north Queensland between Mirriwinni in north and Innisfail in south. The track crosses the national park and comes out to the other side to Atherton Tablelands. There are four camping grounds along the track but you have to book all camping with EPA. There is also a southern, Palmerston section of Wooroonooran National Park with a camping ground at Henrietta Creek and bushwalking tracks to different waterfalls, reached from Palmerston Highway in inland north Queensland.

Travel North Queensland: Babinda Boulders
There is a third, northern section in the Wooroonooran National Park with the Goldfield Trail which starts from the beautiful Babinda Boulders behind the small north Queensland town of Babinda which also was badly destroyed in the Cyclone Larry in March 2006. The rainforests in the Wooroonooran National Park were totally destroyed, with all greenery gone and only bare tree trunks standing up - you can still see the broken canopy but the greenery has returned and the national park is open to public as normal again.

Travel North Queensland: Deeral, Aloomba and Gordonvale
East of the Wooroonooran National Park across the Bruce Hwy are some small interesting north queensland national parks such as Ella Bay and Eubenangee Swamp National Park, where you can see crocodiles in the wild. North of Babinda the Bruce Hwy continues passing banana fields, sugar cane farms and small townships like Deeral and Gordonvale until you come to Cairns, and can continue your trip north along the coast of Far North Queensland.